PARTICIPATE IN HEALTH

People who use health services and their families, friends and carers have unique and valuable insights about health services—they know if health services are really meeting the needs of people they are intended to help. Health Issues Centre believes consumers, carers and community members have the right to be active partners in their own health care and have a voice in how health services are developed and delivered.

This page focuses on helping consumers, carers and community members become more involved in the shaping of health services and assisting health services to include consumers, carers and community members in their decision making processes. The page is divided into sections—each highlighting a different aspect of Health Issues Centre’s work in this area.

Victorian Consumers Participate in Health
Health Issues Centre maintains this section with funding from the Victorian Department of Human Services. It provides some basic information about consumer participation in health, but its main focus is on Victorian resources to help consumers, carers and community members participate in the Victorian health system and to assist Victorian health services to include the community in their decision making processes.
See Victorian Consumers Participate in Health page for more information.

Learning and Development
Health Issues Centre has a history of providing learning and development activities aimed at helping consumers and health services develop their expertise in consumer participation. Find out what workshops, forums and other events we and other organisations are offering. Or find out how Health Issues Centre can deliver activities customised to your organisations needs.
See our Learning and Development page for more information.

Consumer Nominee Program
This Program is funded by the Victorian Department of Human Services. It aims to make consumers aware of the opportunities to participate in state-wide advisory committees and other related consultation mechanisms, to provide training and support for consumers involved in participation activities, and to assist health services seeking consumers to become involved in their community participation activities.
See our Consumer Nominee Program page for more information.

Community Advisory Committees
Health Issues Centre supports the on-going development of 19 Victorian Community Advisory Committees (CACs) in Metropolitan and Regional Health Services. The key role of CACs is to promote and advocate for participation across all levels of their health service. This section contains resources useful for CACs and produced by CACs.
See our Community Advisory Committees page for more information.

Forum
This online facility allows the public to share their opinions and insights about the health system with others.
See our Forum page for more information.

Resource Library
This library contains reports, articles, case studies, and other publications about consumer participation for both consumers and health services. Resources can be searched by title and subject and most can be downloaded.
See our Resource Library page for more information.