On 24th April 2025 we turned 1!
The first birthday is seen as an important milestone for parents, a moment to pause and say, ‘we survived’. Similarly, this year has been about creating and nurturing something new: the Health Consumers Centre within the Institute for Health Transformation at Deakin University.
The year began with a period of transition – of carrying forward and honouring the 39-year legacy of the Health Issues Centre, while wayfinding in our new world here at Deakin. It has been a time of humility, hope and curiosity as we found our place in this new environment and explored our potential role in the health consumer sector in Victoria. These past 12 months we have been learning, unlearning, and transforming from hardship and loss to renewed energy, strength and purpose.
Highlights from our project work
Over the past year, we have worked with many agencies and individuals to support and enable the meaningful engagement of people with lived experience and communities in efforts to promote health and wellbeing. This work has taken many forms, including:
- Supporting early engagement in research efforts and grant development
- Coordinating the recruitment of people with lived experience and members of communities to participate in a range of activities
- Delivering nine training workshops for consumers, health organisation staff, students and researchers
- Convening two consumer reference groups to support research projects
- Collaborating with four grass roots and advocacy organisations to gather seldom-heard community insights on allied health and telehealth for a large research project
- Partnering with the Department of Health Digital Branch to collaborate with community members in preparation for the implementation of ‘CareSync Exchange’, the state’s new health information sharing system
- Developing a Lived Experience Engagement Framework for Hepatitis Australia
- Commencing a two-year project in partnership with Peter Mac to co-design a comprehensive Consumer Leadership Program for people with lived experience of cancer. This is part of a project being undertaken by the key cancer control agencies in Victoria (VCCC Alliance, Regional Trials Network Victoria, Cancer Council Victoria, Monash Partners Comprehensive Cancer Centre, University of Melbourne Collaborative Practice Centre).
Perhaps our most special and important project has been the co-design of our first strategic plan. This has been a wonderful process, informed by a discovery phase involving over 200 people, and brought to life with our dedicated co-design team of 17 people. This diverse and passionate team brought much expertise and a wide range of perspectives. They thoughtfully distilled the findings from the discovery phase and applied a beautiful mix of wisdom, pragmatism and enthusiasm to shape a strategic plan that will guide our work for the next five-years.
The year ahead
Our second year has commenced with a strong and growing program of work, some new projects underway and others soon to commence. This year, our resources and our team will grow, and we will finalise our strategic plan, create our new name and brand and celebrate and launch the plan in late 2025 with our many stakeholders. We look forward to sharing our progress and opportunities to partner with us as we continue to take (many) steps forward.
Thank you!
It takes a village to raise something new — and in our first year, that village showed up for us. We couldn’t be more grateful for the collective passion, determination, expertise, partnership and support of so many people – this would not have been possible without you.
To Anna Peeters for her leadership, and the many people at Deakin University and the Institute for Health Transformation who enabled our transition.
To our Health Consumers Connect community – thank you for staying with us, and a warm welcome to the new people that joined us in the past year.
To the clients and supporters who trusted us with opportunities to work together.
To our colleagues, collaborators, consumer partners, advisors, co-designers, and friends – your insights, encouragement and generosity has kept us going.
And to the small but mighty Health Consumers Centre team – thank you for your unwavering faith, wisdom, and hard work.
We are deeply appreciative of you all.
Team reflections
Finally, with much gratitude and joy, we share some reflections on this remarkable year penned by members of the Health Consumers Centre team in a creative exercise.
“Our team feels like a group of people who genuinely care about each other, about the work, and about making sure voices are heard. It’s not just about doing a job; it feels like building something with purpose. I know I’m only at the beginning, but it already feels like I’m part of something real.”
“Blue, blue skies…When you have to start over, it can feel daunting and hard but there’s also freedom. Freedom for new possibilities. Freedom for rethinking what is possible. Freedom to do things differently. Freedom to dream.”
“Fertile ground, there are seedlings growing and plants starting to interweave together in ways that are sort of curated and sort of not. Letting the landscape grow and evolve organically while we tend to it dutifully. We are one, harmonious, learning from each other.”
“Emerging, Evolving, Expanding, Learning, Blooming, Trying, Listening, Figuring out, Connecting, Building.”
“We are here to stay.”
If you would like to collaborate with us or learn more about the ways we can support you, please email us at healthconsumers@deakin.edu.au.
