Community Health Nursing

Community Health Nursing (CHN) Services

About our Directorate:

Acute and Extended Care in the Community offers a variety of health services including:

Palliative care
Wound care
Catheter management
Hospital in the Home (HITH)

We also deliver the Aboriginal Chronic Care Program (ACCP) to improve health outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

The COPILOT program supports older adults to stay out of hospital by providing urgent clinical assessments and care in different community settings.

Our Goal is to care for clients in the community, offering personalised support with their health needs. By doing this, we hope to reduce preventable hospital visits, planned admissions and readmissions to hospital.

Our Mission is to deliver safe, high quality and effective healthcare to the south west Sydney community.

Our Team:

Medical (Doctors)
Nursing (general and specialist)
Allied Health (e.g. Physiotherapy, Occupational Therapy)
Allied Health Assistants
Aboriginal Health Workers and Practitioners

Our Services:

The services we currently offer are listed in the table below.

We deliver care from and to community health centres, homes, workplaces, residential aged care facilities, support accommodation, and hospitals (where appropriate).

Service	Details
Acute and Extended Care Ongoing care for health issues that are not an emergency	Catheter management Care for Cellulitis, Deep Vein Thrombosis or Urinary Tract Infections Managing for chronic disease Patient and carer education Wound care Support for Residential Aged Care Facility clients
Hospital in the Home Care in the comfort of your home to keep you healthier and out of hospital for longer	Providing intravenous therapy (injections) and antibiotics Drain management Respiratory care Acute surgical wound care
Palliative Care Nursing Support for end-of-life care and patient wishes to die at home	Carer support Bereavement support Planning for future medical decisions End-of-life care at home Management of symptoms and pain Connecting with other nurses and services
Aboriginal Chronic Care Program Support for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people with a chronic health condition	Education and information Help to set and work towards achieving health goals Connecting with other health services Linkages to other services as needed e.g. Centrelink, Housing
Community Older Persons Intervention and Liaison Outreach Team Helps keep older people at home and reduce hospital visits	End-of-life care and planning Fractures Help to manage malnutrition (poor diet) Help to manage cognitive decline (memory loss, confusion) Help with bowel and bladder issues Help with taking lots of medications Pain management Preventing falls

To access Community Health Nursing (CHN) services, you must:

Live in south west Sydney (refer to map)
Have a General Practitioner (GP/doctor)
Have a safe home environment and access to a telephone

We can support you if:

You have wound/s that need nursing care after leaving the hospital
You need care at home for things like IV antibiotics, infusions, or surgical drain maintenance
You need palliative care at home
Need help managing catheters
You are Aboriginal and have a chronic condition
You are over 65 (or 50 if you're Aboriginal), live in aged care, supported housing, or at home, and need urgent help to avoid going to the hospital in the next 48 hours. This is part of the COPILOT program.

How to Get in Touch:

Community Health Nursing (CHN) teams work from 7:30am – 8:00pm, 7 days a week.
To make a referral, please contact Triple I. They are open from 7:00am – 10:00pm, 7 days a week.

Fax: (02) 4621 8799

Phone: 1800-455-511

eMR Referral Forms emailed to: SWSLHD-TripleI@health.nsw.gov.au

Next Steps:

After CHN accepts the referral, we give the client or carer a call for an initial assessment. We ask questions to understand the level of care needed and decide how often home or clinic visits are required. It's important to note home visits are based on clinical need. In most cases, clients will need to visit a community health centre to receive care.

Community Health Centre Locations