Commissioning Showcase offers staff opportunity to learn and network

An enthusiastic team from SWSPHN attended the annual PHN Commissioning Showcase, held at Rydges Newcastle recently.

The team was a mix of presenters and those interested in showcase topics which related to their portfolios.

They included our representatives from our Commissioning, Mental Health, Integration and Priority Populations and Digital Health and Data teams.

The theme of the showcase was Momentum – Accelerating outcomes and equity through commissioning.

About 150 representatives from 28 PHNs across Australia showcased the best innovations in PHN commissioning from the last 12 months.

The event also provides an opportunity for PHNs to network and learn from each other.

The Commissioning team presented on SWSPHN’s collaborative approach with an alcohol and other drugs (AOD) service provider and other partners for outcomes-focused commissioning.

The SWSPHN-commissioned project involved developing psychoeducation modules (by 360Edge) to be completed by St Vincent De Paul Society Rendu House clients, focused on improving mental, physical and social health outcomes, then evaluating the outcomes. The evaluation was completed by the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre (NDARC).

Our Data team representative presented an interactive workshop, in partnership with North Western Melbourne PHN, on GitHub, a tool for PHNs to analyse data consistently and collaborate on data projects.

“Other PHNs were quite positive – following the Commissioning presentation we were on a panel with other presenters and received quite a few questions from the audience,” Acting Commissioning Manager Pritika Desai said.

“For the Data team’s workshop, the PHNs really liked the tool presented because it made reporting simple – and as a PHN we do a lot of reporting.”

Pritika explained the value to SWSPHN of sending a team to the Commissioning Showcase.

“There were a lot of breakout sessions, which allowed us to pick and choose based on our roles and interest,” she said.

“Every presentation had a learning we could take back and incorporate in our own work, so we found all of them useful.

“The key notes were interesting and set the foundations for the rest of the topic and breakouts.

“Presentations on value-based commissioning, access and equity, and data were of most interest, as these are current priorities for us in commissioning.”

Pritika said the benefits of the showcase were substantial.

“We’ll share what we’ve learned with other colleagues, we’ll apply it to our processes and work practices, use the learnings to improve how we commission at SWSPHN, and consider innovative approaches to commissioning.”