“There are three medications, taken from the pharmacy ... it's very expensive. ... There are times, I have to make a decision whether it's medication, or food, or whatever...”

(Migrant carer of a husband with complicated diabetes)

“[Consumers] often express their concern that professionals aren’t talking to each other, aren’t linking up... the question they often ask me is ‘why don’t these people ever speak to each other and co-ordinate my care?’”

(Nursing Manager)

“Getting to an appointment [takes] the whole day ...If I spend half a day somewhere, it’s half a day of my life gone and I think ‘Well, do I bother?’ For what I’m getting out of it, do I need to go?”

(Participant with CHF)

“There’s a huge gap between being in hospital and being at home... it’s almost as if you’re on a different planet, you get one set of things happening in hospital and then you’re discharged and it’s as if you’ve been set adrift in a boat without oars and an anchor...”

(Wife carer of a man with COPD)

• About
• Research Team
• How Can You Be Involved?
• Publications
• Snapshots of SCIPPS findings
  • Comorbidity and the Reform Context
  • Financial Pressure and Economic Hardship and the Reform Context
  • Indigenous Health and the Reform Context
  • Self-Management and the Reform Context
  • Chronic Illness Policy Health Reform Integration and Coordination

The Menzies Centre for Health Policy was awarded a $3.5 million National Health and Medical Research Council grant in 2006 to research cardiovascular disease, diabetes and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. The Serious and Continuing Illnesses Policy and Practice Study (SCIPPS) will examine obstacles in the health system to optimal care for patients with, or at risk of contracting, these conditions and the people who care for them.

A copy of the Department of Health & Ageing's media release on 21 March 2006 can be found here by clicking here. A copy of the Menzies Centre for Health Policy's media release can be found by clicking here.