Winner: Keeping People Healthy Award
Vaccination coverage is below recommended guidelines among those living in residential aged care facilities (RACFs), increasing risk of hospitalisation, death and disease outbreaks. To improve coverage, this project targeted 4 recommended and funded vaccines for South Eastern Sydney Local Health District (SESLHD) RACF residents: COVID-19, influenza, pneumococcal and shingles.
Barriers to vaccination were first identified via surveys and interviews with in-reach geriatric teams, general practitioners, RACF staff, residents and their families across 90 SESLHD RACFs. Findings included difficulty accessing and tracking resident vaccination histories, difficulty finding vaccination providers, a lack of simple or translated vaccine information and complex consent processes.
This resulted in creating tailored action plans, vaccination trackers, online consent forms and introducing staff education sessions. Changes in vaccination coverage following these interventions varied between vaccines, with a median of 8.2% for COVID-19; 4.4% for pneumococcal; and 20.8% % for shingles.
Meet the other finalists for the Keeping People Healthy Award.
The 2025 Keeping People Healthy Award is proudly sponsored by The University of Sydney.
