Working with consumers
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.
Strengthening consumer involvement in healthcare
Through late 2021 – 2022, the CEIH facilitated a series of consumer engagement activities centred around two key questions:
- What is meaningful consumer engagement and how do we measure it?
- What could the future of consumer engagement look like?
The purpose was to seek the perspectives of healthcare consumers, carers, family, clinicians and the community generally, with view to ensuring South Australia’s health system is engaging effectively and using consumer input to drive improvements and innovations.
The process was driven by the CEIH’s consumer representatives and included a forum in Adelaide, an online survey and regional communications.
For information on key themes and recommendations arising from these activities, read the summary and the final report.
Statewide Clinical Network consumer representatives
Our eight Statewide Clinical Networks include membership from consumer representatives on each of the network Steering Committees. 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 news.
For more information about our Networks, see Statewide Clinical Networks
Consumer-led Community of Consumers
Our Community of Consumers engages consumers, carers and the community to provide a stronger voice for consumers. The group supports The CEIH by ensuring our consumer and community engagement is meaningful, effective, and helps guide The CEIH program of work.
We’re pleased to welcome to the group, our new Consumer and Community Lead, Paul Williams. Paul brings extensive experience in the consumer advocacy space and will work closely with The CEIH to facilitate connections with consumers, carers and community to our work.
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 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 heathcare 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.
Expressions of interest to join YAG close Monday, 31 October 2022.
For more information, see Youth Advisory Group.
Other consumer engagement initiatives
The CEIH has also recently engaged with consumers on initiatives, including:
- Involvement of consumers across CEIH led projects, forums and workshops
- Supporting Consumer Engagement roles across the health system with a Community of Practice.
Key 2021 – 22 consumer highlights
Key highlights from 2021 – 2022 for consumer engagement include:
- At the end of 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
- CEIH funding of the consumer-led research project,‘Minimising the burden of haematopoietic stem cell transplant through PRMs’. Read more
- 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
- Consumer representation on the working group for the Germline Genetic Testing for Treatment project. Read more