Get to know Mario, a big-hearted member of our Community of Consumers

Meet Mario Corena 

Giv­en five months left to live at 15, a sec­ond can­cer diag­no­sis at 35, a triple bypass at 38 and a valve replace­ment in 2018, Mario has expe­ri­enced the health sys­tem from the inside out. 48 years down the track and after los­ing a fam­i­ly mem­ber to men­tal health, Mario has pas­sion­ate­ly been using his time and lived expe­ri­ence to find the gaps and break down the silos in the health system. 

Being a con­sumer rep­re­sen­ta­tive for our Clin­i­cal Genomics Statewide Clin­i­cal Net­work is only one of the many ways Mario is con­tribut­ing to the health sys­tem. He is on many com­mit­tees across Local Health Net­works, research foun­da­tions, Uni­ver­si­ties and oth­er health bod­ies, as well as host­ing a men­tal health and well­be­ing pod­cast on Com­mu­ni­ty Radio. 

Mario enjoys being a con­sumer at the CEIH as the agency’s broad remit across South Aus­tralia allows for an inde­pen­dent voice, a key fac­tor in break­ing down the silos through net­work­ing and bring­ing all the puz­zle pieces togeth­er for improved outcomes. 

Mario strong­ly advo­cates for those that may be unable to, whilst hav­ing the per­son­al expe­ri­ences to help the sys­tem improve from the grass­roots up, help­ing the sys­tem to achieve the best results through high qual­i­ty care and expe­ri­ences for all con­sumers and their carers. 

Out­side of work­ing two days per week, par­tic­i­pat­ing in many com­mu­ni­ty pro­grams, health com­mit­tees and run­ning his pod­cast, Mario attends a month­ly meet­ing for our Clin­i­cal Genomics Statewide Clin­i­cal Net­work. He under­stand­ably holds a strong inter­est in the con­nec­tion between phys­i­cal and men­tal health con­di­tions and genet­ic dis­po­si­tion. If he didn’t sound busy enough already, Mario runs a gym pro­gram called Strength for Life a few morn­ings per week for the age­ing com­mu­ni­ty and is a qual­i­fied Men­tal Health First aid trainer. 

Humbly stat­ing that he is one of many advo­cates out there, Mario feels priv­i­leged to still be here and to be able to do what he does every day, build­ing net­works, break­ing down the silos of health to help deliv­er bet­ter out­comes for con­sumers and their carers. 

To know more about how we engage with the com­mu­ni­ty, see Work­ing with Con­sumers.