Toolkit launched to encourage widespread adoption of co-production

A series of resources produced by CommunityWest have been released to assist providers to introduce co-production in aged care.

The toolkit shares the lessons from the Step Forward Together project, which trialled co-production with 10 pilot sites around Australia over an eight-month period.

The online documents guide aged care providers on the theory and implementation of co-production, drawing on the latest research and practice and case studies from the Australian pilot project.

Kelly Gray, the project lead from CommunityWest, said co-production goes beyond a process of consulting and engaging with clients to involving older people and their families and carers in the design and delivery of services.

Co-production requires service providers to foster more equal relationships with the people who use their services.

“Working with consumers at a strategic level to plan, design, test and review services is going to be essential in an increasingly competitive environment where consumers choose who they want to purchase services from,” she said.

The publication has been funded by the Federal Department of Health to encourage and support service providers to work in partnership with consumers when designing and planning aged care services and programs.

Accompanying the practical resources is a documentary capturing the journey of the pilot sites through interviews with staff and consumers.

The 10 organisations that took part in the pilot were Calvary Community Care, Centacare Community Services, Jubilee Community Care, MercyCare, Novacare Community Services, The Society of Saint Hilarion, St Bartholomew’s House, Uniting AgeWell, Uniting Communities and WestCoast Home Care.

A wide range of initiatives were developed. As part of the trial Calvary Community Care co-produced a cooking mobile app to use with culturally and linguistically diverse consumers, while The Society of Saint Hilarion developed a quality of life tool to kickstart a conversation with the local older Italian community on mental wellbeing.

Download the resources from CommunityWest by clicking here.

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