CHF Summit 2021: Shifting Gears
 

SUPPORTING CONSUMERS


HOW CAN YOUR ORGANISATION HELP? 

Become a Consumer Grant partner of the CHF Summit. The consumer grant package provide a consumer support to attend the conference and your organisation in recognised through Summit marketing materials. Contact our partnership team to discuss this opportunity (events@chf.org.au or 02 6273 5444).

Support consumers in your network to attend. We encourage you to run your own bursary program to support consumer attendance.

WHY ARE CONSUMERS IMPORTANT IN HEALTH CARE?

Consumer representatives are the link that enable health service providers to become aware of the importance and diversity of consumer needs. CHF supports consumer representatives, including carers, from many backgrounds to represent a broad range of consumer views, including those from vulnerable and disadvantaged communities.

CHF advocates for a high-quality, patient-centred health system where people have choice and control over their health and care. We know that better outcomes are achieved when consumers are involved in all aspects of policy and healthcare decisions, from involvement at every level of strategic planning to being on committees. As such, we are committed to equipping consumer leaders to act with impact and influence, and to facilitating opportunities to build capacity and improve the practice of consumer-centred health care.

Consumers bring an essential and unique perspective and can contribute to better decision-making by providing a balance to the views of healthcare professionals, policy makers and business managers. Research from around the world indicates that better health outcomes result if consumers are involved in decision-making. Engaging with consumers can contribute to powerful outcomes including:

  • More robust decisions
  • Smoother implementation
  • Promotes consumer confidence
  • Links with community

Involving consumers at the organisational, governance and policy levels ensures that issues that are important to consumers are identified and prioritised, adds legitimacy to decision making and improves health and policy outcomes as well as relationships with consumers.

LINKS OF INTEREST:

https://chf.org.au/publications/young-advocacy-health-and-beyondhttp%3A
http://www.hcq.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/HCQ_ConsumerGuide.pdf

WHY DO CONSUMERS NEED SUPPORT?

Most people who are involved in developing health care policy or working to improve health care systems do so as part of their paid employment. This is often not the case for consumer advocates. Consumers working in this space frequently forego their paid employment in order to prepare for or be involved in this work. The coverage of travel costs enables consumer representatives to make alternate arrangements for ongoing commitments such as carer responsibilities.

It is CHF’s policy to ensure that consumer representatives are not put into positions where they will be financially disadvantaged by their desire to improve health care.

HOW IS CHF SUPPORTING CONSUMERS TO ATTEND THE CHF SUMMIT 2021: SHIFTING GEARS?

CHF are offering 125 free registrations for consumers to attend the CHF Summit 2021: Shifting Gears. These places have now been allocated.

CHF encourage other organisations to support consumers to participate in the Summit. We will share these opportunities as they arise.

We will also be urging our members and key stakeholders to provide bursaries or get involved as a Consumer grant partner.

WE'RE #withconsumers

CHF provides the #withconsumers tick as a way for organisations to demonstrate their commitment to integrating the experience and insight of consumers into their activities.

In creating the CHF Summit 2021: Shifting Gears, as with all our activities, CHF has worked to meet or exceed our #withconsumers tick requirements. Some examples of how we have achieved this are:

  • Inclusion of several consumer representatives on our Summit program advisory committee which has helped to
    design and plan the Summit, including abstract selection
  • Ensuring that consumers are well represented amongst the invited speakers
  • Prioritising abstracts which are presented by or co-presented by consumers
  • Involvement of consumer rapporteurs who will present a wrap up at the conclusion of the Summit
  • The Big Ideas Forum which will crowd-source ideas from consumers and explore them in a plenary session
    facilitated by Ellen Fanning from ABC TV’s The Drum 
    (Ms Ellen Fanning appears by arrangement with Claxton Speakers International).
  • The Big Ideas Bursary program to provide support for some consumers to attend.