About Toolkit

What is the Communication for Safe Care Project?

We are making healthcare services more accessible for people with communication support needs. We are working with Healthcare workers and people with communication support needs to co-design solutions to existing barriers.

Why are we doing this project?

An estimated 1.2 million Australians present with communication difficulties (ABS, 2015). Communication breakdowns in healthcare settings can result in errors, misdiagnosis, inappropriate treatment, and poor care outcomes.

Healthcare workers report high levels of compassionate care. They want to help patients with communication support needs, but often lack the knowledge and confidence to do so. Healthcare workers are often working in environments where patient-provider communication is not adequately resourced (Carragher et al., 2020).

Co-designing communication-accessible healthcare services will help both patients and staff.

People with communication support needs may:

  • Be better understood by healthcare professionals
  • Feel safer and more included
  • Have greater choice and control over their own healthcare

The project will enable healthcare services to:

  • Deliver safe, timely and high-quality care for people with communication support needs
  • Improve staff skills
  • Increase staff confidence and satisfaction

What are communication support needs?

Communication support needs may include difficulties at any point of the communication pathway: giving, receiving, processing, or understanding information. People with communication support needs may have:

Intellectual disability

Neurological injury

Autism

Communication disorders

Psychosocial disability

Sensory disability (such as blindness, low vision, hearing loss)

What is communication access?

Communication looks different for every person! Communication access means that everyone can get their message across and be understood.

We are aiming to improve communication between people and healthcare services. We are looking at this holistically from environmental design to day-to-day interactions between healthcare workers and consumers.

Who is involved in the Communication for Safe Care project?

The Communication for Safe Care project has partnered with four key NSW Health sites:

A metropolitan Emergency Department

A metropolitan Oral Health Service

A regional Oral Health Service
A regional Perioperative Service

Barriers and facilitators to communication

We gathered information about the barriers and facilitators for communication in healthcare services. We talked to people with communication support needs, carers, healthcare workers and support staff.

The main areas to focus on improving were:

  • Awareness and attitudes towards disability
  • Consumers not being asked if they have communication support needs
  • Physical environments not being communication accessible (e.g., too much background noise or bright lights)
  • Poor exchange of healthcare information
  • Healthcare worker knowledge or training in disability

How are we creating change?

The Communication for Safe Care project aims to:

  • Deliver safe and quality healthcare
  • Understand local context and healthcare environments
  • Build current and future healthcare worker capacity and skills
  • Transform the culture of healthcare services

Developing solutions

We have completed workshops with healthcare workers, consumers, and senior leaders at each target site. In these workshops, the project team supported participants to work together and brainstorm solutions to improve access to healthcare for people with communication support needs.

The project team are developing these solutions and working with the target sites to implement change. Stay tuned for updates as we progress towards a more inclusive healthcare environment.

Acknowledgements

We would like to acknowledge the original funding application authors: Dr. Katherine Kelly, Lisa Maxey and Prof. Sue McAllister.

We would like to also acknowledge members of the Project Advisory Committee, which includes people with lived experience of communication disability and industry representatives.

Project members — NSW Health

  • Dr. Katherine Kelly – Disability and NDIS Coordinator, South Western Sydney Local Health District
  • Ms Merryn John – District Manager, Disability, Western NSW Local Health District
  • Ms Nicole Chapman – Project Manager, South Western Sydney Local Health District
  • Ms Alyssa Walter – Project Officer, Western NSW Local Health District
  • Ms Arianne Tan – Project Officer, Western NSW Local Health District
  • Ms Lana Micallef – Project Officer, South Western Sydney Local Health District
  • Ms Rae Anne Carorasan – Clinical Specialist, South Western Sydney Local Health District
  • Ms Lisa Maxey – Disability Strategy Manager, Western NSW Local Health District
  • Ms Lisa Michelle – Project Manager, South Western Sydney Local Health District
  • Ms Fiona Murphy – Project Manager, South Western Sydney Local Health District
  • Ms Katherine Shannon – Clinical Specialist, Western NSW Local Health District
  • Ms Karri Kneebone – Clinical Specialist, South Western Sydney Local Health District
  • Ms Rebecca Karmas – Project Officer, South Western Sydney Local Health District
  • Ms Molly Banks – Project Officer, Western NSW Local Health District

Project members — University of Sydney

  • Prof. Sue McAllister – Project Advisor
  • Prof. Sarah Dennis – Professor of Allied Health, Sydney School of Health Sciences
  • Dr. Iqbal Hassan – Research and Evaluation Officer
  • A/Prof. Gillian Nisbet – Director of Partnerships and Placements, Sydney School of Health Sciences
  • Dr. Elizabeth Bourne – Program Director of Master of Speech Pathology & Work Integrated Learning Placement Innovation Lead
  • Dr. Robyn Johnson – Health Professions Education Lead (Speech Pathology)
  • A/Prof. Anya Johnson – Deputy Head of Discipline, Work and Organisational Studies, Sydney Business School
  • Dr. Ju Li Ng – Deputy Director for Master HRM and IR, Work and Organisational Studies, Sydney Business School
  • Prof. Leanne Togher – Professor of Communication Disorders after TBI & Senior NHMRC Research Fellow
  • Dr. Elise Bogart – Lecturer (Neurogenic Language Disorders and Language), Sydney School of Health Sciences
  • Dr. Rachael Rietdijk– Lecturer, Speech Pathology, Sydney School of Health Sciences
  • Dr. Melissa (Liss) Brunner – Lecturer, Speech Pathology, Sydney School of Health Sciences
  • Dr. Emma van der Schyff, Research Fellow, Sydney School of Health Sciences, The University of Sydney