During the last 10 years we have been working with the current Chronic Care Service Reform Programs to bridge the gaps and provide a pathway to move care from current best practice to evidence based care.

Under the new arrangements all people with chronic conditions and complex care needs are eligible to participate in Australian Service Reforms. These include Medicare Plus, Allied Health, Self Management, Australian Better Health Initiatives and the service models for chronic care. These reforms provide opportunities for consumers to participate in a range of proactive management and lifestyle prevention programs.

We have participated in the piloting of services and are monitoring outcomes for improvement of health and community services. Just like for diabetes and arthritis we have demonstrated that good health outcomes are possible and that the evidence based chronic condition management approaches adapt well for Fibromyalgia, ME/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, complex persistent pain, MCS and other like syndromes. This adaptation provides a framework to address service problems and gaps equally for all people with chronic conditions.

Pivotal in this model of care is an accurate diagnosis with early intervention towards tailoring a monitored and managed care plan. This person centred integrated care provides outcome focussed community level treatments.

We have developed an Australian Integrated Partnership Service Model (Powell et al, 2008) that can be used as a pathway to bring poorly understood chronic conditions into Australian Services i.e. Integrated Team Care, Medicare Plus, GP Plus/Super Clinics, Allied Health Care Plans, Chronic Disease Management & Lifestyle Prevention Initiative
[Link_here]

This service model contains 8 facets or core steps consistent with Stanford and Flinders Program of Care
[Link_here]