LIPs provide the foundation for a set of collaborative activities, including:
- undertaking a collaborative process of decision making through a series of deliberative processes (including forums). In IMPACT, deliberative processes were used for decision-making within the LIP governance structure but also in collaboration with community members regarding key decision points. Therefore, the deliberative processes outlined in Section 2 – Deliberative Processes need to be adapted to reflect the social and cultural reality of the context and the participants;
- characterising the local context;
- identifying the local population’s accessibility needs related to CBPHC and the most vulnerable subgroups;
- combining local knowledge with evidence emerging from empirical research to select innovative models of care;
- implementing and adapting organisational interventions;
- evaluating the impact of these interventions on access to primary health care for the selected vulnerable populations; and
- engaging in a multi-level developmental approach to evaluation.
The IMPACT Reality
In IMPACT, collaboration was informed by community engagement. Activities were consistent with community-based research approaches and learning occurred throughout the research process. Often, this required us to repeat certain activities based on what we learned in subsequent steps. For example, the outcomes of deliberative dialogues with stakeholders demonstrated the need to collect additional information about the local context in order to better characterise accessibility needs within the population.
community-based primary healthcare
groups whose demographic, geographic, economic and/or cultural characteristics impede or compromise their access to community-based primary health care services
