pdf The Floresco Centre service model evaluation final report

Background: QCMHR’s evaluation of The Floresco Centre

The Floresco Centre was established in late 2014 by a consortium of four non-government organisations (NGOs), including two mental health support providers, a disability support provider, and a tenancy advice and advocacy service. The consortium, led by Aftercare Inc., intended to operate it as a ‘one-stop’ mental health service hub for adult residents of Ipswich and surrounding areas. Located within the Greater Brisbane metropolitan area, to the west of Brisbane city, this service area comprises a mix of urban and rural communities, and includes large areas of relatively high socioeconomic disadvantage.

The Queensland Government funded the consortium, through Aftercare, to deliver a suite of community-based psychosocial support service types at the Floresco Centre, including personalised support, group support, mutual support and self-help, and family and carer support. As well as colocating for delivery of these service types, the consortium worked with several other local health and community service providers to encourage the co-location at the centre of a range of clinical and non-clinical services relevant to the needs of adults with mental illness and their families and carers. It also employed a number of other strategies to support service integration at Floresco and achieve better outcomes for people with mental illness.

These included:

• shared processes and systems — a single intake and assessment process, a single care plan, a shared client information system, a single practice manual of policies and procedures, and a single brand name
• collaborative governance through a Governance Committee comprising representatives of the four NGO partners, the local public mental health service, and several other local community service providers.

What did the evaluation involve?

QCMHR conducted a three-year mixed-methods evaluation, with the aim of assessing the effectiveness of the service model while also investigating its implementation, including the barriers to, and enablers of, service integration at the Floresco Centre, and opportunities for improvement. We included both process (formative) and outcomes (summative) components in the evaluation design.

For the process component, we analysed data collected primarily through semi-structured interviews with Floresco staff and other key informants; additional data were sourced from meeting observations, documents, and Floresco clients.

Four key questions guided this component of the evaluation:

1. Was an integrated service model implemented at the Floresco Centre as planned?
2. What were the barriers to effective service integration?
3. What were the key enablers of service integration?
4. How could the Floresco service model be improved to achieve better outcomes for clients?