Glynis Schultz, Executive Director, Community and Oral Health

It is encouraging to see that we are again back in Tier 2 of our COVID and Influenza Response Plan and experiencing a reduction in active cases and staff being away from work.

Please stay up to date with the regular Incident Controller’s message which details any COVID-19 changes you need to be aware of.

Locally, please continue to take the appropriate actions to keep yourself and your loved ones well and keep up the great work looking out for one another.

COH Staff Excellence Awards next steps

Our COH Staff Excellence Awards nomination process has now closed with around 70 nominations received (plus the 30+ monthly shining star winners we announced throughout the year).

Thank you to everyone who submitted nominations, our judges will go away over the next few weeks and work out our highly commended and award winners.

This year we will not be having a central awards ceremony but once the winners are ready to be announced I will be making time in my diary to get around to our facilities and teams to celebrate their success.

Please keep an eye out for the next COH Express which will detail all of the nominees and the reasons why they were nominated – this will be out early next week at the latest.

Also, keep reading my messages as I will be profiling in more detail all of the winners throughout September and October.

Funding announcement – Connected Communities Pathway Program

Thank you to all the staff across service streams who submitted applications for funding through the Connected Communities Pathway Program.

We will be working with you to understand how we can benefit from the innovative thinking that went into each application.

We have been successful in receiving funding for our Rapid Access to Community Care Program.

The Rapid Access to Community Care Program will provide fast tracked access via a Community Care Co-ordination Hub to Community Care as an alternative to hospital referral.

This will involve direct clinician to clinician referrals via phone from General Practitioners, Virtual Emergency Department and Queensland Ambulance Service seven days a week.

If the referral identifies that there is a need for additional assessment of the patient, then a clinician will provide this via telehealth or in the patient’s own residence within 24 hours of referral.

This new service will link patients to already established community-based services such as Post-Acute Care Service, Hospital in the Home, PHN Team Care Coordination program, Community Palliative Care and/or to rapid access outpatient clinics such as Diabetes.

Brighton Brain Injury pilot

Brighton Brain Injury Service (BBIS) was also successful in receiving 2022-23 Brain and Spinal Cord Injury Project funding to support the implementation of a pilot framework for additional assessments and interventions for people with prolonged disorders of consciousness.

This is a very exciting development as the BBIS service will be the first in the state to offer specialist rehabilitation services and therapies for people with the prolonged disorder of consciousness (PDOC) condition.

Quote to ponder

John Holmes said: “There is no exercise better for the heart than reaching down and lifting people up.”

Glynis Schultz
Executive Director
Community and Oral Health