Sharing Health Care Initiative (SHCI)

Over the next four years the Sharing Health Care Initiative will expand the range and reach of quality evidence-based chronic disease interventions to support self-management in Australia.

In this section:

The World Health Organisation’s framework for innovative care of chronic diseases identifies self-management support as part of the building blocks for effective health care organisations. It also states that health care workers are crucial in educating patients and families about self-management and importantly that health care workers must support patients’ self-management efforts over time.

It is estimated that currently around 2.5 million Australians have a chronic disease. By 2016 this will rise to 3.5 million. Evidence in Australia and overseas suggests that self-management programs can assist people with chronic diseases to improve their quality of life by equipping them with knowledge, skills and confidence to better manage disease related problems.

The Sharing Health Care Initiative (SHCI) is designed to improve the health related quality of life for people with chronic diseases, to encourage people to use the health care system more effectively and to enhance collaboration between individuals, their families, carers and health care professionals in the management of chronic disease.

The SHCI will expand the range and reach of quality chronic disease interventions to support self-management over the next four years and to continue to build the evidence-base on the efficacy of chronic disease interventions to support self-management available to people with chronic diseases, and to their carers and families.

One part of SHCI will make research grant funding available through the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) to fund research into both chronic disease-specific and more general interventions and supports, with a particular focus on harder-to-reach population groups in the community.

Innovations in Chronic Disease Self-Management Research Grants Program

In partnership with the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC), the Department of Health and Ageing and the Department of Veterans’ Affairs will offer grants to fund research aimed at expanding the range of evidence-based chronic disease interventions to support self-management in Australia. The primary focus will be on the harder-to-reach population groups in the community including:

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples;
people from culturally and linguistically diverse populations;
people experiencing socio-economic disadvantage; and
children and adolescents.

The Department of Veterans’ Affairs is seeking proposals which specifically target the veteran population. These proposals should reflect the demographics of the veteran population which is a relatively elderly one with 75% of treatment beneficiaries being 75 or older.

Proposals are being sought for practical applied research projects to identify, develop and test, innovative chronic disease interventions to support self-management for use in the Australian context.

It is anticipated that the range of research projects funded will allow consideration of chronic disease interventions to support self-management across urban, rural and remote settings in Australia. In addition to community-based initiatives, work-based, home-based and hospital-based programs could be considered. Proposals may include chronic disease interventions to support self-management involving the innovative use of technology in their delivery. Proposals may include disease-specific or non-disease-specific chronic disease interventions to support self-management.
While not exhaustive, it is expected that research projects would systematically assess new or existing, but previously untested, approaches to chronic disease interventions to support self-management and their capacity to impact on the person’s (their carer or family):

effectiveness in managing their chronic disease;
sense of well-being;
appropriate health service usage; and
health outcomes.

It is recognised that the measurement and attribution of the third and fourth criteria above may be difficult and impractical in some circumstances.

In addition to the identification, development and testing of chronic disease interventions to support self-management, research could consider:

identifying enablers and barriers impacting on the person’s (their carer or family) cultural, age related or circumstantial, decision to seek out and participate in the intervention, or prevents them from doing so;
assessing elements of the intervention which contribute most to improved outcomes – interest in this area is in an improved understanding of core principles (if any) that are common to effective chronic disease interventions to support self-management and the comparative advantage of disease-specific or non-disease-specific approaches;
identifying the elements of effective chronic disease interventions to support self-management that make them suitable for the target population group; and
assessing system application and sustainability of the proposed initiative – that is how the intervention could be incorporated into existing health service or community service delivery arrangements in Australia. top of page

Applications

Applications for grants under the Innovations in Chronic Disease Self-Management Research Grants Program have now closed.

Assessment

An initial assessment of all applications will be undertaken by the NHMRC in accordance with their usual peer review processes. The highest ranked applications may be offered NHMRC Project Grant funding. A subsequent assessment against the three supplementary questions of the remainder of applications acceptable to the NHMRC will be undertaken by the Department of Health and Ageing (or the Department of Veterans’ Affairs, as appropriate).

The Department of Health and Ageing (or the Department of Veterans’ Affairs, as appropriate) will make decisions regarding which of these applications will be funded. With respect to these decisions, the Department of Health and Ageing (or the Department of Veterans’ Affairs, as appropriate) reserves the right to:

reject all or any application for funding under the Innovations in Chronic Disease Self-management Research Grants Program;
reissue the call for participation in the Innovations in Chronic Disease Self-management Research Grants Program;
withdraw the call for participation in the Innovations in Chronic Disease Self-management Research Grants Program at any time;
enter into further negotiations concerning any application for funding under the Innovations in Chronic Disease Self-management Research Grants Program with any applicant or organisation as it sees fit.

Appeals

Appeals will only be considered against process issues and not against the Department of Health and Ageing’s (or the Department of Veterans’ Affairs, as appropriate) decisions, ratings or comments.

Management

Contractual arrangements for grants decided by the Department of Health and Ageing (or the Department of Veterans’ Affairs, as appropriate) identifying milestones and key deliverables will be established with each successful applicant; and
Research projects may establish their own Management Committee to ensure appropriate consumer and other stakeholder engagement.

The National Evaluation of the SHCI Demonstration Projects

Between 2004/05 and 2007/08, the SHCI tested, through a series of demonstration projects, a range of chronic disease self-management models that could be suitable for use within the Australian health care system.

The National Evaluation of the SHCI Demonstration Projects 2005 showed:

key learnings and a detailed discussion of the outcomes of the Demonstration Projects;
improvements in the majority of indices including health status and increased symptom control;
reduced GP visits and overnight hospital stays;
major changes occurred within the first six to eight months and were sustained; and,
consistent improvements arose involving active involvement by health professionals and GPs.

If you experience difficulty in accessing any of the above information please contact pacdweb@health.gov.au
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