'Sustaining SSW in Community Health' project (2006-09)

In June 2006, The Bouverie Centre signed a service agreement for three years, to provide ongoing support to Community Health Services (CHS) to implement and sustain Single Session Work (SSW). This followed the rollout of SSW Training of 2004-2005 and the SSW Implementation Project of 2005-2006. A formal research project explored the uptake of SSW implementation and its impacts on service delivery. Outcomes of this research indicate that at least 64% of Community Health Counselling Services or individual counsellors have implemented SSW. This has resulted in significant impacts on client throughput and greater client access suggested by indications of reduced waiting lists. 

Last financial year (July 2007 - June 2008), the Single Session Work support package to CHS was expanded based on consultation with the field to include:  the provision of SSW, Family Focused Work and Clinical Supervision Implementation Consults to individual CHS; telephone and email support; SSW and family focused training ‘catch-ups,’ for those who missed out or those who were new to CHS; web-based information and practice-sharing.

SSW CONSULTATIONS

Single Session Work Implementation Consults have helped services overcome or address local impediments to implementation. Nineteen consults covering the areas of SSW, clinical supervision or family focused work, have been delivered to Community Health Services. The Bouverie Centre’s Community Services Team continues to receive expressions of interest for these consults.

SSW TELEPHONE AND EMAIL SUPPORT

The Bouverie Centre provides daily support via email, phone and fax to Community Health Services across Victoria, with a maximum response time of two working days. Besides providing support to services to implement SSW, the Community Services Team also answers questions regarding the other training programs and resources available to Community Health Service workers (i.e. Focus on Families, the SSW Implementation Parcel and Clinical Supervision Implementation).

SSW CATCH-UP TRAINING WORKSHOPS

Single Session Work ‘Catch-ups’ provided an induction program for new staff and ‘catch up’ training for staff who missed the initial training (2004-5). Between July 2007 and June 2008, The Bouverie Centre offered five two-day SSW workshops, and 43 Community Health Services workers completed the training.

SUPERVISION-OF-SUPERVISION GROUPS (aka REGIONAL PEER NETWORKS)

Some clinical supervisors were interested and eager to form peer support groups as a follow up to the Clinical Supervision Training in Community Health project from the previous year’s training (2006-07). Therefore, resources have been redirected to provide support for this initiative. Three Clinical Supervision networks were established, one of which continues to meet regularly. This group found various factors assisted the group’s sustainability, including having a designated ‘co-ordinator’ from the group, utilising an external facilitator, and having a written agreement of support from management.

All peer support groups have been able to access support by the Bouverie Centre’s Community Services Team, which offered:  a Bouverie consultant for each group's first meeting to help the members negotiate the terms of reference, the process and content of meetings, and other details relating to group process; a Bouverie consultant for four sessions per year to facilitate discussions about clinical and implementation challenges; and a 'Peer Supervision Group Starter Kit,' containing articles focused on peer supervision to help with start-up.

WEB-BASED INFORMATION AND PRACTICE SHARING

The Community Services Team is committed to providing relevant, useful, and up-to-date information and practice-sharing to the sector – to this end, there are Web pages on the Bouverie website devoted especially to supporting the Community Health Services. These pages currently include a variety of resources around single session work including audio interviews, dvd interviews with Moshe Talmon (Israel) and Robert Rosenbaum (USA), downloadable SSW documentation, flow-charts etc.

A previous initiative from the support plan was the development of a Web-based SSW survey for CHS workers to provide feedback on their experience and practice of SSW implementation. Eighty four per cent of the 116 workers who responded to the survey had completed SSW training. One hundred and eight workers reported that they had implemented SSW as an individual clinician or as part of a formal service initiative. The results of this Web survey are contained in the SSW implementation research report, submitted to DHS and available from the Bouverie Centre.

The final project report is available here.