Riverland Mallee Coorong engagement

Mental Health Service Plan 2023-2028 now available

The Riverland Mallee Coorong Local Health Network (RMCLHN) has launched its inaugural Mental Health Services Plan.

The Plan provides a new direction to improve mental health services in RMCLHN over the next five years from 2023 through to 2028.

It is focussed on the provision of high-quality specialist mental health services in our region that promote dignity, respect, choice, independence, and social connections.

It outlines how we will support consumers to navigate mental health services with greater ease, to ensure they can access the help and supports they need, when they need them. 

It also outlines how we will address service tensions, work together with our partners, strengthen our services, and build our workforce. 

The Plan aims to meet current and evolving needs as identified by our consumers, communities and key stakeholders.

It was developed using a co-design approach in consultation with consumers, community members, staff, clinicians, and other key stakeholders, before being made available for broad public consultation in May 2023.

The Mental Health Service Plan:

  • clearly outlines our mental health service improvement priorities across Riverland Mallee Coorong communities over the next five years
  • enables our consumers and community to access compassionate human-centred care that is integrated across our sectors and considers those who are in most need
  • develops and grows our committed, competent and passionate mental health staff and clinicians as a means to strengthen and expand our workforce capacity.
  • enhances mutually beneficial collaboration across sectors to support prevention and early access to help
  • understands and addresses the service tensions that impact on our ability to provide excellence in mental health care.

The Plan also outlines how RMCLHN will:

Address service tensions by

  • Developing a collective mindset that mental health is everyone’s responsibility
  • Seeking equitable funding.

Work together with our partners by

  • Creating opportunities to collaborate across sectors (e.g.  SAAS, SAPOL, NGOs, PHNs etc)
  • Supporting prevention and early access to help.

Strengthen our workforce by

  • Building stronger recruitment and retention practices
  • Designing and delivering increased training and education
  • Developing our workforce to meet community needs.

 Build our services by

  • Strengthening social and emotional wellbeing services for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities
  • Integrating our care
  • Providing human-centred care
  • Facilitating clear access and pathways to care.

Hard copy versions of the Plan are also available at our hospitals and health sites.

Mannum District Hospital Service Planning

The Riverland Mallee Coorong Local Health Network (RMCLHN) is embarking on a service planning process for the Mannum District Hospital. This will enable us to develop a service plan that meets the needs of the Mannum community over the next five years and beyond.

The service plan will align delivery of local health services with the SA Health and Wellbeing Strategy and the RMCLHN Strategic Plan 2021-2026.

During February and March 2023 we invited the Mannum community to have input into the process and provide information about their experiences with health services across the spectrum. This took place via a variety of methods including, surveys, drop-in sessions, 1:1 interviews, focus groups and phone conversations to name a few.

All responses have been themed and are informing the development of future service plan recommendations for Mannum District Hospital. A snapshot of what we have heard is captured in this poster:

This work is being undertaken by a local advisory group with representation from key stakeholders. We will explore local data, knowledge, consumer experience and align the plan with best practice clinical standards.

It’s very important that as part of this process we hear from our local consumers and community members.

For more information email Health.RSSPlanningTeam@sa.gov.au or contact Day Parkhurst, Executive Officer – Director of Nursing, Mannum District Hospital.

RMCLHN Strategic Plan 2021-2026

Our Vision

The inaugural Riverland Mallee Coorong Local Health Network (RMCLHN) Strategic Plan 2021-2026 is now available.

The aim of the Plan is to define the focus of our organisation over the next five years by identifying our goals and priorities across four strategic themes:

  • Caring for our Communities
  • Excellence in Clinical Care
  • Local Accountability
  • Investing in our People.

Our Purpose

The Strategic Plan sets out our purpose as a network – Our people caring for our communities. This means we will work together to care for local communities and develop our region as a centre of excellence in rural health care, research and teaching. We will support people in the Riverland Mallee Coorong Local Health Network to have the best possible quality of life, by providing timely, high quality care as close to home as possible, that promotes dignity, respect, choice, independence and social connection.

The Strategic Plan also includes our Vision for our communities, including aged care, mental health, community health, Aboriginal health and acute care – you can read these in full in the Strategic Plan.

Our Values

Our Values are represented by the phrase RMC CARES. RMC CARES is a statement in itself and represents our values as an organisation:

  • Respectful
  • Motivated
  • Compassionate
  • Consumer Focussed
  • Accountable
  • Resourceful
  • Excellence
  • Service.

In the Strategic Plan, you can read what these values mean and what they look like in action, including our practices and personal behaviours that embody and promote these values.

Who is it for?

The Strategic Plan is for our workforce, consumers and communities. Our workforce includes clinicians, non-clinicians, visiting medical specialists, Rural Support Service (RSS) staff, contractors, volunteers and partners.

You’re a consumer if you use our health services, or are affected by the delivery of our healthcare services – for example, if you’re a family member, carer, friend or support person to someone who uses our services.

How was it developed?

RMCLHN is committed to strong consumer and community engagement and values the contribution consumers can make to improve health services, including through service planning, designing care, and measuring and evaluating services.

The Plan was developed through consultation with consumers, carers, community members, volunteers, staff and partner organisations.

We consulted with key staff and the Governing Board members at a Strategic Planning Day in August 2020, and with Health Advisory Council members at the HAC Regional Conference in September 2020.  We also consulted with Aboriginal consumers, partners and stakeholders at the Aboriginal Health Community forums in October 2020.

The final Plan was developed following broad internal and external consultation on the draft Plan, and has been endorsed by Shane Mohor, our Aboriginal Health representative on the RMCLHN Governing Board, and RMCLHN’s Director of Aboriginal Health, Sharon Perkins.

How will it be implemented and evaluated?

A rolling three-year Operational Plan will be developed to implement the RMCLHN Strategic Plan.

Overall progress and key performance indicators will be reported on at the RMCLHN Annual Public Meeting and in the Annual Report.

The Strategic Plan will sit alongside our Consumer and Community Engagement Strategy and Clinician and Workforce Engagement Strategy which are available below.

Get your copy

Disability Access and Inclusion Plan


The Riverland Mallee Coorong Local Health Network (RMCLHN) has launched its inaugural Disability Access and Inclusion Plan 2022-2025 – called DAIP for short.

The DAIP is an internal and external facing plan that builds on RMCLHN’s continued commitment to sustaining the rights of people living with disability to access quality healthcare.

It encompasses what RMCLHN will do to ensure people living with disability have the same opportunities as others to access and be included in quality services, events, information, buildings and facilities, consultation, complaints processes and employment.

It outlines a number of actions RMCLHN will take over the next three years to promote and achieve disability access and inclusion.

Each of the actions include measurable targets, a timeframe for implementation or review, and the individual, team, business unit or site that is responsible.

The DAIP has been developed in support of the State Disability Inclusion Plan 2019 - 2023, which sets out specific actions for South Australian government agencies and local councils to achieve in order to reduce the barriers faced by people living with disability.

It also complements the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) as it aims to address access and inclusion for all South Australians living with disability, including people who are not NDIS participants, and aligns with The Disability Inclusion Act 2018, which provides a legal framework to support equal access and inclusion for people living with disability in community activities and services including recreation, education, health, and public transport.

Engagement Strategies

The Riverland Mallee Coorong Local Health Network (RMCLHN) has updated its Consumer and Community Engagement Strategy (CCES) and Clinician and Workforce Engagement Strategy (CAWES).

The Strategies were reviewed and updated following consultation with staff and stakeholders.

The purpose of the review was to track and evaluate how we are engaging with our consumers, communities, clinicians and our workforce, look at what we are doing well and what we could do better.

We consulted on the CCES in 2021 through the RMCLHN Planning Workshop and discussion with the Health Advisory Councils (HACs).

The feedback provided through consultation centred on the implementation and meaningfulness of the Strategy, and its accessibility. Consequently, RMCLHN has agreed to develop and share a work plan with the HACs that demonstrates how we are implementing the Strategy and develop a one-page summary of the Strategy that will be available at sites and via this webpage.

We consulted on the CAWES in 2021 through the RMCLHN Planning Workshop, Senior Staff Forum and via an online survey.  The feedback provided through consultation informed minor amendments to the CAWES, including the incorporation of wording from the Strategic Plan and monitoring of the Strategy through the RMCLHN Operational Plan. The key elements of the Strategy were not changed.

Consumer and Community Engagement Strategy

  

The Consumer and Community Engagement Strategy, or CCE Strategy for short, guides how we engage with consumers and the community.

The aim of the CCE Strategy is to integrate, strengthen and promote meaningful engagement with consumers, and the broader community, and provides direction for how we will work with consumers and the community to provide the best possible care and services for our region now and into the future.

Engagement is about how we talk with you, listen to you and collaborate with you on important issues.

A consumer is anyone who uses our health services, or is affected by the delivery of our healthcare services – that is, if you’re a family member, carer, friend or support person of someone who uses our services. For example:

  • If you’ve ever taken your sick child to the Riverland General Hospital emergency department, you’re a consumer of our healthcare services.
  • If your Dad lives in one of our Aged Care facilities, both you and your Dad are consumers of our healthcare services.
  • If you see a physiotherapist at the Lameroo Hospital, you’re a consumer of our healthcare services.
  • If you have a community health nurse visiting your home in Meningie, you’re a consumer of our healthcare services.

Download a digital copy of the Consumer and Community Engagement Strategy.

For further information, or to request the strategy in a different format, please contact:

Consumer Engagement Officer
Riverland Mallee Coorong Local Health Network
Telephone: (08) 8580 2400 (Berri Office) (08) 8535 6777 (Murray Bridge Office)
Email: Health.RMCConsumers@sa.gov.au

Clinician and Workforce Engagement Strategy


RMCLHN has developed a Clinician and Workforce Engagement Strategy following widespread consultation with clinicians and our general workforce.

While the Act stipulates the Governing Board is required to develop a clinician engagement strategy, we sought endorsement to broaden the scope of our strategy to incorporate all RMCLHN workforce. This has allowed us to develop a more comprehensive strategy that encapsulates the unique needs and composition of our regional workforce.

The aim of the strategy is to promote consultation, collaboration and genuine engagement with health, and other, professionals working within RMCLHN. It applies to all RMCLHN staff and stakeholders who provide, or contribute to, the provision of services to our communities. This includes clinicians, non-clinicians, visiting medical specialists, Rural Support Service (RSS) staff, contractors, volunteers and partners (e.g. our partners include General Practitioners (GPs) and Statewide Clinical Support Services employees who partner with RMCLHN).

Download a digital copy of the Clinician and Workforce Engagement Strategy.

For further information, or to request the strategy in a different format, please contact:

Manager Secretariat
Riverland Mallee Coorong Local Health Network
Telephone: (08) 8535 6707
Email: Health.RMCConsumers@sa.gov.au

Our Governing Board is required to develop and publish these strategies under Section 33A of the Health Care (Governance) Amendment Act 2018 (the Act).

Both strategies sit alongside the RMCLHN Strategic Plan.