Our partnerships extend our capacity to create a better home care system for all Australians.
Silverchain provides community care services across Australia in partnership with our clients, as well as governments, primary health networks, local health districts, retirement communities, private companies, and hospitals and health services. We also collaborate with research and innovation partners and universities. These partnerships extend our capacity to create a better home care system for all Australians.
In 2023-24 Silverchain and Queensland University of Technology (QUT) commenced a research partnership to explore what influences a person’s decision to receive palliative care at home. With funding provided by Silverchain, PhD student Norah Elvidge’s research at QUT will help determine what the barriers are to accessing the level of palliative care needed for people to die comfortably at home. Norah’s research coupled with data and insights gained from of Silverchain’s longstanding community palliative care program in Western Australia has potential to inform health care policy across the sector nationally.
With the support and generosity of our donors, Silverchain is shaping the future of care in Australia. In 2023-24, we partnered with our donors to fund smart glasses technology to bring enhanced care to people across the country, no matter where they live. Thanks to our donors, 22 pairs of smart glasses have been purchased and six services are now using them, including palliative care, hospital in the home, aged care and specialist nursing programs. More than 120 Silverchain care providers and nurses have now been trained to use smart glasses to improve client care.
Collaborating and working with people who are our consumer representatives came into focus this financial year with the realignment of our consumer advisory committees in each state to become a National Consumer Advisory Body. As a national organisation that prides itself on providing high quality care that is safe, personal, effective, and connected, establishing a national consumer voice allows Silverchain to better plan, implement, and evaluate our services to ensure we continue to deliver on our mission to create a better care system for all Australians.