Children in SAAP : a brief analysis of the national data collection

Consistent with the theme of this edition of Parity, the following article highlights the number of children in the Supported Accommodation Assistance Program (SAAP) and the services provided to them. The data used is published by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW), the national body responsible for SAAP data collection. Despite the limitations of information provided by official statistics, the aim in the following is to explore the national information provided by the annual collection of statistics by SAAP agencies.

Visualising a state-wide patient data collection : a case study to expand the audience for healthcare data

This paper describes the application of existing and novel adaptations of visualisation techniques to routinely collected health data. The aim of this case study is to examine the capacity for visualisation approaches to quickly and e ectively inform clinical, policy, and scal decision making to improve healthcare provision. We demonstrate the use of interactive graphics, fluctuation plots, mosaic plots, time plots, heatmaps, and disease maps to visualise patient admission, transfer, in-hospital mortality, morbidity coding, execution of diagnosis and treatment guidelines, and the temporal and spatial variations of diseases. The relative e ectiveness of these techniques and associated challenges are discussed.

Last drinks: a study of rural emergency department data collection to identify and target community alcohol-related violence

The present study summarises the methodology and findings of a pilot project designed to measure the sources and locations of alcohol-related harm by implementing anonymised 'last drinks' questions in the ED of a rural community.

A pilot, multisite, randomized controlled trial of a self-directed coping skills training intervention for couples facing prostate cancer : accrual, retention, and data collection issues

PURPOSE: To examine the acceptability of the methods used to evaluate Coping-Together, one of the first self-directed coping skill intervention for couples facing cancer, and to collect preliminary efficacy data. METHODS: Forty-two couples, randomized to a minimal ethical care (MEC) condition or to Coping-Together, completed a survey at baseline and 2 months after, a cost diary, and a process evaluation phone interview. RESULTS: One hundred seventy patients were referred to the study. However, 57 couples did not meet all eligibility criteria, and 51 refused study participation. On average, two to three couples were randomized per month, and on average it took 26 days to enrol a couple in the study. Two couples withdrew from MEC, none from Coping-Together. Only 44 % of the cost diaries were completed, and 55 % of patients and 60 % of partners found the surveys too long, and this despite the follow-up survey being five pages shorter than the baseline one. Trends in favor of Coping-Together were noted for both patients and their partners. CONCLUSIONS: This study identified the challenges of conducting dyadic research, and a number of suggestions were put forward for future studies, including to question whether distress screening was necessary and what kind of control group might be more appropriate in future studies.