Why Juniper’s clinical care partners are critical in your care

Bridging the clinical and the care

The clinical care partner role makes the most sense once you know the two roles sitting either side of it. On one side is the care partner, who coordinates a customer’s supports and keeps everything ticking along. On the other are the registered nurses, the clinical experts delivering the hands-on care. The clinical care partner bridges the two, keeping the clinical picture connected to everything else going on in a customer’s care.

“As a clinical care partner, we handle the clinical side of things, which is related to the RN, and then we do the care management, which is related to the care partner,” Mary said. “So, the two fuse together, and our role bridges that gap between their RNs and their care partners.”

When a nurse is out on the road and wants a second opinion on something, the clinical care partner is who they call.

The role also reaches outside the immediate team. “Our role also involves us liaising with allied health and external providers,” Mary said. “So we can talk to occupational therapists, GPs, specialists, whoever we need. We can liaise with these people and bring the team together.” From there, the care plan is kept up-to-date, so the needs of the customer are reflected.

The gap the role came in to fill

The role grew out of a need for further clinical oversight, particularly for customers who don’t have a nurse attached to their care. In particular customers funded by the Commonwealth Home Support Customers Programme that aren’t eligible for Registered Nurses to be part of their supports

Even without a nurse in the picture, the duty of care remains with Juniper. Mary explained that a support worker is often the first to notice when something isn’t right. “A support worker will identify a risk, and that’s when it’s escalated to us, because the duty of care is still ours.”

Assessments are often where that oversight starts. A clinical assessment is a thorough health check, a full look at a customer’s conditions, medications, mobility and any risks, to make sure nothing’s been missed.

“The clinical assessment picks up gaps,” Margritha said. “We might do an assessment of a customer who’s already been seen by various people, and then we identify that they’ve got a falls risk, and extra things that we can refer on through their care partner.”

“We want to make sure the needs of the customer are reflected in the care plan and the support we’re providing,” Mary said.

“Through assessments that we’ve conducted, or that nurses have conducted, we’ll generate care plans that might be a bit more in depth,” Margritha added. “Because we’ve got more experience, we might see gaps in care that need to be covered.”

Why it matters for the customer

Whilst customers don’t always encounter Juniper’s clinical care partners directly, it is the customer who feels the difference. When a concern is picked up early, a risk is managed before it becomes a crisis, or the right person is brought in to help, the care stays ahead of the curve, and small things are sorted out well before they grow into something harder to fix.

When a customer stays safer, more comfortable, and more in control, it means staying independent in their own home for longer, and often growing more capable along the way.