Research Paper on UnitingCare Ballarat

Introduction

UnitingCare Ballarat offers a suicide intervention model after identifying the individual who might be at risk of committing suicide. The organization moreover, offer immediate safety and connect them with further assistance. The organization has a program named Karrung Foyer which is integrated to support young people aged between ages 16 and 25 years. The program provides housing for the homeless and those who are at risk of homelessness including both the adult and children (Communities of Respect and Equality, 2016). Moreover, the program motivates the young by engaging them and supporting their education as well as training program (Davies, Miss, Theol, & Theol, 2017). It targets the eligible young people mostly from the Grampians region where it engages them in education, training alongside offering employment opportunities which are services targeted at preventing future homelessness. The young ones stay in the Karrung homes for periods between one and two years (Communities of Respect and Equality, 2016). Young people accommodated within the program are taken through a series of support models where they are expected to stay within the units for an average of six weeks. The organization is funded through the family support program of the Department of Health and Human Services, and the fund is driven with to enable the organization to support vulnerable families (McLean et al., 2017). For instance, the financing program aims at assisting the vulnerable families to acquire skills of positivity thus can assist the children. In this way, the organization equip the families to act as an alternative pathway for guiding children.

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The Profile of UnitingCare Ballarat

UnitingCare Ballarat is a Human Service Organization which objectively operates to meet the human needs through interdisciplinary concept and knowledge. The organization is an agency of the Uniting Church and together with Ballarat Central Uniting Church the organization forms Ballarat Parish Mission. It focuses on prevention alongside remediation of problems and subsequently sustains a commitment to improving the general quality of life for children and the youths and sometimes addresses the problems faced by the adults (Communities of Respect and Equality, 2016). The organization is located in Australia within the Grampian region where the problem of housing is frequent. Within the region, the villages are vulnerable to mental problems, and they tend to suffer from housing problems and other disability issues (Davies et al., 2017). The organization is among the industries which promote improved service delivery systems by tackling direct services such as improved accessibility, coordination and accountability (Fildes etal., 2015). The organization is targeting nearly all populations including the young, adults and women. For instance, it provides refugee services to both women and children. It also addresses couples who are experiencing misunderstandings with aims of restoring peace within such relationships (Davies et al., 2017).

Among the services provided by the organization include the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) which is a social insurance scheme offered to people with disabilities, and it enables them to access the support necessary to enable them to live and choose what they need and also to participate as citizens of the Grampian community (Communities of Respect and Equality, 2016). Those who are eligible for the NDIS services are individuals with disability or permanent physical conditions which implies that they need support from other people or equipment (Fildes et al., 2015). Those who are aged under 65 years are also eligible for the service as well as those who reside in areas where the NDIS services are available. Finally, those who are permanent residents of Australia and those who hold special protected Visas are also eligible for the services (Davies et al., 2017). The organization also offers services and treatment for persistence and enduring mental illness. It, therefore, supports the patients to achieve long-term mental health services. This service is made available through the team of professionals who work together with the patients to monitor the treatment procedures (Fildes et al., 2015). Moreover, the team provide the patients with skills which equip them to be in a position to manage their physical and mental well-being. The health services for mental illnesses are facilitated through clinical care coordination and family involvement (Davies et al., 2017).

The organization also offers alcohol and drug treatment services which are aimed at delivering confidential service for those engrossed in alcohol and other drug concerns. The services on substance abuse are free and are targeted at developing a sense of control for the youths to manage substance abuse (McLean et al., 2017). The health services also incorporate supportive case coordination for people experiencing complex alcohol and other substances (Fildes et al., 2015). The organization also offers counselling services for people over 18 years who have been identified to be undergoing difficulties attributed to substance abuse (Davies et al., 2017). Along with counselling, the organization provide consultancy and support for professionals working together with individuals experiencing substance issues. The organization also provides psychosocial rehabilitation support to the youths with mental disorders through a 12-month program which is operated within the residential setting (Fildes et al., 2015). The major aim of the service is to empower the youths to shun the connections around the mental illness environment as they attempt to improve their personalities. The organization together with communities work together to enhance friendship, socialization, advocacy and hospitality (McLean et al., 2017). These services are managed through Do Care, and they address social isolation through Residential Health program to offer homes to homeless people.

Impact of Social Policy and Economic Frameworks on the Organization

Various economic policies such as New Public Management, metro-centric service delivery and planning influence the activities of the organization with the effects having positive and negative impacts on the organization. The New Public Management, for instance, has brought about new governance in which power is exercised in the management of the country's economic and resources for development (McLean et al., 2017). Moreover, the economic frameworks shape how public officials and institutions exercise power when providing public goods and services.

Advantages of the Economic Frameworks

The frameworks foster dialogue within the community thereby promoting the activities of UnitingCare Ballarat in its efforts to offer basic services to the vulnerable population. Furthermore, the frameworks encourage accountability and open governance in public services hence enabling the organization to offer its services transparently and through accountability (McLean et al., 2017). They also ensure a comprehensive legislative and regulatory operations and frameworks thus enhancing accountability and transparency of lobbying effective services to the vulnerable population as practised by the organization (Davies et al., 2017). These economic frameworks imply that most of the human service organizations including UnitingCare Ballarat will tend to merge or split and this is effective in improving the coordination in their operations hence quality services can be offered to the community members and moreover, the merging can encourage focus and specialization.

Disadvantages of the Economic Frameworks As Experienced By the Organization

With the introduction of the economic frameworks, the human services offered by the organization are faced with autonomous and independence thus increasing the possibilities of corruption and abuse of roles. Nevertheless, through the economic frameworks, the organization may fail and this attributed to the fact that networked governance, public-private partnership as well as collaborative government cannot survive without trust between the partnerships. The quality of service provision within the organization can, therefore, be affected by lack of skills, competence, and impartiality manifested within the officials (Davies et al., 2017). The economic frameworks especially NPM can is associated with decentralization which implies that the organization's managers will have more power and control to manage the service provided and this may lead to concentrating decisions. Subsequently, this could lead to centralized decisions making the process by the public managers' thereby neglecting decentralization in public operations within the communities (McLean et al., 2017).

NPM is also inappropriate for the public sector in which the organization operates since it has more complex goals as well as intricate. For example, it can make the organization prone to the political environment which is more turbulent as compared to the private sector. The economic frameworks are prone to contracting out, and this implies that the services provided by the organization may not be provided successfully. This is because as a result of contracting out, the vulnerable population characterized by unemployment and marginalization the local government may tend to perform the role of an employer as the last option which is a difficult undertaking throughout the contracting out.

Conclusion

UnitingCare Ballarat organization as one of the human service organization is very instrumental to the vulnerable population within Grampian in Australia. The services it offers are key and essential in reviving the status of such populations to ensure they get well. It brings together broken families as well as assisting drug addicts in knowing their purposes in life. It also gives mental care to the mentally affected patients as alongside counselling services to the youths to keep them in good tracks as expected by society. However, with the introduction of economic frameworks, the efficiency and performance of the organization are impaired. The organization, therefore, should be empowered by giving more opportunities to the locals to minimize bureaucracy.

References

Communities of Respect and Equality. (2016). A plan to prevent violence against women and their children in the Grampians Region. Retrieved from https://whg.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/CoRE-Plan-Document-2016-2020.pdf

Davies-Kildea, J., Miss, D., Theol, B., & Theol, M. (2017). The Salvation Army and the Social Gospel: Reconciling evangelical intent and social concern (Doctoral dissertation, Monash University). Retrieved from https://www.sarmy.org.au/Global/SArmy/Social/econnect/issue-117/The-thesis-The-Salvation-Army-and-the-Social-Gospel.pdf

Fildes, D. L., Westera, A. B., Masso, M. R., Gordon, R., Grootemaat, P. E., Williams, K., ... & Samsa, P. (2015). Evaluation of the Encouraging Better Practice in Aged Care (EBPAC) initiative.

McLean, K., Edwards, S., Evangelou, M., Skouteris, H., Harrison, L. J., Hemphill, S. A., ... & Lambert, P. (2017). Playgroups as sites for parental education. Journal of Early Childhood Research, 15(3), 227-237. Retrieved from https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1476718X15595753