Integrated Care Requires More Than Just Health Service Integration

Why Integrated Health Care?

Life has become so hectic today that almost no one in the world exists who can stop to count the many things they are blessed with.

Health is one of the most undervalued blessings. People appreciate health only when it is lost because they realize they can no longer enjoy life in any way they want to. In illness they learn that getting health back takes a lot of time and money. Sometimes they learn the hard lesson that some ailments cannot be treated completely in order to restore previous health. It is only in illness that people realize that health really is the most important aspect of all life.

It is therefore wiser and important to take care of health very carefully and at all times to prevent illnesses. Becoming health conscious and consciously managing health is the key to a long happy life.

How does a person gain and maintain good health? This can be through proper care, improved eating habits, healthy diet regimes, an active lifestyle, minding the mindset and managing feelings. It is all about balance between physical activities, emotional health, psychological health, stress management, diet, and relationships, to name a few.

Many people might think that integrating health can be an easy and a one stop solution by opting for health service integration. However, this is not the case as it requires much more than those services too.

What Is Integrated Health Care?

There might be many people who do not know what integrated health care means. In simple words, it is collective health care in which both physical and mental standards are taken care of. This is done by collecting information from all health care professionals that have dealt with a patient.

Integrated health care is successful because it does not focus only on the immediate problem in isolation. Rather, integrated health care focuses on all the areas that may be affected by the illness or that may have contributed to the illness. These may include psychological problems, physical problems, emotional problems, stress at work, difficult relationships, etc. As a result of considering everything, it takes less time and cost to regain health.

The health care part is not the only area that is important. Health insurance and medical aid play a major role in integrated health care. The Australian government provides cover for health but this shouldn’t be the sole responsibility of the government towards its people Companies and organizations must also provide health care cover for their employees, and that cover must be enough for integrated health care. That way the private sector will help in the evolution of integrated services at different hospitals.

Allied services should also offer integrated services with better opportunities for the people.

Three factors have been identified which may contribute to the success of integrated services if properly implemented. These are:

1.     Allied services should be more rigorously involved in integrated health care services by

providing a range of services that are accessible to people through different options.

2.     Non-government organizations and the private sector should set up greater integrated health care systems, and provide management and support facilities.

3.     GPs should also be involved in the same process to ensure proper implementation of the integrated health care system, and the provision of high quality services.

Health and disease linkage is so important that all three factors mentioned above must come into play to assist the government. The great need for all sectors to participate is supported by some of the following facts.

·        A national survey showed that 35% of people with a mental disorder had used a health service and 29% consulted a GP within the 12 months before the survey. Besides this, 20% of the people in Australian suffer from mental disorders which remain unidentified unless in-depth or integrated health services are initiated.

·        Mental illnesses are the third leading cause of the disability burden in Australia, accounting for an estimated 27% of the total years lost due to disability.

Greater effort is required to identify the issues that need to be addressed. This is only possible when more steps are taken to improve health than just using integrated health services for it. The facts speak for themselves. More needs to be implemented in addition to integrated health services. And whatever is put in place must help the nation to meet its goals accurately and efficiently.