The events
Two online Q & A sessions were held in July for subscribers to the Health Consumers Centre newsletter to reflect on the transition period and discuss how the legacy of the Health Issues Centre (HIC) will be carried forward. Alison Coughlan, Manager Health Consumers Centre and former CEO of Health Issues Centre, led the event with Katherine Burnard, Consultant, Learning & Engagement.
The participants
Seventy-five people participated in the live events. This included many consumers with multiple roles as advisors, advocates, representatives and co-designers across various health and community services, Primary Health Networks and government including with Safer Care Victoria. There were also consumer engagement ‘practitioners’ with representation from hospitals and health services, community health, universities and community organisations in the advocacy and research space.
A summary of the transition process and timelines
Alison began with a presentation and acknowledgement of what a difficult and emotional time this has been for everyone including periods of significant uncertainty as to whether the legacy would be carried forward and, if so, what form it would take.
Key points from Alison’s presentation are shared below:
The transition timeline
January 2024
- 30th January: Board decision to wind up HIC operations and exploration of agencies to carry forward the legacy commences.
February 2024
- Mid February: Series of communications announce that HIC will cease operations on 7th March including a message of hope that the spirit of HIC would live on in some form.
March 2024
- 7th March: Final work day for HIC team – the team worked very hard right to the end of this day to deliver as best as they could on a range of projects honouring our commitment to the community and the sector.
April 2024
- 24th April: Formal agreement between HIC Board and Deakin University signed.
- 29th April: Katherine and Alison commence as fixed term employees at Deakin (casuals from late March working behind the scenes)
May 2024
- 6-7 May: Public announcement that the Institute for Health Transformation at Deakin University will carry forward the HIC legacy through creation of a centre of excellence in consumer engagement in health. Interim name of Health Consumers Centre, web page and Linked In page established.
- 22nd May: Transfer of email list after a two-week period where subscribers were given the chance to opt out.
- 30th May: Health Consumers Connect newsletter sent out as first communication from the Health Consumers Centre to the email list.
June 2024
- 7th June: Completion of transfer of selected intellectual property, training programs and other resources.
Reflections on the HIC legacy
Alison acknowledged the legacy of HIC, including 39 years of championing, practicing and enabling consumer and community engagement in health. This has included the development of expertise and a significant track record as well as intellectual property developed over that time. Importantly, HIC developed and delivered the only accredited training courses in consumer engagement in health in Australia. The outgoing team, Board and the many contributors to the Health Issues Centre over the past four decades were also acknowledged.
The other aspects of the legacy shared included the vision for consumers and community members to be valued and respected as equal and active partners in health system transformation and to work across all parts of the health sector.
Participants shared what they considered to be the most important part of the legacy of the Health Issues Centre. The themes are summarised below in order of frequency with some specific responses included in italics:
- Building the capability of consumers, community members and the health sector
- Promoting, enabling and diversifying consumer and community engagement opportunities – not just providing feedback and including codesign
- Sharing valuable, tried and tested resources about health consumer engagement
- Support, guidance and information that is accessible to consumers
- Enabling connections and building community – ‘our place’
- Creating pathways to consumer and community engagement coordinated from a single place and across a range of roles in research, health services and systemic improvement
- An independent voice.
‘Empowering members of the community to realise their worth.’
‘The incredible building of capacity of consumers, creating community between us all, advocating for health consumers and giving us all a voice!’
The Qs and the As
- Engaging consumers
- Training and resources
- Finances
- Sector relationships
- Independence and access
- Future opportunities and challenges
Engaging consumers
Q. Is there still the ability to advertise consumer engagement opportunities?
A. Yes. We send out the Health Consumers Connect newsletter monthly and promote opportunities for engagement. Email us at healthconsumers@deakin.edu.au if you would like to advertise an opportunity. You can join the list here.
Q. Will the Centre have a high level of engagement with consumers, including in its structure and through co-design and other activities?
A. Yes, absolutely. It is so important that we walk our talk both in the development of our strategy and priorities, through partnering with consumers in the design and delivery of our programs and services and building in active and meaningful engagement into our structure and processes. We see this as essential to fulfilling our promise to the community and to modelling meaningful engagement. Our hope is that we can build a vibrant, ever-growing community of consumers who partner with us in many different ways and roles, contributing to the delivery and improvement of our work and in every aspect of health transformation that we contribute to.
Q. What plans are in place to ensure that an equitable voice for rural consumers will continue (and ever more important in view of current potential changes to the health service system in Victoria at this time)?
A. It is important that we have a variety of different ways we engage at a local, regional, statewide and national level about the issues affecting Victorian communities. With potential changes to how health services are organised and managed in Victoria, creating sustainable mechanisms for engagement at a local level so that the needs and preferences of community are understood and can inform priorities for action are very important. We have started conversations in different regions about the support we can provide to enable that.
Q. What are your plans for recruitment, retention and meaningful inclusion of people who are not able to use the latest technology and/or are not able to attend in-person meetings (especially when those traits occur in the same people)?
A. Our focus is Victoria-wide and also on national issues in partnership with our state and territory counterparts. We recruit widely and select for diversity including place of residence, social and cultural backgrounds, gender identities, age and experiences of ill health, harm and recovery. We have also partnered with agencies to ensure we are hearing voices that are unheard or hardly heard. Two examples are recent consultations we have undertaken in partnership with Deaf Victoria and Engage Pasefika so we can connect in safe and meaningful ways with these groups by partnering with leaders in their community. Our intention is to have a mix of in person and online opportunities to work in partnership with members of the community including us travelling to work with people in all regions and channelling those voices and experience through all of our work.
Training and resources
Q. When will the Graduate Certificate in Consumer and Community Engagement and the Course in Consumer Leadership course start being delivered again and will they remain accredited?
A. We had planned to undertake a learning and development review at HIC, recognising that our programs had limited reach in terms of the number of people attending in person for multi-day courses in terms of both accessibility and cost. At Deakin, we are exploring collaboration with learning and teaching colleagues to build courses into undergraduate and postgraduate curriculum. We will also be able to partner with the Lifelong Learning Team to develop micro-credentials – short courses, masterclasses and learning modules that can be accessed as self-paced online learning, in person or a mix of the two. This will make learning opportunities much more accessible as and when needed and more sustainable for us to offer once developed.
Learning and development is going to be a significant part of what we offer moving forward and we will have to prioritise our efforts to meet to needs of the field, focus on some quick wins and securing support to enable this work to happen as soon as possible. Our goal will not just be to take the courses and materials we have used in the past but to co-design and co-deliver new courses with consumers and consumer engagement practitioners.
Q. Wearing my health practitioner hat working in a large public hospital, it was incredibly powerful to be able to refer our Consumer Advisors to HIC for training and support. Will that option be offered again in the future at the same scale, or larger?
A: We welcome queries for fee-for-service training which we are continuing to offer. We have a long list of training topics that we can deliver and this is a great option while we are developing up other training options for the field.
Q. Will the training and mentoring you were developing at HIC come on board with the new Centre?
A. Definitely – we will be working very hard to make that happen as soon as we can.
Q. HIC used to have lots of resources available – will they still be accessible?
A. The HIC website is still accessible with many resources available. We intend to continue to share resources and to grow the resources that are freely available to the community and sector over time as well as to share useful resources developed by others.
Q. I remember a HIC video showing a mock committee meeting showing inappropriate or non-existent quality engagement with their consumer reps and I attended a workshop about what consumers should expect in terms of their role and how they should be engaged. I’d love to see resources like that again.
A: Unfortunately, not every resource is available such as this video. We will however, be developing new video materials as we co-design our courses moving forward.
Finances
Q: Given financial sustainability was an issue for HIC, how do you see this being different for the Health Consumers Centre? This is an issue facing every health consumer organisation – the desire for consumer input, but a challenge getting that infrastructure funded.
A: Funding challenges were not new to Health Issues Centre nor are they to other consumer organisations or to the health sector at large. It’s ironic that perhaps the most powerful and effective force for change in the sector has the least power and resources to effect that change.
The Health Consumers Centre is far less vulnerable than HIC was now that we are sitting within a larger organisation. We have salary support from the University to establish the Centre and to get it to the point of being financially viable in its first two years. We have incredible infrastructure, systems and supports that we can draw on without having to find funding to enable that. We have significant engagement and support for our success within Deakin and the Institute as well as from consumers and the sector. We are working hard to identify and act on opportunities as they arise and every day we are providing advice on how to better partner with consumers, we are bidding for work and exploring avenues for support from the sector and through partnerships. Whilst there are no guarantees, there is much to be optimistic about.
Q. Do you provide grants or know of grants as funding is an issue to provide training in a rural area?
A. We will be exploring funding options that will enable us to offer training for consumers for a low or no cost across the state. We know that the cost of training and the indirect costs for community members of attending training are a barrier to uptake.
Sector relationships
Q: Are you linked in with Volunteering Victoria? Do you have links with PHNs?
A: Volunteering Victoria are on our newsletter list and, whilst we don’t have a formal relationship, we are always on the lookout for people to partner with to support each other and extend the reach and impact of our work. We have relationships and links with the Primary Health Networks (PHNs) and agree these are important to build on in this next phase.
Q. Do people in Deakin know about the Health Consumers Centre?
A. We have communicated with many people at Deakin and there is a growing awareness of and engagement with the Centre. Continued promotions and building of relationships and partnerships both within IHT, within colleagues across Deakin University and within the wider health and community sector will always be core to our work.
Q. Do you have a working relationship with Safer Care Victoria?
A. We met with Safer Care Victoria recently and maintain a good working relationship. We will be meeting regularly as we move forward to explore ways we can work together and build capacity and capability across Victoria.
Independence and access
Q: Will we remain an independent voice for health consumers?
A: That is our intention, yes. We will continue to advocate for, support, enable and practice consumer and community engagement across Victoria. That includes providing a place for people involved as ‘consumers’ in various roles with various titles to come together as a community and be supported to learn and grow together. We also intend to continue to partner with grassroots organisations and with our colleagues in the state and territory and national health peaks in contributing to the health consumer movement and extending our reach and impact
Q. Will access to the Health Consumers Centre be universal or restricted through the University?
A. Universal.
Future opportunities and challenges
Q: Do you see in the future, the opportunity for the Health Consumers Centre to be involved in research to measure the value and effectiveness of consumer/lived/living experience engagement in health?
A: One of the many exciting opportunities about sitting within the Institute for Health Transformation is to grow a program of research and evaluation work that contributes to the evidence base for consumer and community engagement in all its forms. We hope to partner with researchers in the Institute, many of whom have a passionate interest and skills in this area as well as with other researchers at Deakin and in other institutions to explore the contribution we can make to the field more broadly. This extends to research into methods for engagement, examples of how it is done and the impact that it has when done well.
Q. Do we have any prospective projects?
A. We are in the final stages of a project about telehealth use for allied health at the moment and we have a number of projects in the pipeline – either in planning stages, soon to commence or proposals we have submitted and are awaiting the outcome. There are also opportunities that we will be promoting to get involved in our Centre’s strategy development and our learning and development work. We continue to also promote opportunities for other organisations and so hope to have a steady and growing stream of opportunities coming your way. The main mechanism to hear about opportunities at present is through the monthly Health Consumers Connect newsletter.
Q. What do you think will be the main challenge going forward after the transition? What support do you need from consumers and the health sector?
A. There have been many challenges that we have all collectively navigated through to arrive at this point. There’s no question that there are challenges ahead. We have to keep peddling and ensure that we work towards enabling the capacity that is needed. This set of Qs and As highlights just how much work there is to do and, most importantly, the work to ensure it is accessible and can be sustained. However, the support we have from the sector and the community is strong and there are many opportunities that we can explore to get there.
In terms of the support we need, please keep turning up, partner with us, challenge us and work with us to co-create our vision and carve out the path we will take to achieve it. Be patient as we grow our capacity but always hold us to account for what we promise we will deliver.
Our intention & our thanks
Our intention is to carry forward the passion, determination, optimism and hope that got us here to carve out the contribution that we can make moving forward.
Our thanks…
To you
To the many people who have contributed to HIC over the past four decades
To the HIC team and Board
To the many people who kept us going with their messages of support and encouragement through the past weeks and months
For the vision and support of Deakin University and the Institute for Health Transformation and their commitment to our success.
Reasons to be optimistic
At the end of the session, participants shared what they are feeling optimistic about with the following responses shared:
- Access to training and resources for consumers and consumer engagement practitioners (including researchers)
- Creating a network of consumers and consumer engagement practitioners where we come together to listen, learn, share and support each other
- Promotion and sharing of a wide range of consumer engagement opportunities including opportunities for co-design and consumers as teachers
- Involvement in research
- Involvement in Health Consumers Centre organisational structure
- Universal access
- An independent voice
- To keep going and achieving the goals we have discussed.
“The incredible alignment, leveraging and opportunities that come with the Deakin engagement.”
“A strong new way forward – the future is unwritten, let’s look forward.”
