Improving Pathway to Good Health clinical practices through clinician and consumer perspectives

The multi-disciplinary Pathway to Good Health Clinics provide health assessments for children and young people who have entered statutory care on Child Protection orders. We have been delivering this clinic for over a decade, but previously insecure funding has hampered any quality assurance activities. Clinic processes and practices have not been reviewed since the clinic commenced and there was minimal co-design at the commencement of the clinic. Funding has been obtained for a state-wide rollout of out-of-home care assessment clinics and the establishment of the Victorian Centre of Health Leadership for Children in Care at RCH. As we begin our role in providing statewide clinical leadership for such clinics, it is time to ensure that we are implementing services of high quality that are trauma-informed and meet the needs of all involved. This project will use health services research methodology to evaluate current practices within the Pathway to Good Health Clinic, and to co-design improvements. It will compare current practice to national recommendations and explore the perspectives of all key stakeholders to identify potential improvements for future implementation. It aims to incorporate the voices of children and young people to ensure that we are designing and delivering services that best meet their needs.

The quality improvements directly arising from this project will benefit our RCH Pathway to Good Health Clinic directly.  The project will also develop and test a model of clinic evaluation that can be applied to other clinics within our department and beyond at RCH. My role as Paediatric Lead within the Victorian Centre of Health Leadership for Children in Care provides an opportunity to disseminate the findings to the clinics beyond the hospital and broaden the impact. For me personally, the fellowship will develop my health services research skills to move from understanding challenges within healthcare to designing, implementing and testing solutions.