Reform in
Health Care
Health Voices, Issue 2, July 2008
Health Voices, Issue 1, April 2008
Ethical challenges in Australian health care
Checklist: How committee secretariats can support consumer representatives
Committee secretariats can often enhance the contribution of a consumer representative on a
particular committee by thinking through ways to support his or her involvement. In 2003,
the Consumers Health Forum of Australia (CHF) and representatives of committee
secretariats developed a checklist for how committees can support consumer representatives
as part of a project funded by the Department of Health and Ageing. Although the checklist is
not exhaustive, it provides some useful pointers. Small things often make a big difference!
Principles for a Regulatory Scheme for the Advertising of Therapeutic Products
This document highlights some of the key issues for consumers about the advertising of
therapeutic products. It will assist consumer representatives and members provide input to the
Australia New Zealand Therapeutic Products Authority (ANZTPA) on the draft Australia
New Zealand Therapeutic Products Regulatory Scheme (Advertising) Rule 2006.
The document draws on the work of the Consumers' Health Forum of Australia (CHF) on
Quality Use of Medicines over many years, including community engagement and Consumer
Representatives’ meetings. It presents some principles, with rationale, on which a sound
regulatory scheme for the advertising of therapeutic products should be based.
Guidelines for consumer representatives on conference organising committees
It is expected that consumer representatives who nominate for conference organising
committees will advocate strongly for health consumers in all aspects of conference planning.
Strengthening meeting skills for teleconferences
Teleconferencing is a great communication option as it is quick and easy to set up, saves travel time and costs, and enables you to conduct high-quality, reliable meetings over the phone with other stakeholders.
Framework for assessing the impact of new health initiatives and policies on consumers
The framework is designed to assist individuals and committees involved in consultative and decision-making processes in analysing policies, grant applications and initiatives presented to them for consideration. It has a particular focus on access and disadvantage, setting out a series of steps which can be followed to assess the degree to which a proposal has been designed with the needs of disadvantaged groups and individuals in mind.
The framework provides a useful tool for identifying gaps in the development of programs where the needs of disadvantaged groups might not have received due consideration. It is not designed to measure or evaluate the success of a program in its application.
A Guide for Community Organisations Running Health Workshops with Consumers
The Aim of this Guide is to provide advice to national community organisations, foundations and associations to use when coordinating, planning and conducting workshops with local community organisations on health topics or issues.
Community workshops are a commonly used technique for raising consumer awareness of a health topic or issue, facilitating the learning of new information and skills and encouraging behaviour change.
The Guide provides practical tips and advice on running successful workshops. By this we mean workshops that consumers will enjoy; that will help build the capacity of local communities to deal with health issues; and that will help equip consumers to exercise more control over their own health, make choices conducive to health and cope with illness, injury or disability.
Tips for Consumer Representatives
Professional and industry groups and so called ‘independent experts’ are frequently asked for their advice and views on matters relating to the health of the community and individuals. Community and ‘lay’ people are also sometimes asked to offer their experience to consider matters of public interest in the health arena, such as priorities in resource allocation or the ethics of health services or research. Increasingly government and others are recognizing the need to hear also about the specific interests of consumers in a range of health and community issues. Often, however, the consumer perspective is forgotten or it is assumed that, since ‘we are all consumers’ it will be well represented by caring providers or those active in the community affairs.
This article gives some ideas about improving our effectiveness as consumer representatives.