Investigation of Support Needs and Service Models for Young People with High Clinical Care Needs.

This evaluation project progressed discussions by the National Disability Administrators (NDA) to inform initiatives under the bilateral agreements with regard to young people in nursing homes and people with disabilities with high clinical care needs.

The research achieved:
•Developing a national profile (including pathways and trends in referral patterns) of younger people with disabilities who reside in residential aged care facilities
•Evaluating existing models of support, services and funding for this target group; and identifying and analysing existing and alternative models and pathways.
In undertaking this project, AHA:
•Obtained approval from the DoHA Ethics Committee
•Conducted an analysis of several data sets provided by the Department of Health and Ageing
•Surveyed residential aged care facilities with clients younger than 50 years old
•Surveyed people aged less than 50 years living within residential aged care facilities
•Developed case studies, based upon statistical local areas that had a higher number of people under 50 years in residential aged care
•Further explored eight different service providers, through the conduct of site visits
•Conducted a literature review the local and international service and funding models that specifically support younger people with high clinical care needs. Models were canvassed from within and across the disability, health and aged care sectors and drew on material gathered from Australia, USA, Canada, UK and Europe.