Start an ECHO

Samuel Gray: Flexibility and innovation in application of the Echo model. Abraham Maslow famously quoted, if the only tour you have is a hammer, you tend to see every problem as a nail. This concept referred to as Maslow's Hammer or Law of Instrument refers to an over-reliance on a familiar or favorite tool. As Echo continues to evolve, should we look at the model as the hammer, or do we need to collectively reframe it as something more than that?

The Echo model is designed to improve care integration and health outcomes for consumers through an approach that's innovative, scalable, and accessible for professionals. A primary principle of this model is learner centricity. Having sessions tailored around the participating professionals as the key focal point, thinking beyond curriculums of content, session structure, and method of delivery are significant influencing factors in participant engagement and capacity to attend.

Project Echo functions as a structured model, but lends itself to innovation and flexibility. Much like the health systems we operate in. There are nuances that need to be considered and adjusted for as solving health issues is evidently not a one size fits all approach. What works for one group or system issue is not necessarily going to work for another.

Uh, echo Networks serve as biospheres or microcosms within a broader system and need to be addressed through targeted approaches that suit the needs of the specific population. So what do echo variations look like in practice? Uh, adaptations of the standard echo model already exist in a number of formats.

A recent publication Project Echo implementation Guidance from the Field reports, examples of echo adaptation in the US from Colorado, Southern Illinois, university, Oregon, and the University of Utah formats such as learning series without case presentations, moderated discussions. Prerecorded lectures followed by live sessions, focused on group questions, cases, and discussion, knowledge and skill focus sessions with optional communities of practice, featuring didactics and case discussions between sessions and module based curriculums with a single topic for discussion over multiple sessions, aligning cases specifically with the topic at Children's Health Queensland.

We also run Echo Networks in a number of formats. Uh, we have continuous and ongoing communities of practice focused solely on practical case discussions. Cohort echoes that run a short blocks, so five sessions run on a weekly basis, uh, which have a set endpoint and often repeat again over the course of a year with a new cohort, uh, and regionally focused groups that look at a systems issue in a specific geographic area.

Tailoring sessions to this group before shifting to a new region and running sessions through a different lens. Aside from the universal umbrella of echo, these model variations all share another commonality. Uh, they've considered the suitability of approach for a real or conceptualized audience. And applied innovation and flexibility to create sessions that truly reflect participant need.

The key premise and take home messaging here is that echo as a model is not necessarily prescriptive. It doesn't need to be, and in fact, functions better when there's opportunities to adapt based on participant need. Utilize the Echo model as a framework, but understand there's freedom to operate outside the bounds of a standard session structure.

Conceptualize your audience. Undertake learning needs, assessments, compare approaches, and constantly evaluate and do all of this with purpose and intent. Ask questions like, is there a genuine need for this Echo network? Who is the audience and what drives them? Would the proposed network help to integrate care and connect professionals in a way that's meaningful for them?

Would professionals make the effort to join this network purely out of interest? Or is there a need to leverage additional components that appeal to the target group? And is the format of a standard echo going to work for this group? Uh, and what could possibly work better? Community health is a puzzle with an abundance of practical solutions.

Very little can be achieved when trying to push a square peg through a round hole. But tailoring solutions based on the need is going to yield effective results that address specific issues. The Echo model is a tool within the broader health system that when utilized effectively, can make a real and significant difference on a large scale.

The echo model is not their hammer, but rather the toolbox that we can access to address a problem in a way that's suitable for the issue and the participant need.

So immersion training is essentially a three day workshop where the Superhub or Children's Health Queensland provide information and resources to make it an easy process to establish and then run an echo hub and your own organization. So with our Primary Health Network, we had funding to implement Project Eko and we were lucky enough to have enough funding to train various staff within our organization.

And that was really useful in the fact that we could train staff that then could establish their own hubs with different topics with emotion training. They also provide resources because they've been around for so long and they've helped establish so many equity hubs. They've got so many tips as well. They were incredibly kind and generous in providing information to help me get prepared even before motion training so that I had all of those critical steps undertaken.

And then once we completed immersion training, we were essentially right to go. We were set up and we could roll it out within two weeks. Now, I just think the experience that we've had has been absolutely invaluable from start to finish. It's been absolutely incredible to have the Children Health Queensland Super Hub team by her side walking in parallel on that path.

To help implement the ACOs every single time. Not just one echo, every echo there. It was really pivotal to have the support of the children Health Queensland's super hub was really what made the process happen. It took the fear out of the process. They were there to answer all the questions to give that support. So you're not doing this in isolation.

You've got an incredible team that help you along the way. Even, even to this day. I think that's what really helps to embed it in a successful way. You could fit an echo into every organization simply by doing the immersion training, working out how it's going to work, and getting exactly the same model implemented and having people bring their own case studies, whatever that might be.

The benefits to the PHN and to those who participate in an echo hub are huge. What we're finding is that collaboration provides that collegial support that's needed to improve case management for each of the patients coming through the door So it's been this two way directional relationship where everyone has learned more from every echo that somebody has learned more.

It's really, really powerful. Project Echo is also great, and the fact that it can help a clinician to identify a way that they can overcome a challenge and they can apply that within the workplace essentially in the next day. Another benefit for Project Echo is for the Primary Health Network to be well known within our region that we cover.

So by providing Project Echo, we're not only connecting clinicians and those workers who are on the ground subject matter expert, but we're also getting our name known and where it gets being known as that powerhouse that can connect and support the key stakeholders within the alcohol and other drug region, as well as the health sector in general. So I believe Project Echo will help other organizations one for getting their name known to being able to connect with appropriate stakeholders.

And three, just being able to work in an environment where we can all just collaborate with each other. And I don't believe it just has to be helpful either. I believe health can also work alongside other areas like education. So I think Echo definitely opens the grounds up for different areas that maybe were siloed before to come together and to connect and work together and improve health outcomes for all