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The MRID Toolkits

The Metro-Regional Intellectual Disability Network is building a family of toolkits which make available the lessons learned and expertise gathered through innovative health care initiatives trialled in the South Eastern Sydney Local Health District of New South Wales. These toolkits make successful, alternative models of care available to others, for utilisation and implementation wherever they may be.

Introducing – The MRID CodesignKit

What is Co-Design?

Codesignkit logoCo-design is a core concept for the development of relevant, sustainable health services that best meet the needs of consumers in the contemporary environment. It is about placing the client and their family at the centre of the process. Health service providers work in equal, respectful, active collaboration with clients and families to design care systems that improve their wellbeing and enhance their quality of life.

Co-design is not an add-on to traditional ways of practising medicine and delivering health services. It is an alternative model that is inclusive, co-operative, adaptable and effective. It is a framework which underwrites all decisions about what care strategies will be put in place for an individual and upon which those strategies are built. It is long-term, not short-term. It ensures that limited resources are deployed in the most efficient way and that the highest possible standards of care are delivered to a potentially vulnerable group of people.

The Angelman Success Story

Over twenty years the Kogarah Developmental Assessment Service has developed a unique relationship with the Angelman Syndrome Association, a support group for families with children diagnosed with this rare intellectual disability. Through this partnership new ways of working have been established that have proven successful for all concerned. Health services have been designed specifically to meet the needs of this group. Health professionals have had opportunities to engage with their clients in such a way as to gain ever-deeper understandings of the characteristics of a complex condition and how it affects the day-to-day lives of the people who live with it. Parents and carers have gained a sense of ownership over the process of developing care strategies that are right for them and that deliver the best possible outcomes for their children.

So how do a health service and a parent’s association work together to produce successful solutions to the tangled problem of providing quality health care to children with complex needs?

The MRID CodesignKit

Drawing upon the experience gained through the Angelman Syndrome success story, the MRID CodesignKit will describe how co-design can work in practice and offer a range of practical tips, tools and resources which can be utilised by anyone looking to improve the effectiveness of health services delivered to consumers with complex health issues.

Included will be information about developing an integrated health service, how a health service and consumer group can work together, individualised co-design, and involving the community. Also provided will be the ‘how-to’ of everyday co-design, focus groups and forums, seminars, informal social gatherings, clinic-based events, surveys and more.

The MRID Toolkits

The Metro-Regional Intellectual Disability Network is building a family of toolkits which make available the lessons learned and expertise gathered through innovative health care initiatives trialled in the South Eastern Sydney Local Health District of New South Wales. These toolkits make successful, alternative models of care available to others, for utilisation and implementation wherever they may be.

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