South Western Sydney PHN is a not-for-profit health organisation dedicated to supporting general practitioners, practice nurses and other primary health providers.
Become part of a team who are dedicated to enhancing and connecting primary healthcare to achieve better health outcomes for the South Western Sydney community.
You will benefit from a flexible and inclusive work environment where employees are encouraged to learn and develop personally and professionally.
The Department of Health and Aged Care has engaged Scyne Advisory and yamagigu to conduct an independent evaluation into the Lifeline-funded, 13YARN national Indigenous crisis support line.
13YARN is Australia’s first national crisis support line for First Nations peoples and offers confidential one-on-one yarning opportunities with Lifeline-trained First Nations Crisis Supporters who can provide 24/7 support.
The evaluation aims to assess the service’s cultural appropriateness, awareness, efficiency, accessibility and effectiveness with recommendations for service delivery improvements.
As part of the evaluation, the department would like a greater understanding of the awareness mainstream service providers and practitioners have of 13YARN, their likeliness to refer people to 13YARN and any suggestions for integration or delivery.
The survey will be open until Tuesday, 20 September 2024.
14 August 2024
Researchers are exploring the current role and experiences of practice nurses in promoting oral health among women approaching or in menopause, and are looking for practice nurses to participate in the study.
Participation will involve a 20 to 30-minute interview.
The interview will be conducted at a convenient time for you using either phone, online platforms like Zoom or face-to-face.
The information you provide will assist in the development of strategies to support future resources and training programs around oral health care and menopause.
Participation is voluntary and the information you provide will be strictly confidential.
Do any of your patients diagnosed with type 2 diabetes mellitus struggle to get and eat nutritious foods?
Researchers are looking to recruit participants who have had type 2 diabetes mellitus for more than a year and who have had a recent HbA1c of more than 7.5 per cent to participate in a medically tailored meals study.
Participants will be randomly assigned to one of two groups. One group will receive 20 pre-prepared healthy meals over two weeks for six months and $250 in vouchers. The other group will receive $350 in vouchers.
GPs will be reimbursed $50 for every referred participant who is randomised into the study.
A new project called Design of information content for the National Lung Cancer Screening Program is seeking to identify and clarify the education and information needs for the National Lung Cancer Screening Program.
Cancer Australia is funding the study, which is being conducted by researchers at The Daffodil Centre.
The project team is seeking people who are:
members of the primary care workforce
specialists with a direct role in the National Lung Cancer Screening Program
members of professional colleges and peak bodies relevant to lung cancer screening
Participation will involve a 30 to 60-minute interview in the next few weeks, with additional consultation opportunities over the next few months.
Taking part in some or all the consultation activities is voluntary, and you will be offered a $50/hour gift voucher for taking part.
A Macquarie University team is recruiting GPs to trial a screening and early intervention tool (Ageing Well Tool) designed to identify and reduce risks for dementia and enhance overall wellbeing in older primary care patients aged 60 to 70 years.
As part of the trial, there will be an opportunity to acquire CPD points.
The Ageing Well Tool measures risk factors for dementia and poor wellbeing in older adults in primary care.
These risk factors and common mental disorders include depression, anxiety, alcohol overconsumption and cardiovascular risk. The tool has been developed to measure these factors through screening, treatment, monitoring and evaluation.
Following screening, GPs/practice nurses may plan some evidence-based risk reduction strategies with patients as needed.
What does the mental health services landscape in South Western Sydney look like today – and how will we meet the expected increase in demand over the next decade?
That was the focus of South Western Sydney Primary Health Network’s (SWSPHN) Mental Health Needs Assessment undertaken with insights from health professionals and community members throughout the region.The results, released earlier this year, revealed a range of key challenges and priorities both today and into the future to meet the mental health needs of our community.
Participants at one of our Local Health Forums last year which focused on mental health.
They included: engaging with community leaders to convey key messages; increasing advertising; and improving targeted training for primary health care providers.
Participants with professional or lived experience were approached by SWSPHN during a six-month consultation process.
The objectives were: to understand mental health service projections; define vulnerable groups under-serviced by the Medicare Better Access initiative; understand the barriers and enablers to accessing mental health services; identify workforce experience and skills gaps; and identify opportunities to improve mental health services across South Western Sydney.
Methods for information gathering included Local Health Forums (87 attendees), online surveys (completed by 62 community members and 27 mental health professionals) and structured interviews with 19 mental health professionals from the region.
An extensive review of literature, health data and SWSPHN commissioned provider activity was undertaken to complete the report.
Focus areas of the local health forums included barriers and challenges, opportunities for access, service navigation, care coordination, co-morbidity support and key priorities.
For mental health professionals, the focus was on: underserviced groups; access barriers; care coordination; workforce experience and skills gaps; service provision barriers and perceptions of SWSPHN commissioned services.
Figures obtained by the needs assessment showed 19.8 per cent of the South Western Sydney population of 221,864 people have likely experienced mental illness in 2023-24.Of those, 7.8 per cent (or 87,077) will require treatment for mild mental illness; 4.8 per cent (54,254) will require treatment for moderate mental illness; and 2.5 per cent will require treatment for severe mental illness.
In 2023-24, Campbelltown had the highest predicted prevalence of mental illness compared to other areas (mild 8 per cent, moderate 5 per cent and severe 2.6 per cent respectively).
The needs assessment identified several opportunities for mental health system improvement in South Western Sydney. Key priorities included:
Priority 1: Enhancing community engagement and knowledge of mental health services by engaging with community leaders to convey key messages; increasing advertising and promotional material; and improving HealthPathways targeted training for primary care providers.
Priority 2: Developing the mental health workforce capacity by upskilling GPs in key areas; establishing a SWSPHN-led webinar series to support primary care workers; and building capacity in the mental health workforce to improve accessibility.
Priority 3: Improving care coordination and discharge planning by implementing an effective system; facilitating multi-disciplinary case conferences with GPs and mental health providers; and establishing inter-agency meetings to improve service awareness.
Priority 4: Enhancing funding to improve accessibility to services such as early intervention and prevention programs in schools; increased services to support those experiencing a traumatic event; and improved service provider collaboration to support patient connection to services.
Priority 5: Improving the SWSPHN mental health intake process and increasing follow-ups for vulnerable patients.
The Department of Health and Aged Care’s Health Design Lab is inviting you and your staff to provide input on LGBTIQA+ healthcare.
The research aims to gain a deeper understanding of primary healthcare for lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, intersex, queer and/or questioning, A-sexual and other diverse genders and sexualities (LGBTIQA+) people.
The design lab will be talking to primary care providers and practice staff across Australia, including South Western Sydney.
How to participate:
When and where: The Health Design Lab will be in Sydney between 2 and 13 April. If you have availability at a different time, please advise the design lab via email at Design.Lab@Health.gov.au.
Who: The design lab wants to talk with GPs, primary care nurses, pharmacists, allied health professionals (eg physiotherapists or psychologists), Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health workers, and health support staff who interact with patients (eg reception staff).
What: Taking part will include a one-hour interview (per person) at a time convenient for you and your practice. The design lab understands your time is valuable, so they have time slots both within and outside of regular business hours.
Reimbursement: Each participant* will be emailed directly with a $200 gift voucher as reimbursement for their valuable time.
*Please note, the design lab is unable to provide reimbursements to government employees if they participate in an interview during work hours.
To participate or support the project:
Share: Please forward this email to your staff or any other health practitioners who may be interested to let them know about the project.
Reply: If you would like to participate, please reply to this email with your preferred date/s and time/s for an interview.
If you or any staff members have any questions, please reach out via email at Design.Lab@Health.gov.au or call the project lead, Drew Thomas, on 0422 652 093.
29 January 2024
The Federal Government is undertaking a wide-ranging review to investigate how to more equitably distribute doctors and other health workers around the country.
The Working Better for Medicare Review will look at how current policies and programs can be strengthened to make it easier to see a doctor, nurse or other health worker in the outer suburbs of our major cities and in regional, rural and remote Australia.
Primary healthcare providers are encouraged to provide input, via a survey/written submission.
The review is looking at Medicare’s role in locating the workforce, as well as the three main policy levers used to distribute the workforce:
Modified Monash Model,
District of Workforce Shortage, and
Distribution Priority Area
The review will identify ways to improve health access by building a more stable, motivated and properly located workforce.
29 January 2024
SWSPHN is facilitating a co-design focusing on the health needs of people who are homeless or marginally housed.
The aim of the project is to:
Define the characteristics of the homeless population in South Western Sydney
Better understand the health needs and risk factors of the homeless population in South Western Sydney
Identify the barriers and enablers in accessing healthcare services
Identify opportunities to improve health outcomes
Identify key priorities for service funding in South Western Sydney
We are seeking input from GPs and practice nurses working in South Western Sydney.
Through structured interviews, GPs and practice nurses are invited to share their experiences providing care to people who are homeless or marginally housed.
Interviews will be approximately 30 minutes long.
GPs and practice nurses will be remunerated for their participation.
If you were interested, please contact SWSPHN Integration and HealthPathways Coordinator Kira Chamberlain at kira.chamberlain@swsphn.com.au.
23 January 2024
The Department of Health and Aged Care is working to understand the perspectives of health professionals regarding navigation, referral to, and uptake of mental health services and treatments, especially for patients with milder symptoms.
It is particularly interested in understanding the barriers and enablers encountered when supporting patients with lower acuity mental health needs and connecting them with appropriate services.
The department has commissioned Liquid Interactive to conduct research to understand the opportunities to improve the experiences of GPs and practice staff across Rural, Remote and Metropolitan Areas (RRMA) of Australia in supporting people with a range of mental health needs.
Health professionals interested in participating in the research can nominate via this online expression of interest form or through the link included in the above factsheet.
The expression of interest form will be open until Friday, 26 January 2024.
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