Department of Health

Community Health Demand Management Toolkit

Providing guidance to support community health services manage demand consistently across the state.

The Community Health Demand Management Toolkit provides a level of flexibility that allows each service to adapt demand management practices to best support their service delivery and population needs. It outlines key considerations across the consumer journey for demand management and is not intended to be a prescriptive model due to the diversity of community health services.

The purpose of the Community Health Demand Management Toolkit is to ensure that consumers have:

  • Timely access to care for better health outcomes.
  • Equity of access and service delivery across the state.
  • Priority access for those with the greatest need.

The Toolkit supports community health services to deliver services effectively through considering service access and demand management across the consumer journey.

This Toolkit provides guidance for all community health services for activity funded under the Community Health Program (CHP). It is recognised that services have several different funding streams, however where practicable, this Toolkit should be applicable to all funding streams to enable an integrated approach to service delivery.

This Toolkit was developed by the Department of Health (the department) in consultation with the community health sector.

Eight principles underpin the Toolkit:

  1. Equity: Providing support to consumers based on their circumstances and supporting greater equity in health outcomes across the community.
  2. Innovation: Trialling and implementing different service delivery models and finding ways to improve or change services when things are not working.
  3. Collaboration: Working with consumers, across disciplines and with the broader health and wellbeing sector in a seamless and streamlined manner to provide the best outcomes.
  4. Communication: Providing information to consumers in a clear and transparent way that supports informed decision making, including through the provision of language services when required.
  5. Impact: Delivering benefit and impact to as many consumers as possible within the capacity and resources available in each service.
  6. Empowerment: Equipping consumers with the information and tools needed to self-manage and prioritising improved health literacy.
  7. Flexibility: Understanding how demand occurs, how it fluctuates, and being adaptive and responsive to support better demand management.
  8. Diversity: Supporting consumers by understanding diverse backgrounds, needs and identities, and delivering services in a culturally safe and responsive way.
Community Health Demand Management Toolkit
docx 834.18 KB | Updated: 8 June 2023

Reviewed 08 June 2023

Health.vic

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partnerships.primary@health.vic.gov.au
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