Academic literature on the topic 'Consumer education Victoria'

Research has indicated that people with a dual diagnosis of mental illness and substance abuse are more difficult to manage than any other group of mentally ill clients. For young people with a dual diagnosis, particularly in rural and regional areas, there are significant barriers to the provision of optimal care. Currently, a lack of communication between mental health, drug and alcohol services and consumers results in the inadequate provision of treatment for young people, with a resultant significant service gap. Dual diagnosis programs that focus on both substance abuse and mental health issues demonstrate greatly improved client outcomes. Developing a peer education program provides one constructive way of involving dual diagnosis consumers in developing more responsive health services. It provides a highly structured and supported way of involving consumers who ordinarily find mental health services bewildering and inaccessible. By drawing on the knowledge and skills of young people with dual diagnosis, and involving them as peer educators, the notion of expertise in lived experience is captured and harnessed to provide the establishment of a consumer-focused service that better meets the needs of this complex, often neglected, client group.

We explored the potential for improved policy and regulation with a direct focus on household water-related energy (WRE) management in urban Victoria (Australia). Semi-structured interviews were employed to understand the perspectives of relevant actors within the existing institutional landscape. In this paper, questions about institutional and policy change are addressed through consideration of the literature on transitions management and institutional entrepreneurship. Key policy opportunities identified by the actors include consumer education and advocacy for behaviour change and technology adoption, and further development of residential building standards to improve the selection and layout of building services at the design phase. The work highlights medium-term opportunities to create an enabling environment for policy practitioners in Victoria to improve management of water-related energy use in households. The work provides an important new perspective on transitions theory in the field of integrated resources management.

ObjectiveThe aim of this study was to explore consumer experiences of care coordination within Barwon Health’s Hospital Admission Risk Program (HARP) located in Geelong, Victoria. MethodsThe study design was qualitative description informed by phenomenology and inclusive and co-production methodology. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with a purposive sample of six consumers living with chronic conditions and other complex needs. Participants were asked about their lived experience related to accessing the service, communication, and health and supports before and after accessing the service using an interview guide. Interviews were audio-recorded and transcribed verbatim for thematic analysis. ResultsFive themes were identified: (1) experiencing authentic, values-based care; (2) collaborative care and working together; (3) gaining independence; (4) improved health and quality of life; and (5) limited understanding of HARP at the start. Overall, participants’ experiences were positive, which related to improved health, quality of life, and sustainable supports. Although gains were experienced, most of the participants identified that their knowledge of HARP was limited when services commenced, which is an area for service improvement. ConclusionThis research begins to address the knowledge gap related to consumer experiences of care coordination. Findings highlight the importance of providing person-centred, authentic and values-based care, listening authentically, and promoting consumer voice within services. The study demonstrates that inclusive, co-design research is feasible in this service context, and further research is recommended into how stakeholders understand the function of care coordination services to promote health and prevent hospital readmissions, and improve consumer participation. What is known about the topic?Care coordination is multifaceted, with the primary purpose of facilitating person-centred care through appropriate and timely delivery of healthcare services. Despite the effectiveness of care coordination programs in preventing avoidable hospital admissions and reducing hospital length of stay, there is a paucity of research that has investigated consumer perspectives. There is also limited research that has adopted an inclusive research design of knowledge co-production where clinicians and consumers are included as equal members of the research team. What does this paper add?The study findings provide evidence into the value of care coordination from the perspective of consumers living with chronic conditions and other complex health and psychosocial issues. The findings also extend evidence into person- and consumer-centred care through understanding the qualities of care coordination practice that promote authenticity, integrity and positive health outcomes. Listening is identified as a critical element of authentic, values-based care, and as a care coordination intervention. Finally, the study demonstrates that inclusive, co-design research is feasible in this service context, and a larger-scale Experience-Based Co-Design study is recommended to investigate how stakeholders understand the function of care coordination services to promote health and prevent hospital readmissions and improve consumer participation. What are the implications for practitioners?The study informs practitioners of consumer lived experience of care coordination. Practitioners are recommended to apply the findings to practice by adopting an authentic, values-based and person-centred care approach described in the study findings. Service improvement initiatives are recommended to focus on increasing awareness of care coordination services through consumer participation and the meaningful inclusion of consumer voice, which could focus on education for referring health and social care professionals.

Objective. Despite the expansion of postnatal domiciliary services, we know little about the women receiving visits and how they regard their care. The aim of this study is to examine the provision of postnatal domiciliary care from a consumer perspective. Methods. All women who gave birth in September–October 2007 in South Australia and Victoria were mailed questionnaires 6 months after the birth. Women were asked if they had received a midwifery home visit, and to rate the care they received. Results. More women in South Australia reported receiving a domiciliary visit than in Victoria (88.0% v. 76.0%) and they were more likely to rate their care as ‘very good’ (69.1% v. 63.4%). Younger women, women on a lower income, who were holding a healthcare concession card or who had not completed secondary education were less likely to receive a visit. Conclusion. Although the majority of women in public maternity care in Victoria and South Australia receive domiciliary care and rate it positively, there are significant state-based differences. Those more likely to benefit from domiciliary care are less likely to receive a visit. There is a need to further explore the purpose, aims and content of domiciliary care at individual and state-wide levels. What is known about the topic? Postnatal domiciliary services have expanded dramatically over the past decade as the postpartum hospital stay has shortened. Despite its widespread introduction, there are no mechanisms in place to monitor or evaluate whether these services are meeting women’s expectations. We know little about the women who receive domiciliary postnatal visits in the first week after discharge from hospital, and how they regard their experience of care. What does the paper add? This is the first Australian population-based survey that describes the experience of domiciliary care according to the state in which women reside and to examine the sociodemographic, obstetric and organisational factors associated with the provision of services. What are the implications for practitioners? There were state-based differences in the provision of domiciliary care and whilst the majority of women received domiciliary care and rated it positively, an inverse care law seems to apply: women who were more likely to need and derive benefit from domiciliary care were less likely to receive it. There is a need to further explore the purpose, aims and content of domiciliary care at individual and state-wide levels.

The theme of this paper is the central role of consumer groups in promoting greater accountability in child protection systems. In recent years, numerous Australian authors have drawn attention to the failings of our State child protection systems. Particular concern has been expressed about the potential ‘systems abuse’ of children in care, and the failure of statutory systems to engage or adequately consider the perspectives of biological parents. One of the principal reasons for these deficits appears to be the absence of formal consultation mechanisms with consumers of protection services. This paper considers the recent rise of consumer groups of both young people in protection and care, and their parents/caregivers, in relation to the above concerns, with particular reference to Victoria. Attention is drawn to both the strengths and weaknesses of the better known groups such as the Australian Association of Young People in Care and their State affiliates, and the Parent Inquiry into Child Protection. The author believes that the role of consumer groups as a ‘watchdog’ will become even more important with the intended privatization of some State child protection systems.

Abstract Charles Kingsley’s Hypatia or New Foes with an Old Face was first published in Fraser’s Magazine in 1852, but was reissued in numerous book editions in the late nineteenth century. Though often viewed as a novel depicting the religious controversies of the 1850s, Kingsley’s portrayal of the life and brutal death of a strong female figure from late antiquity also sheds light on the way in which the Victorians remodelled ancient histories to explore shifting gender roles at the fin de siècle. As the book gained in popularity towards the end of the century, it was reimagined in many different cultural forms. This article demonstrates how Kingsley’s Hypatia became a global, multi-media fiction of antiquity, how it was revisioned and consumed in different written, visual and material forms (book illustrations, a play, painting and sculpture) and how this reimagining functioned within the gender politics of the 1880s and 1890s. Kingsley’s novel retained a strong hold on the late-Victorian imagination, I argue, because the perpetual restaging of Hypatia’s story through different media facilitated the circulation of pressing fin-de-siècle debates about women’s education, women’s rights, and female consumerism.

Although Critics Have frequently observed that Louisa May Alcott's enormously popularLittle Women(1868) is a novel of education, they have not addressed just how much this is a consumer education. This essay tackles the question by placing the novel at the intersection of Victorian religious and consumer cultures. It argues thatLittle Womenengages the emerging “spirit of modern consumerism” through traditional moral discourse, particularly Protestantism and its romantic/sentimental descendants. For not only does the book trace its young heroines' progress toward “little womanhood,” but it sets many of their ethical challenges in a Victorian “Vanity Fair.” And, much as in Bunyan's originalPilgrim's Progress, those challenges are often temptations to idolatrous materialism. In the Protestant imagination, such idolatry found crucial expression in the Roman Catholic interpretation of the sacraments. For the Protestant, the communion bread and wine were merely symbols of divine grace, a grace that only God could confer. For the Catholic, they were the transubstantiated body and blood of Christ Himself, and therefore possessed salvific power. InLittle Women, this anxiety about the proper interpretation of the sacraments becomes anxiety about the proper use of material objects and the qualities they signify. Here the Catholic's belief that the consecrated host could confer grace and transform the spirit threatens Protestant integrity in a new guise, as the modern consumer's faith that fashionable goods can construct identity and deliver happiness.

Purpose The consequences of problematic alcohol consumption fall heavily on Australian adolescents, with this population at increased risk of death, serious injury and other harm. Research regarding whether gender, socioeconomic status (SES) or locality play a role in young people’s alcohol consumption and related harm is limited in Australia. The purpose of this paper is to determine whether Victorian students’ patterns of alcohol uptake, consumption and related harm differed between gender, SES and locality. Design/methodology/approach The study involved secondary analysis of student data from the Drug Education in Victorian Schools harm minimisation drug education programme, undertaken in 21 Victorian government schools over three years The initial cohort of 1,752 students was followed during Years 8, 9 and 10, when their average age would have, respectively, been 13, 14 and 15 years. Findings There were no gender differences in drinking uptake, consumption or harm. Students with low SES were more likely to have consumed a full drink of alcohol and also experienced more alcohol-related harm. Students living in a regional/rural area were more likely to have engaged in high alcohol consumption. Originality/value The findings of this study highlighted that different student demographics have an impact on patterns of alcohol consumption, vulnerability and harm. Students with low SES, living in a regional/rural area, are more at risk than students with higher SES living in a fringe metro/major regional or metro area. Future school harm minimisation drug education programmes should consider the needs of students with demographics that make them more susceptible to higher consumption and harm.

Health literacy is a major issue for improving health outcomes of clients. In rural Victoria, Australia, the Gippsland Health Literacy Project (GHLP) educated local health services staff about health literacy and provided tools and techniques for health literacy implementation in services. This paper reports the outcomes of this project. Participants’ change in knowledge was measured through pre- and post-project surveys and interviews. Descriptive analysis of survey data and analysis of interviews using qualitative description enabled exploration of individual and organisational shifts in health literacy perspectives. Healthcare professionals’ knowledge of health literacy has improved as a result of the health literacy education. Health service organisations are also taking greater responsibility for health literacy responsiveness in their services. Systematic changes to policy and procedures that support health literacy are required. Although health literacy education provides more accessible health care for consumers, where projects had executive-level support the changes implemented were more likely to be successful and sustainable. What is known about this topic? Low health literacy is a strong predictor of health status and it is important for health organisations to ensure they provide health care and information in a way that can be understood, interpreted and acted on by all clients, regardless of their health literacy levels. What does this paper add? This paper presents findings on staff training and resources that can effectively support staff to improve health literacy practices. What are the implications for practitioners? Addressing health literacy issues appears to result in more accessible health care for consumers. Executive support and health literacy champions are key requirements to successfully address health literacy issues.

Background: To determine the prevalence of chlamydia and understand sexual risk behaviour in 16–29 year olds in rural Victoria through a chlamydia testing program undertaken at local sporting clubs. Methods: Young people were recruited from the Loddon Mallee region of Victoria, Australia between May and September 2007. After a night of sporting practice, participants provided a first pass urine sample and completed a brief questionnaire about sexual risk behaviour. Those positive for chlamydia were managed by telephone consultation with a practitioner from Melbourne Sexual Health Centre. Results: A total of 709 young people participated (77% male, 23% female) in the study; 77% were sexually active. Overall chlamydia prevalence in sexually active participants was 5.1% (95% confidence interval [CI]: 3.4–7.3); 7.4% in females (95% CI: 3.5–13.6) and 4.5% in males (95% CI: 2.7–6.9). Approximately 60% of males and 20% of females consumed alcohol at high ‘Risky Single Occasion Drinking’ levels at least weekly and 60% had used an illicit drug in their lifetime. Nearly 45% reported having sex in the past year when they usually wouldn’t have because they were too drunk or high. Sexually transmissible infection (STI) knowledge was generally poor and only 25% used a condom the last time they had sex. Conclusion: Chlamydia prevalence was high in our study population. Many participants had poor knowledge about STIs and low condom use. These findings combined with high levels of risky alcohol use and having sex while intoxicated highlights the need for programs in rural and regional Victoria that combine both STI testing and prevention and education programs.

This essay recovers episodes in the wide and varied sporting history of the Crystal Palace in the later nineteenth and early twentieth century, and situates it in the context of ideas about the body, nation and empire that were manifest in the 1850s Fine Arts Courts, showing how the Greek and Roman courts in particular were received in changing ways across Victorian and Edwardian culture. The Sydenham Palace brought together ‘Fine Arts’, consumer, and sporting cultures, and allows an examination of the ways in which these three seemingly disparate areas of study were closely intertwined. The essay emphasises the national, racial and gender politics implicit in the relationship between these three categories. Discussing Sandow’s Institute, the 1911 Inter-Empire Games, and the occupation of the Palace by the Royal Navy during the First World War, it relates the Palace’s apparently more formal Fine Arts Courts and Natural History Department to its grassy grounds, its static exhibits to its moving, breathing visitors, art historical education to bodily reformation.