From the Founder ...

It is with a heavy heart that I write this, my last Infocast as Executive Director of Infoxchange Australia. But my leaving the organisation after twenty-three years is not the reason for the heavy heart because I leave in the knowledge that the team of people who do most of the work are exceptional and committed to a strong and innovative future.

My heavy heart comes from the death of a man on the street in St Kilda last weekend. The man was homeless, and I believe the support systems that more often that not are successful in ‘propping up’ the most vulnerable and disadvantaged on this occasion failed. And a failure that results in the death of someone should be seen as totally unacceptable.

Infoxchange Australia was established with a $2,000 grant to develop a centrally coordinated emergency bed vacancy register that could be accessed online. In the early days the service was actively embraced by those needing access to information on where crisis beds were in the housing sector. This included the police, social work and emergency department staff in the major hospitals and a broad range of other welfare workers. Unfortunately the system was never totally embraced by the housing sector itself. In 2007 the Victorian Office of Housing ceased the funding for the service and indicated it would develop another way of managing information on bed vacancies. Clearly, the death of the fellow in St Kilda suggests that there is still no adequate way of finding a bed for the night in the crisis accommodation system, which in today’s ‘connected’ world is a blight on us all. The online service Infoxchange provided for the coordination of bed vacancies is still available and all that is required is for the agencies to use it.

I do not wish to suggest that the agencies dealing with the issue of homelessness are not dealing with a significant problem. Quite the opposite in fact. Infoxchange has developed online case management and e-referral tools that are used by some 1,500 agencies across Australia and we are now able to get an appreciation of the work that is done to maintain a civil society by the health and welfare sector through a high-level analysis of usage data from these service coordination tools.

In the seven months since July 2011, almost 1.4 million case notes have been recorded and some 30,000 case plans have been developed. This is work being done primarily by agencies working with people who have housing-related problems. We have a very significant social issue in relation to housing and the flow-on effects of not having a secure, affordable roof over your head are also significant.

I am very proud of the work that Infoxchange has initiated so that we are able, not only to understand the issues, but also to have quality service coordination tools available to ensure that people in need are less likely to fall through the cracks. However, as witnessed through the death of the homeless fellow we are still a long way from being perfect. The ball is very much in the hands of the health and welfare sector who need to be more willing to embrace technology to deliver a more just, fair and equitable society. This will be done through shared online client management tools and moving away from ‘my client – your client’, to an understanding that there is a person who needs a service and many agencies have a part of the solution. Technology can help deliver this.

It has been an enormous privilege to have worked in an organisation like Infoxchange, with the ability to be innovative and agile.

I am deeply aware that whatever I have been able to achieve, it was not an individual effort. Infoxchange has a dedicated Board of Directors all of whom contribute significant time in a voluntary capacity. And the Infoxchange familiy, who show outstanding loyalty and commitment to the vision of technology for social justice, have been remarkable and are a key factor in the success of the organisation.

Infoxchange has a very strong, passionate and clever leadership team so the future is very bright. Next week Peter Walton will be joining that team as the new CEO of Infoxchange, so the enterprise is in very good hands.

I thank you for your support and wish you every success.

Best wishes,

Andrew Mahar
Founder Infoxchange Australia