Efficiency is usually associated with being cost effective. Maybe quality is compromised or we lose the luxury of the nice like-to-have rather than need-to-have things. But the aim is to minimise wasted effort or resources.
Yet when it comes to providing support for people in need, it’s rarely a simple linear process that fits the efficiency equations. Sometimes the silos and streamlining create far more inefficient systems in the long haul.
Short symptom-focused medical appointments risk missing the broader context and potential underlying conditions. Assessment processes sliced off from treatment delivery make people tell their story over and over again because no form could represent their experience as well as they could. Treating pieces of people as if they weren’t attached to a whole life can leave us trapped in a cycle of endlessly repeating interventions that have no long term impact.
More holistic beginnings may take longer at first, but save time and lives down the track. Stories that may seem peripheral turn out to hold vital clues later on. Links and connections across services bring more puzzle pieces together.
True efficiencies in systems come from engaging the whole person rather than trying to tidy isolated details into an elegant but unrealistic flow chart. And that means building in flexibility to accommodate what’s needed rather than what was prescribed before the person turned up.
Helen Mentha 