Country SA PHN Annual Report 19/20 3
Chief Executive Officer Report
“As well as the specific challenges thrown at us in the past year, CSAPHN has continued with business as usual in commissioning, monitoring and reviewing the range of services we commission across all of rural SA.”
It is clear that this past year has been an unprecedented challenge for Country SA PHN (CSAPHN). It has been an unprecedented year of challenge for all businesses and the community, our partners, providers of service and stakeholders. The elephant that has blundered into and consumed the ‘room’ has of course been the advent of the COVID-19 crisis. This crisis has dictated our activities this past year and will continue to do same throughout the next period and almost certainly beyond. The COVID-19 emergence has created a public health event, unparalleled in recent times, which will impact public health and community thinking for a generation. CSAPHN has responded to the crisis throughout, aiming to be an exemplar of good community practice and with the needs of our community at the front of our minds. Our year commenced with continuation and in some applications, the expansion of activities in common with preceding years. Our focus being to improve upon services commissioned for mental health and general health activities and other activities aligned to our mission for improving system integration and coordination, as well as General Practice and other provider support. Our 2019-2020 reporting and 2020-2021 annual planning deliverables were achieved, and the Christmas break taken. However immediately upon the commencement of the year, in
the first week of January, we were required to respond to the bushfire emergencies in the Adelaide Hills, Kangaroo Island and the Upper South East. While we have been accustomed to a bushfire response in the summer of a number of the preceding years, the span of the activity this year was greater. The Commonwealth directed funds and required activities and principally our mental health team, responded to planning and commissioning needs within barely a week to a fortnight time frame, recruiting a community project officer and directing funds to providers. Mental Health services were expanded into increased activities in each region and community forums led to grant funds being made available for community support and resilience. As this activity played out it was clear that a significant public health event was approaching and ahead of the perceived demand and using knowledge gained over time, we began positioning ourselves for a response, the style and scope of which we had no real way of determining. In March with the declarations of national and state emergencies and following an invitation to join with SA Health in their response to the potential and early realities of the COVID-19 crisis, the CSAPHN split its organisation into two functional platforms; a COVID-19 response and a Maintenance of planned activities team.
