Australia is a country of 17 million people from diverse cultural and racial backgrounds. To respond to this diversity, the Australian Commonwealth Government in 1986 announced an Access and Equity Strategy as part of...
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Australia is a country of 17 million people from diverse cultural and racial backgrounds. To respond to this diversity, the Australian Commonwealth Government in 1986 announced an Access and Equity Strategy as part of the Agenda for a Multicultural Australia. The Strategy was evaluated in 1991, and included five locality studies which assessed the implementation of the Strategy from the perspective of target groups of Aboriginal and non-English speaking people (NESB). This article describes this evaluation and the development of the Australian multicultural policy within which the Strategy is conceived. The findings and recommendations from the locality studies provide case examples of government wide policy development and implementation processes.
Despite some serious past efforts to clarify its multiple dimensions and meanings, access to health care has remained a rather elusive concept, hampering the work of health care policymakers and professionals as they ...
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Despite some serious past efforts to clarify its multiple dimensions and meanings, access to health care has remained a rather elusive concept, hampering the work of health care policymakers and professionals as they endeavor to effect meaningful health care reform. This article provides perhaps the most detailed clarification of the access concept, especially the crucial linkages among the various access dimensions, and presents a comprehensive conceptual framework for evaluation and planning activities as they relate to people's access to health care services. The proposed conceptual model recognizes access as the outcome of a process involving the interplay between the characteristics of the health care service system and of potential users in a specified area, and moderated by health care related public policy and planning efforts. An elaborate typology of access, incorporating four pairs of access dimensions, is also derived. This atomization of the concept allows us to focus on specific aspects of the access to health care problem, and to develop precise outcome indicators Of health System performance for evaluative purposes. Further, it enables the ''cess concept and its pertinent dimensions to be put into proper perspective when assessing the health care access situation in a specific national or regional context. The relevance of the proposed access model and the typology to health care planning in general, and to spatial planning of health care service systems in particular, is also discussed.
This paper reviews the various indicators and criteria that are in use to identify rural and urban areas with shortages of primary care physicians, dentists, psychiatrists, or nurses;areas with medically under served ...
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In mid-1994, non-Kuwaiti expatriates constituted 61.7% of the total population of Kuwait (1.75 million). Despite this numerical majority, non-Kuwaitis exist as a social minority. Non-Kuwaitis may be grouped into three...
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In mid-1994, non-Kuwaiti expatriates constituted 61.7% of the total population of Kuwait (1.75 million). Despite this numerical majority, non-Kuwaitis exist as a social minority. Non-Kuwaitis may be grouped into three broad categories along ethnic/nationality lines into Bidoon (without nationality), Arabs, and Asians. The objective of this paper was to compare the relative accessibility of the various groups to health care services in Kuwait. The study is based on data collected as part of a survey of 2184 Emergency Room (ER) users in January-February 1993. All patients attending the hospital ERs between 7:30 am and 9:00 pm were interviewed about their reasons for coming to the ER instead of going to the primary health care (PHC) centres, as required. The major reason given was the low accessibility of the PHCs. Compared to Kuwaiti nationals, 92% of whom were registered at the PHC centres, only 62% of the Arabs and 39% of the Asians were registered. Multiple logistic regression of the factors in registration indicated that nationality was the most important reason for lack of registration, with Asians only about one-quarter as likely to be registered as Kuwaitis. Also, people who had been in Kuwait for shorter durations (<5 years) were less likely to be registered than the Kuwaiti nationals or expatriates who had been here for 10 years or longer. in the absence of registration at the PHC centre, the civil identification card (ID) may be used as a valid means to enter the health system. Among the Arabs and Asians, 22% and 29% did not have a civil ID card. Thus, for many expatriates, the hospital ER, which does not provide the necessary follow-up care is often the only source of health care available.
This study examined parents' expectations about seeking and obtaining mental health care. Using the Expectations of Mental Health Care survey, structured interviews were conducted with 235 parents with children be...
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This study examined parents' expectations about seeking and obtaining mental health care. Using the Expectations of Mental Health Care survey, structured interviews were conducted with 235 parents with children between the ages of 5 and 19;most were African American. Expectations were assessed in four areas: treatment effectiveness, provider/client relationship, accessibility of mental health services, and social and cultural factors, e.g., stigma. Parents reported a number of negative expectations, and black parents had significantly more negative expectations than white parents. The findings suggest that attitudes and expectations may influence parents' decision to seek mental health care for their child. Copyright (C) 2001 by W.B. Saunders Company.
Capitated managed care contracts for behavioral health services are becoming more prevalent across the country in both public and private sectors. This study followed the transition from a demonstration project for ch...
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Capitated managed care contracts for behavioral health services are becoming more prevalent across the country in both public and private sectors. This study followed the transition from a demonstration project for child mental health services to a capitated managed behavioral health care contract with a for-profit managed care company. The focus of the study was on the impact-at both the service system and the individual consumer level-pertaining to the start-up and maintenance of a capitated managed behavioral health program. A case study using multiple methods and multiple sources of information incorporated a program fidelity framework that examined micro to macro levels of program implementation. The findings of this study include the following: access to services decreased, the lengths of stay and average daily census in the more intensive levels of treatment declined, difficult-to-treat children were shifted to the public sector and ratings of service system performance and coordination fell.
Current differences in standards for allocating resources in the UK for, on the one hand, drugs and surgery, and on the other, chronic community and social care and social security lead to significant inequality. Usin...
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Current differences in standards for allocating resources in the UK for, on the one hand, drugs and surgery, and on the other, chronic community and social care and social security lead to significant inequality. Using a case study of hypothetical patients, it can be shown that adoption of new treatments, at high cost, to make marginal improvements in well-being would lead to much greater spending on some patients than on others with similar problems from different causes. Inequality occurs because society tolerates tighter constraints on community and social care and social security than on acute care and drug budgets for new treatments. Resolution of the inequality would involve establishing fairly the resources to increase the welfare of patients with different chronic diseases to some target level of welfare. However, this would make overt the current rationing of community and social services and demonstrate the low levels of welfare of many with chronic diseases. Governments concerned with lower taxation might prefer to avoid exposing such issues.
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