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Consumer Advisors
Barwon Health supports people’s right to participate individually and collectively in the planning and implementation of their health care. Barwon Health does this by partnering with Consumer Advisors.
Who is a Consumer Advisor?
- A Consumer Advisor is a person who voices collective consumer or community perspectives and take part in decision-making as a representative of those consumers and communities.
- Ideally Consumer Advisors are people well connected in their community, they are able to access the perspectives of many community members and bring those perspectives to Barwon Health and also take information from Barwon Health back to their community to seek perspectives on new ideas or options for improving the way services are provided.
What do Consumer Advisors do?
- Consumer Advisors provide the consumer perspective in the development, planning and quality improvement of services, and the measure and improvement of patient and family experience.
The Consumer Advisor’s role includes:
- Consideration of the consumer experience
- Consideration of the alignment of any Barwon Health work with the Australian Charter of Healthcare Rights; the Charter of Aged Rights and the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities
- Supporting Barwon Health to be accountable to consumers
- Advocating for issues affecting consumers
- Advocating for consumer consultation on changes to services or practice that Barwon Health might be considering.
Diversity and inclusion
Consumer Advisors are part of the Barwon Health community and should reflect the diversity of the community. People of any gender, young people, older people, middle-aged people and women of childbearing age, people of diverse socioeconomic status and people living throughout the Barwon Health catchment area are encouraged to apply.
It is a priority for Barwon Health to attract, recruit and support Consumer Advisors from:
- Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities
- People who have a disability, or people who care for someone with a disability
- People from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds
- People from LGBTIQA+ communities
- People with an interest in improving women’s and children’s services
- Young people, including people with an experience of mental health services
- Older people who are interested in shared decision-making about their health care.
Current opportunities for Consumer Advisors
We have opportunities for Consumer Advisors to join committees including:
- Partnering with Consumers Committee
- Infection Prevention Committee
- Medication Safety Committee
- Comprehensive Care Committee
- Blood Management Committee
- Acute Deterioration Committee
We have opportunities for Consumer Advisors who would like to be trained to be involved in panels undertaking Incident Reviews.
There are also opportunities for Consumer Advisors to work with our health service departments (Medicine, Surgery and Women’s and Children’s) to provide consumer advice and speak with our patients about their experience of care.
Interested?
Please read and complete the documents linked below.
Submit your completed expression of interest:
Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Post: Consumer Experience Lead
C/O Safety and Quality Department
Barwon Health
PO Box 281
Geelong VICTORIA 3220
For further information, contact the Consumer Experience Lead by email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or phone (03) 4215 1257.
Barwon Health is committed to health screening and immunisation to protect its staff, consumer advisors, volunteers and patients against preventable diseases.
Supporting Consumer Advisors
All Barwon Health Consumer Advisors are invited to an open virtual meeting held every fortnight with the Consumer Experience Lead.
This forum allows you to:
- Obtain information about Barwon Health
- Discuss your experience as a Consumer Advisor
- Meet other Consumer Advisors
- Connect you with people in the organisation
- Support you to be involved as a Consumer Advisor.
Open consultations
ACSQHC Patient Safety Web Tool Consumer Testing - Expression of Interest
Expressions of interest close: 28 November 2022 5pm (AEDT)
CHF is seeking consumers who are interested in participating in a one-on-one interview as part of an Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care (ACSQHC) project developing a digital platform that will provide consumers with easy access to safety and quality data from public and private hospitals.
All Australians have the right to receive quality health care in a safe environment. Knowing more about the safety and quality of care in our hospitals can help consumers make sure they are getting the care they need and expect.
As part of this, the platform has two main aims:
- to provide consumers with information about the safety and quality of the service provided at Australian hospitals.
- to encourage transparency and accountability among hospitals, ultimately driving improvements in safety and quality.
The Commission has engaged The Friday Collective to help design the platform. The Friday team is currently looking to speak with ten everyday health consumers to better understand their perception of safety and quality in Australian hospitals, and to get their impressions of the draft designs for the platform.
• Interviews will be scheduled at a time that suits you, between 3 and 13 December 2022.
• Interviews can be scheduled before or after normal working hours, or on weekends, if that is your preference.
• Interviews will take place on Zoom and will take less than an hour of your time.
• You will be paid for your time.
The insights you provide will inform the final draft of the platform design.
Remuneration of $86 per hour will be offered to successful applicants for a total of one hour. If you would like to be considered for this project, please complete the following Expression of Interest form.
Expressions of interest close at 5pm (AEDT) on Monday 28 November 2022, unless all ten spaces are allocated before then.
All expressions of interest will be assessed by an independent panel based on merit. If you have any questions please contact CHF Research and Policy Officer, James Ansell at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
Training
Consumers Health Forum Webinar - 14 December 2022 at 12 noon.
Consumer Leadership - Health Literacy
You will hear from a panel of consumers and researchers in how to navigate issues on health literacy, working with patients, families and carers to improve and provide accessible health information and decision-making.
The panelists will include:
- Rachel Skoss, Senior Research Fellow, The University of Notre Dame Australia
- Julie Ayre, Research Fellow, Sydney Health Literacy Lab, University of Sydney
- Scott Thrift, Consumer Advisor
We will also invite participants to highlight the tools and supports available to include on the CHF website following the webinar.
To register
Please click on the link below to register for this webinar:
Consumer Advisors are able to access training through:
- Consumer Health Forum https://chf.org.au
- The Health Issues Centre https://hic.org.au
- Monash Partners https://monashpartners.org.au/education-training-and-events/consumer-and-community-involvement-lunchtime-seminar
- Centre for Mental Health Learning Victoria https://cmhl.org.au
- Lived Experience Australia https://www.livedexperienceaustralia.com.au
- SA Lived Experience Leadership and Advocacy Network (LELEAN) https://www.lelan.org.au
- Safer Care Victoria https://www.safercare.vic.gov.au/support-and-training
Community Advisory Committee (CAC)
The Community Advisory Committee is a sub-committee of the Barwon Health Board. This group advises the Board on issues relevant to the consumers of our community. To learn more please visit the Community Advisory Committee webpage.
Are you a staff member wanting to partner with a Consumer Advisor?
If you are a staff member wanting to request a Consumer Advisor, please complete the request form here.
Last Modified: Thursday, 24 November 2022