Arthritis and Osteoporosis Western Australia Background - Case Study Example

Table of Contents Arthritis and Osteoporosis Western Australia Background Arthritis and Osteoporosis Western Australia is one of the world’s known health organizations involved in the provision of healthcare to patients suffering from arthritis and osteoporosis with their associated complications. Formerly, the organization was referred to as the Western Australian Arthritis and Rheumatism Foundation. The organization was inaugurated as one of the non-governmental organization in the year 1972. The efforts of changing the organization to become one of the non-governmental organizations were led by scholars including Drs. Evan Owen, Roger Dawkins and Physllis Goathcher (Arthritis, p. 1) The organization’s name was changed from the previous the Western Australian Arthritis and Rheumatism Foundation to the current name Arthritis and Osteoporosis Western Australia in the year 1991. One of the organization’s achievements after the changing of its name is the opening of the Resource Center in the year 1994. The organization provides other services alongside the healthcare including gymnasium, board rooms for holding seminars and hydrotherapy services. Additionally, the organization offer support services to various population groups in Australia. The organization is dedicated towards providing preventive, curative and management of muskuloskelton diseases reducing pain and suffering among the affected (Government, p. 7). Furthermore, the organization is dedicated towards supporting researches related to musculoskeleton issues. This includes researches on the possible effective treatments which can be used to cure musculoskeleton diseases. Thus, the organization has established a Rheumatology and Musculoskeleton Research Unit at the University of Western Australia. Other research units include the Goatcher Clinical Research unit which was constructed in the year 1997 (Arthritis, p. 2) Internal and External Environment Internal Environment The organization’s internal environment comprises of an executive director (Ric Forlano) who oversees the general activities being undertaken in the organization. The Executive director is assisted by an assistant executive director who supervises the managers and staff under him. The assistant executive director reports to the organization’s executive director on the overall performance and actions needed to be executed to enhance organization’s performance. Additionally, the organization has other levels of paid managers manned with the responsibility of overseeing the activities at the lower levels in the organization. These include the health, education and research program manager, coordinator of educative events, community service manager, administrative officer and officer responsible for overseeing the community projects. Fundraising department comprises of the donor liaison manager, development manager and fundraising coordinator. Finally, the organization has a finance department manned with the responsibility of regulating the use of funds and funds generation in the organization. The department is headed by a finance and administration manager, accounts manager and maintenance manager. The success of this organization depends on the culture which its members have adopted. This includes the culture of responsibility, accountability, job autonomy, respect for each other dignity and accountability. External environment External environment refers to factors outside the organization which can influence the organization’s performance. One of these factors is the political factors. Australia enjoys stable political environment. This has contributed to the excellent improvements in the nature of the healthcare provided by this organization. Political stability influences the country’s state of economy. Due to the Australian political stability, the economy has been fairly stable providing the organization with opportunities to improve their overall performance and productivity. Technological advances in the healthcare sector forms part of the external environment influencing the organization’s performance. The technological advances in the healthcare system have led to the organization embracing the need of adopting current technological appliances in providing their healthcare services. This includes the equipment used in the provision of rehabilitative and curative services. Therefore, this has influence the quality of the healthcare being provided to the consumers of the organization’s services (Government, p. 7). Social factors influence the usage of the service provided by the organization to its consumers. This includes the organization’s geographical location, organizational culture, and the organization’s target population. Thus, the organization has established core mission, vision, goals and objectives which reflect its dedication to providing services which meets the consumers’ social needs. The organization recognizes the value played by the legal factors in influencing its performance and the organization’s image to the outside world. Thus, the employees are held legally responsible for their actions and it operates under rules and regulation set by the Australian health authority. The organization’s major sources of income include donations, grants from the government, fundraising and non-governmental grants. (Arthritis p. 2). Organization’s mission, vision, goals and strategies The vision is bringing quality life to all the Australian people with arthritis and osteoporosis to eliminate their suffering, the organization’s mission is to ensure that quality healthcare is provided to those suffering from arthritis and osteoporosis to promote recovery and eliminate their suffering. Additionally, the organization’s mission is to provide its citizens with support, dignity, education to all people suffering from arthritis and osteoporosis. Another organization’s mission is coming up with interventions which will radically restrict the growth of osteoporosis and arthritis in Australia (Government, p. 5). The organization’s objective is to reduce the incidences of effects associated with osteoporosis and arthritis in Australia. Through these, the organization will achieve its goal of ensuring that the Australian population is free from arthritis and osteoporosis related effects and complications. Therefore, various strategies have been developed in the organization to ensure that the above core objective, goal, mission and vision are achieved (Arthritis, p. 2). One of the strategies adopted by the organization to enhance the achievement of the above stated mission, vision, goal and objectives is the introduction of community based services in Australia. These services equip the community members on the basics principles of preventing, identifying and managing osteoporosis and arthritis related symptoms. Thus, the organization provides community based exercise programs where community members diagnosed with these conditions or having bone trauma attend for their regular exercising (Arthritis, p. 4) Additionally, the organization uses education and community engagement as a strategy for achieving the organization’s strategic plans. This includes incorporating the use of the community speakers to provide the community with the necessary information related to osteoporosis and arthritis. The community speakers provide the community members with valuable information related to the self- management techniques and overview information related to arthritis. Therefore, this leads to community capacity building and sustainability of the chosen programs (Government, p. 5). Community engagement programs such as the establishment of community support groups are another strategy adopted by the organization to create awareness and capacity building among the community members. The support groups allow the community members share their experience on issues related to osteoporosis and arthritis, socialize to make friends and provide social support through encouraging the participants on the conditions outcomes. Furthermore, the organization partners with other stakeholders involved in the provision of healthcare services. This includes partnering with other health related organizations and non-governmental organization to enhance the quality of healthcare being provided to the victims of osteoporosis and arthritis (Osteoporosis, p. 6). Hospital development and employee empowerment has been adopted as a strategy for enabling the organization realizes its core objectives. This includes encouraging free consultation between the healthcare providers and the consumers of the healthcare services, recognition of the healthcare professional achievement and provision of in service education to the healthcare providers, this help the organization achieve its strategic objectives since both the consumers of the healthcare services and the healthcare providers are empowered through the adoption of these interventions. Communication interventions have also been used in the organization as a means of creating public awareness and achieving its desired goals and objectives. This includes the use of community services announcements through the media, min print media, regular magazine, direct mail, and social media (Arthritis, p. 3). Key issues and challenges facing the organization from client’s perspective One of the key issues facing the organization from the client’s perspective is lack of adequate knowledge among the population on the various issues related to osteoporosis and arthritis. The organization is facing a challenge of inadequate funding from the government. This is likely to influence negatively the nature of healthcare to be provided to the consumers. Additionally, the organization faces a key challenge of coming up with interventions which will make the government and funding bodies realize that osteoporosis and arthritis are some of the serious conditions which can affect one’s life adversely. This is because funding organizations and the government perceive osteoporosis and arthritis as not part of the serious conditions affecting the Australian population. However, the organization is likely to face various issues which might impact on its performance in the next three years. These include lack of adequate funding from the responsible stakeholders, lack of recognition of arthritis and osteoporosis as some of the serious conditions affecting the Australian population and a substantial increase in the aging population which is likely to increase the demand of musculoskeleton related services. One of the challenges facing the organization currently is the inadequate funding from the government to meet the increasing demand of the organization’s services. Additionally, the organization faces a challenge of its need to increase the amounts of funds required for research purposes to enhance the quality of the healthcare being provided. The organization also faces the challenge of increasing its membership base among the Australian population. In the next three years, the organization is likely to face the challenge of reduced public financial support secondary to the increasing value of the Australian dollar. The organization is also likely to face a challenge of having adequate abilities to influence decision makers at all levels of the government and corporate. Ways in which I will work with the organization One of the ways in which I will work with this organization is through engaging in research activities. This includes researching on the various issues related the osteoporosis and arthritis, management and coming up with the most effective curative measure to this conditions. By doing so, I will be assisting the organization to achieve its core aim of engaging in research on various issue related with these conditions and their treatment. Additionally, I will dedicate my time to work with various communities in providing them with the required health education on issues related to osteoporosis and arthritis. This will be important since it will enhance community capacity building and empowerment. I will work in accordance with the organizational culture. This include upholding the organization’s behavior of respecting other healthcare professionals and clients’ dignity, behaving in a trustworthy manner and maintaining workplace accountability through using interventions such as consulting and proper documentation of my actions and decisions. Furthermore, I will advocate for the organization’s members and the clients’ rights. This is to ensure that the clients are provided with the best quality healthcare and also the healthcare providers are provided with best services by the responsible stakeholders. Additionally, I will also engage myself in the organization’s fundraising activities to increase the organization’s income. I will do this by creating awareness among different populations using methods such as the internet and the social networks. I will also encourage more individuals to participate in the organization’s volunteer programs to build and equip them with the necessary skills. Finally, I will use my information and technology skills to maintain and improve the organization’s website. My available budget The available budget to be used for performing various organizational activities is $515,000. One of the activities covered by this budget estimate is promoting social media campaign to increase public profile of osteoporosis and arthritis. This will account for approximately $10,000. The budget will also cover advertising campaigns aiming at promoting the organizational online course to rural areas and social line services. This will account for an approximate value of $5000. Additionally, the budget will cover fundraising event that will generate a profit of $50,000 to the organization. This requires $25,000. Furthermore, $100,000 of the budget will be used for awareness campaigns aimed at dispelling the myth that osteoporosis and arthritis is a disease associated with the old people in the society. $250 will be used for developing sponsorship for arthritis and osteoporosis which will raise beneficial funds to the sponsor. $25,000 will be used for attracting people to give regularly to the organization. Finally, $ 100,000 will be used to conduct student awareness campaigns at different schools on the importance of healthy joints and bones. Works cited Arthritis and Osteoporosis WA (2011). Osteoporosis Model of Care: Musculoskeletal, Diabetes & Endocrine, Falls Prevention and aged care health networks. Retrieved from: http://www.healthnetworks.health.wa.gov.au/modelsofcare/docs/Osteoporosis_MOC.pdf. Accessed on 3rd Sept, 2013. Government of Western Australia (2012). Health and Wellbeing in Western Australia: Overview and Trends. Retrieved from: http://www.health.wa.gov.au/publications/documents/HWSS_Child_Overview_and_Tren ds_2012.pdf. Accessed on 3rd Sept, 2013. Osteoporosis and Arthritis (2012). Monitoring national priority areas in WA. Retrieved from: http://www.health.wa.gov.au/publications/documents/Arthritis%20and%20Osteoporosis. pdf. Accessed on 3rd Sept. 2013. Read More