Partnering with consumers is an important strategy to improve patient care, as they have first-hand experience with your health service.
Consumer involvement also helps you:
- meet national standards and accreditation requirements around partnering with consumers
- align with Victoria’s Partnering in healthcare framework.
Partnering in healthcare framework
Our Partnering in healthcare framework will help you improve healthcare and outcomes for Victorians by better involving consumers and their families.
It will give you strategies to respond to the needs and expectations of consumers.
Building your community advisory committee
Community advisory committees are a formal way for you to partner with consumers.
Building your healthy community: A guide for health service community advisory committees provides practical advice on how to:
- review the way your committee is currently operating
- improve how you formally seek community input to key services, initiatives and decisions.
Supporting consumers
Read our tips on how to plan, prepare and appoint a consumer representative.
Keep in mind that consumer representatives are often the only non-clinical or non-organisational member of committees.
This can be a bit isolating, so we recommend connecting them with other consumers who are working with your service.
Involving a consumer in your adverse event reviews?
Paying consumers for their time
Read our Guide to remunerating consumer representatives.