Consumer & Community Participation

St Vincent's Policy
 

St Vincent’s is committed to consumer and community participation and seeks input from consumers, carers and the community in planning, delivery and evaluation of the health service.  Participation is an ethical & democratic right that improves health outcomes through improved compliance, improves quality and safety and makes our services more responsive to the needs of our consumers and community. 

Participation occurs when consumers, carers and community members are meaningfully involved in decision making about health policy and planning, care and treatment, and the wellbeing of themselves and the community.

Information for Consumers on Participation

St Vincent’s staff will provide you with written information including:

Rights & Responsibilities

10 tips for Safer Healthcare

Refer to the publications page.

Staff will give you additional verbal and/ or written information about your illness, medication, treatment options, and other services, and explain referral, assessment and treatment pathways to you and your significant others.

If you need more information please ask our staff

St Vincent’s encourages participation by other methods. Consultation and evaluation via focus groups, public meetings, completion of satisfaction surveys and other questionnaires, receipt of complaints, suggestions and feedback enable the organisation to have a broad range of information about consumer, carer and community needs, priorities, opinions and options to inform service improvement directions.

Community Involvement

St. Vincent’s Community Advisory Committee has been established to assist the Board and Executive through providing advice on consumer, carer & community perspectives.

What is the Community Advisory Committee?

The committee:

·         Identifies and advises the board on priority areas and issues requiring consumer & community participation

·         Advocates on behalf of the community, promoting greater attention and sensitivity to the needs of disadvantaged, isolated and marginalised consumers and communities.

·         Participates in planning the future needs of the health service and evaluates existing services and healthcare quality and safety.

·         Assists the organisation with communicating with the community and consumers including participation in the development of the Quality of Care Report

·         Assists identification of training needs in relation to consumer, carer and community participation.

The Community Advisory Committee meets every two months, and makes recommendations to the Board of St. Vincent’s. 

Who are its members?

The Community Advisory Committee includes up to 12 members who are consumers, carers or community representatives, Executive and Bboard members.   The committee is supported by a resource officer.

What do the members of the Community Advisory Committee get out of it?

“The opportunity to be involved in a vibrant health service that focuses on consumers”

“Being involved in the health service and thinking about the person not just the patient”

“As a former patient I like being able to give something back”   

More information?

For more information about the St. Vincent’s Community Advisory Committee or to apply to join the committee

Please contact:

03 9288 3940 or email us via Consumers.Advisory@svhm.org.au   

Selected applicants will be interviewed and if successful appointed to the committee. 

New Community Advisory Committee members receive an orientation program and are provided with development opportunities. 

Members will be expected to attend the bi-monthly meetings of the committee and participate in work groups. 

Quality of Care Report

St. Vincent's Health publishes an annual Quality of Care Report - a report to our consumers.

St. Vincent's publishes an annual Quality of Care Report - a report to our consumers. To view a PDF file of the current report, please click here.

To request a hard copy of the report, click here.