Developing an integrated GIS approach to health and human services
Hamish Robertson, Nick Nicholas, GA (Tony) Broe
Ageing Research Centre and Prince of Wales Medical Research Institute and Faculty of Medicine
Contact Email:   Hamish.Robertsonsesiahs.health.nsw.gov.au

Health and human service delivery represent a complex and confusing field of human activity. The range of providers, their funding sources and the variety and location of clients are so great that there is no detailed picture of these sectors available. This has important consequences for the quantity and quality of care provided to various groups in the community. In a time when social capital has become a serious policy concern, planners and service providers can’t adequately identify or document the range of service providers, voluntary organisations and care providers already at work in their communities. Yet, the technology to do this already exists. The potential of develop and monitor key human service sectors can be built with geographic information systems technology and key policy analyses conducted with the aid of an evidence-based information architecture. This paper will show how the authors have used GIS technology to not only build a database of health and human service infrastructure but also to link this to key population characteristics and trends. The result is an expanding and dynamic picture of health and human services infrastructure, workforce and population characteristics that can be used to model emerging problems and rational, resource-based solutions.

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Robertson_41.pdf

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