Projects-Completed

Developing a Consumer Participation Strategy for Yoralla
Tere Dawson
Health Issues Centre conducted a project in collaboration with Yooralla (disability services) to develop a consumer participation strategy for the organisation. The project included a review of past documents and reviews to ensure previous experience and activities were incorporated in the strategy. The project also conducted a workshop with staff members and a focus group with clients involved in Yooralla to ascertain their views and opinions about consumer participation in Yooralla.

Developing a youth advisory model for mental health services in the cities of Darebin and Whittlesea
Tere Dawson
Health Issues Centre worked in collaboration with a group of agencies delivering mental health services to young people in the cities of Darebin and Whitlesea to develop a Youth Advisory Model. The project included a review of national and international literature on models for youth participation within the mental health sector, but also from other sectors. The project also included a workshop with staff members and young people already involved in the agencies to identify main issue around youth participation and establish best means for effective participation.

The priorities of rural consumers who travel for healthcare
Jackie Mansourian
In 2008, the Health Issues Centre prepared a Discussion Paper on ‘The needs of rural consumers who travel to Melbourne Hospitals’. Following the release of the discussion paper HIC coordinated two regional roundtables in Gippsland and Loddon Mallee, April 2009. Seven key areas of policy and practice change were consistently identified for a ‘whole-of-journey’ approach to rural consumers who travel for healthcare. These have arisen from the roundtables which affirmed and further strengthened the voices of consumers told in the Discussion Paper. These seven priorities have been written in A summary report of seven key priorities towards ‘whole-of-journey’ supportive and coordinated care

The Health Issues Centre resource kit for consumers travelling for health care,
A Whole of Journey Approach was launched in Bendigo on October 1st, 2010. The resource kit is a culmination of work developed over the past two years led by Jackie Mansourian along with consumers and health services. The kit which comprises a checklist of important questions that consumers can ask their health care provider at different stages during their journey and a resource kit for health services caring for rural consumers who travel for health care. The health service kit is designed to inform, inspire and connect health services at all levels, primary and acute, rural, regional and city in their efforts in providing care to rural consumers and their families.

National Breast Cancer Foundation (NBCF) - BreastScreen Cohort Demonstration Study
Tere Dawson
Health Issues Centre in collaboration with the Consumer Advisory Committee of BreastScreen Victoria and the NBCF conducted a series of workshops with women to asses the documents that women will need to read and questionnaire they will need to fill in when become participants of the Lifepool study (a longitudinal study of women's health). Consulting with women about the acceptability of the study and asking women about the legibility and user-friendliness of project documents and data collection tools is not common practice in research, thus, this was a valuable and innovative initiative about consumer participation in reserach Hopefully, it is acknowledged and replicated by other researchers in Australia in the future.

Was I still on the waiting list? A study about people waiting for public dental care
Nicola Bruce and Charin Naksook
This study involved people who have been on the waiting list for public dental treatment at Dianella Community Health, Broadmeadows, for two years or more. It explored the experiences and perceptions of public dental patients and included those who do not end up using the service. The aim of the study was to investigate factors (including health literacy) influencing decisions made by people on public dental waiting lists to attend dental clinics and explore people’s perceptions of their oral health status and general health status, and associated behaviours, while waiting for public dental care.

Study on consumer perspectives on potential workforce changes
Panayiota Romios
This project intended to explore the experiences, preferences and acceptability of potential workforce changes in a number of health sectors among a diverse range of consumers, and to use this to broker some new consensus on core principles for future change. The project conducted a number of focus groups with consumers to gain a rich understanding of consumer’s views about four sets of potential workforce reforms, including the acceptability of and the necessary conditions for such changes, differences in views about such change in the public or private sectors, and potential challenges in implementing change. Further, the project conducted a qualitative evaluation of Victorian workforce reform as undertaken in to health services.