Seivwright Ami, Kaleveld Lisette, Meltzer Ariella, Atkins Mariana, Varadharajan Meera, Campbell Perri, Callis Zoe, Wilson Erin
Institute for Social Change, University of Tasmania, Hobart, TAS, Australia.
Centre for Social Impact, The University of Western Australia, Perth, WA, Australia.
Front Health Serv. 2022 Nov 4;2:1037256. doi: 10.3389/frhs.2022.1037256. eCollection 2022.
Aged care and disability service organizations are critical infrastructure. However, in 2020, restrictions were introduced to reduce the infection risk of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), and these organizations needed to quickly devise COVID-safe ways of working to continue to meet the needs of their clients. To investigate how these organizations adapted their service delivery and which innovations they felt were worthwhile for sustaining beyond the COVID-19 pandemic, interviews were undertaken with representatives from 26 aged care and disability service organizations across three states in Australia (Western Australia, New South Wales, and Victoria). Findings revealed that organizations adapted their practices across three key innovation areas: (1) developing new approaches or expanding existing services, particularly around food provision, social connection, information dissemination, and technology support; (2) modifying the mode of service delivery, through safe in-person contact or offering alternative online services; and (3) reducing bureaucracy and introducing remote working. A common theme across all service innovations was the strong focus on providing clients and staff with choice and control. Moving forward, many organizations wanted to integrate and maintain these innovations, as they were associated with additional benefits such as increased client health and safety, service flexibility, and sufficient human resources to serve clients. However, continued maintenance of some initiatives require additional resourcing. The continuation of COVID-19 pandemic adaptations and, indeed, ongoing innovation, would therefore be facilitated by greater flexibility of funding to allow organizations and their clients to determine the service types and modes that best meet their needs. Further, these innovations have implications for sector-wide best practice.
老年护理和残疾服务组织是关键基础设施。然而，2020年为降低2019冠状病毒病（COVID-19）的感染风险实施了限制措施，这些组织需要迅速设计出安全的新冠工作方式，以继续满足客户需求。为了调查这些组织如何调整其服务提供方式，以及他们认为哪些创新措施在COVID-19大流行之后值得持续采用，研究人员对澳大利亚三个州（西澳大利亚州、新南威尔士州和维多利亚州）的26个老年护理和残疾服务组织的代表进行了访谈。研究结果显示，各组织在三个关键创新领域调整了做法：（1）开发新方法或扩展现有服务，特别是在食品供应、社交联系、信息传播和技术支持方面；（2）通过安全的面对面接触或提供替代在线服务来改变服务提供模式；（3）减少官僚作风并引入远程工作。所有服务创新的一个共同主题是高度重视为客户和员工提供选择和控制权。展望未来，许多组织希望整合并维持这些创新，因为它们带来了额外的好处，如提高客户健康和安全水平、服务灵活性以及有足够的人力资源为客户服务。然而，持续维持一些举措需要额外的资源。因此，资金的更大灵活性将有助于COVID-19大流行应对措施的持续实施，以及持续的创新，使组织及其客户能够确定最能满足他们需求的服务类型和模式。此外，这些创新对全行业的最佳实践具有启示意义。
