Commission on Excellence and Innovation in Health

Working with consumers

The consumer voice helps us understand the consumer experience, and co-design services to improve the health experiences and outcomes of South Australians.

The consumer voice is important to us. We are committed to providing the opportunity for consumers of healthcare services to share their voice and experiences to help drive the planning, design and delivery of healthcare services in South Australia.

The CEIH also works closely with other organisations such as Health Translation South Australia and Local Health Networks to support consumer engagement across the health system, and we strive to continually improve how we support the voice of consumers in health.

How we engage with consumers

Statewide Clinical Network consumer representatives

Each of our eight Statewide Clin­i­cal Net­works includes mem­ber­ship from con­sumer rep­re­sen­ta­tives. We work col­lab­o­ra­tive­ly with con­sumers, who share their voic­es and health­care expe­ri­ences to help us under­stand the con­sumer expe­ri­ence, inform project design, dri­ve change, and improve health­care out­comes for South Aus­tralians in each of the Net­works’ eight clin­i­cal specialties.

For the lat­est news and project updates from our Net­works, see Statewide Clin­i­cal Net­works.

Consumer-led Community of Consumers

Our Com­mu­ni­ty of Con­sumers brings togeth­er the Clin­i­cal Net­work con­sumer rep­re­sen­ta­tives to pro­vide a stronger voice for con­sumers. The group sup­ports The CEIH by ensur­ing our engage­ment is mean­ing­ful, effec­tive, and helps guide The CEIH pro­gram of work. The Com­mu­ni­ty of Con­sumers pro­vides a con­sumer-led sup­port net­work, where best prac­tice, bar­ri­ers to suc­cess and areas for growth and improve­ment can be shared.

Most recent­ly the Com­mu­ni­ty of Con­sumers pro­vid­ed valu­able input into a Cur­rent State Review of Con­sumer Engage­ment at CEIH which will be instru­men­tal in shap­ing the future of con­sumer engage­ment at the CEIH.

For more infor­ma­tion, see Com­mu­ni­ty of Con­sumers.

Consumer Co-Lead for the Statewide Palliative Care Clinical Network

The CEIH has estab­lished Co-Lead roles for the Statewide Pal­lia­tive Care Clin­i­cal Net­work. Kathryn Houri­g­an, the network’s Co-Lead Con­sumer, pro­vides a con­sumer voice in a lead­er­ship role to cham­pi­on new ways of think­ing, and enhance com­mu­ni­ca­tion between care giv­er and care receiver.

Kathryn also rais­es aware­ness and advo­cates for the best pal­lia­tive care prin­ci­ples through col­lab­o­ra­tion, focus­ing on respect, com­pas­sion and enshrin­ing equi­ty of access for all who need pal­lia­tive care.

For more infor­ma­tion, see Rais­ing the voice of the silent con­sumer.

Youth Advisory Group

Our Youth Advi­so­ry Group (YAG) is a joint ini­tia­tive of The CEIH and the Statewide Ado­les­cent Transi­tion Care Clin­i­cal Net­work (SATC­CN).

YAG will help us under­stand young peo­ples’ voic­es and health­care expe­ri­ences to dri­ve change and improve health­care out­comes for young South Aus­tralians tran­si­tion­ing from ado­les­cent to adult health­care services.

Expres­sions of inter­est are open to join YAG for young peo­ple aged 12 to 25 years. Mem­bers will get to share their voice and help improve the deliv­ery of the ser­vices and sup­ports that young peo­ple need to devel­op in healthy ways.

For more infor­ma­tion, see Youth Advi­so­ry Group.

Other consumer engagement initiatives
  • Involve­ment of con­sumers across CEIH led projects, forums and work­shops including:
  • Ongo­ing sup­port of Con­sumer Engage­ment prac­ti­tion­ers across the health sys­tem through the Com­mu­ni­ty Engage­ment Com­mu­ni­ty of Practice.
Past Consumer Engagement Highlights
  • In 2021 The CEIH held a Con­sumer Forum which explored the ques­tion: How do we know we’re achiev­ing mean­ing­ful Con­sumer Engage­ment and how do we mea­sure it? Read more here.
  • CEIH fund­ing of the con­­sumer-led research project, ​‘Min­imis­ing the bur­den of hematopoi­et­ic stem cell trans­plant through PRMs’. Read more here.
  • Build­ing capa­bil­i­ty among The CEIH staff and Statewide Clin­i­cal Net­work Leads, Clin­i­cal Com­mu­ni­ty of Prac­tice Chairs and The CEIH Com­mu­ni­ty of Con­sumers by deliv­er­ing tai­lored stake­hold­er and con­sumer engage­ment train­ing. Read more here.
  • Con­sumer rep­re­sen­ta­tion on the work­ing group for the Germline Genet­ic Test­ing for Treat­ment project. Read more here.