SHIP tackles rising issue

Last week in Canberra, the Minister for Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs, Jenny Macklin, released the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare’s (AIHW) latest report. Published biennially, ‘Australia’s Welfare 2011’ reports on the latest national welfare services statistics and the factors influencing wellbeing in Australia.

According to the report, specialist homelessness services provided accommodation and other support to almost 220,000 people or one in every 100 Australians in 2009-10.*

Additionally the number of people and proportion of Australians seeking assistance has increased since the last report with females more likely than their male counterparts to use these services in all age groups except 65 and over. *

AIHW Director and CEO David Kalisch said that while Australians generally enjoy a good standard of living, several features of our society require the delivery of services to support those not doing so well.

‘Australia’s ageing population, its shifting geographic profile, changing workforce and education patterns, and developing trends in family structure, have all contributed to an ever-changing, varied, and complex society—one with welfare needs as diverse as its people’, Mr Kalisch said.

Tackling the diverse needs of client management in the homelessness sector, this year the Commonwealth, in conjunction with the States and Territories, commissioned and funded AIHW to develop a new system in partnership with Infoxchange Australia.

Since its launch in July this year, the Specialist Homelessness Information Platform (SHIP) has helped over 1,200 homelessness agencies to record client information including case notes, case plans and client goals through a highly intuitive user interface.

“The report will deepen our understanding of homelessness and the needs of the sector ensuring that we continue to develop the SHIP platform to best suit the needs of homelessness agencies across Australia,” said David Spriggs, General Manager of Online Services at Infoxchange.

The SHIP platform is based on Infoxchange’s Service Record System (SRS), SRS is part of the AppPac4nfp suite of applications designed to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the health, welfare and community sectors.

These applications specifically developed for the sector allow organisations to focus on service delivery without the burden of supporting in-house IT infrastructure and enables secure access from anywhere with an Internet connection.

All of the components of AppPac4nfp are available to eligible not-for-profit organisations at a significant discount from commercial rates.

For more information:

Australia’s Welfare 2011 - www.aihw.gov.au/australias-welfare-2011-in-brief

SHIP - www.aihw.gov.au/ship

AppPac4NFP - www.infoxchange.net.au/apppac

* AIHW 2011. Australia's welfare 2011 in brief.Australia's welfare no. 10. Cat. no. AUS 145.Canberra: AIHW.