The Business Case
Task
Further background: Youth assigned to a headspace case worker may subsequently be admitted to the Emergency Department (ED) of the local regional hospital. Currently there is no requirement for the ED staff to notify the headspace case worker when a client has been released. Sometimes case workers are notified, but often not. It means that days and even weeks can transpire before a case worker becomes aware of that release. In the meantime the young person tends to return to the environment and circles of influence that led to the suicidal behaviours in the first place, without the coping and support mechanisms that a case worker can provide.
Outputs should include the following:
A draft Project Vision.
This sets out the business case, and summarises other aspects of the project, including ‘needs and features', and other product requirements.
Functional Requirements Specification.
This should involve a Use Case Model, backed up by short use case descriptions. There should be at least one full use case description for a critical core use case; this could be an Emergency Department admission, or inter-agency communication, such as between a public hospital psychiatrist and a headspace case worker. (Identifying critical core use cases allows us to address the issue of project risk).
Please note: Additional information will be released and available on Interact. This is to mirror what often happens in real life. It will further build up the case study. Online submission via Turnitin is required for this assignment. Details will be provided by your subject lecturer in the class or by notification in the subject site.
Rationale
This assessment has been designed to allow students to test and demonstrate their topic understanding related to:
describe the context of an information system;
compare the range of requirements gathering techniques;
describe and apply feasibility study methods and approaches;
develop system requirements models2 Additional Information
The following are some example questions that could have come from Assessment 1 that would be addressed to stakeholders. These are sample answers and can be used for reference.
• Which professionals require access to the system?
• This is complicated to answer. On the one hand the more professionals have access the better. However, a psychiatrist might be reluctant to fully describe their views if they think the information will be accessible to non-professionals. Also an adolescent (client) might be reluctant to allow police full access to their record; it might be ok for police to know the adolescent has a mental health issue and is receiving professional help, but no more. Ie, the level/extent of access by various parties needs to be considered.
• The list of possibilities is very long. It could be a general practitioner (GP), a psychologist, a social worker, the headspace (or other) case worker, a psychiatrist, a sexual assault team, community mental health unit, mental health nurse, triage nurse at the emergency department, an occupational therapist (eg if the adolescent has a learning or other disability), police (eg if drug behaviours have led to criminal activity), drug and alcohol workers, parents, wider family, friends, trusted community members (especially in the case of Indigenous adolescents), school counsellors (if the adolescent is still at school), hospital mental health unit, and more.
• Some of these are public and others private. Some are available in person and others via telehealth services. In regional and rural locations it is often difficult to access the required professional help in person, and therefore telehealth access may be provided to professionals in Canberra, Sydney, or elsewhere.
• If a professional chooses to enter information into the system, that is effectively a form of implied consent. Professionals may choose to enter information in non-clinical terms, if for instance, they know that family carers (non-professionals) will have access; they might then record what they think other people need to know.
• What reports should be generated eg related to patient monitoring?
• Rather than rely on human intervention to notify a headspace case worker that a client has been discharged from the ED, a discharge could be an event that automates such a notification.
• Can a patient see his/her own record (at least up to some level of access)?
• Under privacy legislation, the adolescent involved should have access to their record and others only if that adolescent gives permission. Permission has to be given in writing and that permission authorisation must be accessible. How it is done is not certain. Eg, a headspace case worker could get permission for the information to be shared amongst professionals as a once off process, or each individual professional (or other person) could seek separate written consent. A blanket permission system is not likely to be helpful. Eg, an adolescent might be willing for their GP and community mental health team to see the records, but be reluctant to allow their mum access.
• Should the system record patients' relations and friends details?
• Community support is very important in recovery from mental illness, especially for Indigenous youth. Therefore this is an important consideration. Perhaps limited access is needed by relations and friends. Perhaps it may be helpful to professionals assisting the young person to know about trusted relations and friends.
• What are the functional roles for each professional?
• Medication is typically the responsibility of the GP.
• School counsellors would be involved if the youth is still at school.
• What is the general workflow when dealing with a client?
• Again this is difficult to answer. Most of us could understand the role of a GP or a case worker. But interagency processes are less obvious. One example is what happens when a crisis situation arises for the adolescent and they go to the emergency department (ED) of their local hospital. First a triage nurse sees that person and then would refer the youth to the mental health unit in the hospital. There the team would make an assessment. The person could be admitted, or discharged. If admitted they go to the inpatient unit and at some later point (possibly days) they would be discharged. When discharged they are referred to a community mental health team (mental health nurses, psychologists, social workers), who then contact any other people with whom the young person has been involved (if they know about those others), such as the headspace case worker, or their school counsellor.
• Will all users have a reliable internet connection?
• In regional centres such as Wagga Wagga or Bathurst, yes. But not in rural and remote locations.
• Are 'we' part of headspace or a private developer doing this for headspace?
• This has implications with regard to skills in the organisation, understanding the current system, etc. Headspace do not have the in-house skills and personnel for this. The funding will need to cover costs of outsourcing the development and also the ongoing maintenance, sustainability of the system.