Innovation and Consumer Directed Care: Identifying the challenges.

Our aim was to report clinician and researcher observations about the practical difficulties with achieving the articulated objectives of Consumer Directed Care (CDC). The methods used were as follows: identification of key client community services issues through analysis of qualitative data related to a PhD project; review of the summary of these issues by the supervising academic; presentation of the issues to five clinicians involved with a community service clinical trial; verification of the findings through discussions with a senior community service provider. There is anecdotal evidence that the current overlay of CDC in the existing community-based home services sector for people who are older will continue to prevent its effective implementation. The existing culture and underlying philosophies related to this sector maybe unable to support the level of innovative change required. Research is needed into how the stated objectives of CDC can be achieved in Australia and how this can best be managed.