Chairman of IFIC Australia Professor Peter McGeorge introduces our inaugural newsletter which will be published quarterly and will keep members, partners and colleagues up to date on all our IFIC news. Prof McGeorge is also a Consultant Psychiatrist at the Universities of NSW and Notre Dame (Sydney) and St Vincent’s Health Network.
Over the coming months and years, we are looking forward to sharing with our Australian partners and members, news of upcoming national and international conferences; workshops and events; and will update you on the progress of Australian projects, as well as share articles and references of relevance to the development of integrated care in Australia.
The first meeting of the IFIC Australia Partnership Committee was held last August and was well-attended. Work is now well underway to clarify the functioning of IFIC Australia and the Committee’s contribution to it. There’s obviously a lot of work to do, but for the latest information click here.
A fantastic conference was co-hosted by Children’s Health Queensland and IFIC in October 2017 (APIC1). Congratulations and thanks to all involved especially CEO Fionnagh Dougan and Frank Tracey, Executive Director of Community Services. The conference was a wonderful template for future events in the Asia Pacific.
October also saw the Transformers II workshop take place. It was organised by North Coast PHN (NCPHN) and supported by IFIC and was designed to seek and collate information about how NCPHN services should be developed and integrated with other local services.
This collaborative workshop involved staff from both PHN and IFIC, as well as community groups, consumers, carer advocates and the North Coast LHD. Thanks to Tony Lembke (Chair), Vahid Saheri (CEO), Bronwyn Thirkell and others for putting together such a creative and hospitable event. We’re looking forward to further collaboration developing services for consumers of the PHN service development.
Most recently, important activity has been initiated between the NSW Agency for Clinical Innovation and IFIC and will be followed up in March.
And, in late breaking news, the formative evaluation of the Central Coast Integrated Care Network has been completed, and the task of writing it up has begun in earnest.
Finally, a date for your diary, in March we will host our next meetings and workshops led by IFIC CEO Dr Nick Goodwin and other IFIC senior staff. Click here for more information.
All in all, rapid and exciting progress is being made by our fledgling organisation. Thanks to all involved. I look forward to our work and learning together in 2018.
In the meantime, please don’t hesitate to contact me about any matter relating to the Partnership Committee via email on peter.mcgeorge@gmail.com
Peter McGeorge QSO
Chair IFIC Australia Partnership Committee