Reflecting and Connecting for Our Health, Our Future: Flinders Island. Anticipatory Care Action Learning Project Final Site Report

Chronic illness is a major cause of ill-health and avoidable hospitalisations in Tasmania, and this burden is not equitably distributed. Chronic disease is linked with the social determinants of health: risk is reduced when people have reliable access to economic resources, secure and good quality housing, good diet, hygiene, health services, social networks and education. We need to reduce the risks for chronic illness and find better ways to manage existing conditions to keep people well. The Anticipatory Care (AC) Action Learning Project explored whether building a more effective local anticipatory care system could start to address this problem, in four Tasmanian sites. AC identifies who is at risk of developing an illness and aims to keep people well. Effective AC may reduce the need for expensive health and social services (Baker, Leak, Ritchie, Lee, & Fielding, 2012; Tapsfield et al., 2016).

This report documents the project’s aims, processes, activities, and findings for the Our Health Our Future (OHOF) on Flinders Island. We gathered qualitative data from 153 community members and service providers in the OHOF site.