Primary school students help tackle homelessness after hospital

Pri­ma­ry school stu­dents in south­ern Ade­laide are help­ing tack­le a com­plex health sys­tem chal­lenge through a part­ner­ship with the Com­mis­sion on Excel­lence and Inno­va­tion in Health (CEIH).

Stu­dents at Flaxmill School in Mor­phett Vale are tak­ing part in the South Aus­tralian Depart­ment for Education’s Prob­lem-Based Learn­ing (PBL) pro­gram, which helps pri­ma­ry school stu­dents devel­op crit­i­cal and cre­ative think­ing skills by explor­ing real-world issues.

Work­ing with the CEIH, stu­dents have been asked to explore an impor­tant question:

How can we help peo­ple expe­ri­enc­ing home­less­ness access the sup­port they need after leav­ing hos­pi­tal, so they don’t need to return?

Peo­ple expe­ri­enc­ing home­less­ness often face sig­nif­i­cant chal­lenges after leav­ing hos­pi­tal, mak­ing it hard­er to access ongo­ing sup­port and increas­ing the risk of return­ing to hospital.

The chal­lenge forms part of the CEI­H’s broad­er Home­less­ness to Health project, which aims to improve health­care expe­ri­ences and out­comes for peo­ple expe­ri­enc­ing homelessness.

Stu­dents take on the challenge

Over the next 10 weeks, stu­dents will explore the issue, devel­op poten­tial solu­tions and present their ideas to help improve sup­port for peo­ple expe­ri­enc­ing home­less­ness after leav­ing hospital. 

Leanne Davis, Project Man­ag­er, Clin­i­cal and Con­sumer Part­ner­ships, is help­ing guide the stu­dents and said some of the best ideas come from look­ing at a prob­lem through a dif­fer­ent lens. 

“We’re excit­ed to see how stu­dents approach this chal­lenge, build their under­stand­ing of the expe­ri­ence of peo­ple expe­ri­enc­ing home­less­ness and help devel­op new ideas to improve sup­port after leav­ing hospital.”

Improv­ing sup­port after hos­pi­tal can con­tribute to bet­ter con­ti­nu­ity of care, few­er hos­pi­tal read­mis­sions and improved health and well­be­ing for some of the community’s most vul­ner­a­ble people.

By part­ner­ing with stu­dents through the PBL pro­gram, the CEIH hopes to encour­age new ways of think­ing and inspire the next gen­er­a­tion of prob­lem solvers.