Refining Program Theory for a Place-Based Integrated Care Initiative in Sydney, Australia

Abstract

Background Introduction Savic and colleagues have described integrated care as a "holistic care model" that encompasses individual medical, physical and mental health needs, and includes social issues and environment [1]. Place-based interventions (PBIs) are initiatives that use complex partnership networks to implement multiple-component interventions aimed at changing the social and physical environment within a targeted location. Such an approach to integrated care creates a coordinated approach between multiple healthcare providers such as primary care, social services and hospitals, and supports community services. The PBI approach both connects and aligns the different sectors and organisations [2]. Effective integrated care strategies for primary-secondary interface include factors such as communication and information exchange, interdisciplinary teamwork and shared care guidelines and pathways [3]. Integrated care is thus founded on the interconnectedness between social and health issues of an individual and communities. There are many approaches to the design and implementation of integrated care. A co-location model, through PBIs, is one of them. PBIs co-locate different services and activities such as legal, health, social and housing within the same physical space. The extant literature supports the PBI approach for several reasons. Firstly, it is local physical and social

Integrated Child and Family Hub models for detecting and responding to family adversity: protocol for a mixed-methods evaluation in two sites

“…Emerging evidence exists for outcomes of Hub models of care. For example, the Healthy Homes and Neighbourhoods (HHAN) initiative in Sydney, New South Wales (NSW), is a multi-component cross-agency care coordination network with a centralised Hub nested within a broader place-based initiative and has been shown to increase service access for families experiencing adversity 29 30…”

A cluster randomised effectiveness-implementation trial of an intervention to increase the adoption of PAX Good Behaviour Game, a mental health prevention program, in Australian primary schools: Study protocol

“…Participants will then be asked to identify what strategies worked to achieve this aim. For each identified strategy, the participant will be asked to reflect on the four causal propositions that explain how the strategy brought about its intended change: Context (C), Intervention (I), Mechanisms (M), and Outcomes (O), abbreviated to CIMO [ 45 , 46 ] (see Fig. 4 ).…”

Formulating Initial Programme Theories of the Healthy Homes and Neighbourhoods Integrated Care Initiative

“…The explanatory models were developed using the CIMO heuristic tool, which facilitated our theory development. Those efforts have been published in peer-reviewed journals [ 1 12 27 28 29 ]. This step examines these different explanatory models developed at the various stages of the HHAN initiative development.…”