Guides to Consumer Partnerships
What, where, when, why….and how
Whether you are just becoming involved in consumer partnerships or have years of experience, Health Consumers Queensland is here to guide you through the many aspects of working together to improve healthcare.
To support you in this, we have written a number of resources to assist consumer and carer representatives and the health staff who partner with them.
- The Consumer and Community Engagement Framework answers the what, when, why and who?
- The Guide for Consumers Partnering with Health Organisations and Guide for Health Staff Partnering with Consumers take you step-by-step through the how.
- Youth Engagement Framework supports better engagement with young people
- The Queensland Digital Health Consumer Charter helps consumers understand what they can expect from Queensland health services in regard to digital health and new healthcare technology.
Consumer and Community Engagement Framework
The Consumer and Community Engagement Framework is designed to orient health organisations to what underpins successful consumer and community engagement. The goal of this Framework is to encourage health organisations to embed consumer and community engagement in their work. This requires staff thinking beyond accreditation against the National Safety and Quality Health Service Standards. Meaningful engagement connects staff to the people they support, the purpose of their work and enables them to deliver care that leads to better outcomes.
The Framework can be used across the health system from public and private health services, primary health organisations, government departments to universities and research centres. It will support health providers to develop strong consumer and community partnerships that drive changes, delivers better outcomes and provide healthcare the community wants and needs.
Though written primarily for health organisations, it is hoped that the Framework will also assist consumers to understand what they can expect from health organisations they engage with and support them to develop effective partnerships and a common understanding of their possible roles.
This Framework is not a ‘how to’ guide. The Framework provides health organisations with an understanding of what engagement is, when and where it can take place and why they are doing it. When these solid foundations are present, typically, effective and meaningful engagement processes occur.
A Guide for Consumers Partnering with Health Organisations
This guide is for people who are motivated to create a positive change in Queensland’s health system through their own personal experience and knowledge. Consumers can use this guide as a quick reference tool and dip in and out as needed. It has been written in clearly defined sections so that consumers can readily find the information they need, when they need it.
The consumers guide:
- Outlines the Australian health system
- Helps you understand consumer partnering in health organisations
- Explores meeting processes and consumer roles
- Provides information on support and self-care
A Guide for Health Staff Partnering with Consumers
The staff guide is written to help staff in health services develop effective consumer partnerships. This guide can be used by staff in any area and at any level of a health organisation to support partnering with consumers. Like the consumer guide, the staff guide has been designed to be read one section at a time, as the information is needed.
The staff guide is divided into two sections:
- The context of consumer partnering: what it is, what guides it, and some primary considerations for partnering
- How to partner with consumers when recruiting, including how to recruit, orient, and support consumers
Youth Engagement Framework
Health Consumers Queensland Youth Engagement Framework 2021 aims to provide a strategic approach to amplify the voices of young health consumers in the development and delivery of health services across Queensland.
Thousands of young people access health services across Queensland, both those specific to young people as well as adult-oriented services. Despite this, young people are often not involved in decision-making processes for the design, development and implementation of health services they access. This framework aims to provide a set of principles to improve the engagement of young health consumers across Queensland health services
Digital Health Consumer Charter
The Queensland Digital Health Consumer Charter supports consumers to understand how best to use digital technology to improve their health and continue to receive the care they want and need, in ways that best work for them.
The Consumer Charter will inform the ongoing digital health strategic direction for Queensland alongside the Queensland Digital Clinical Charter.