2 Jul 2020
In March this year with the onset of COVID-19, the Queensland Clinical Senate and Queensland Clinical Networks, along with ethicists and other health professionals, began work on developing a framework that would advise care decisions if we were in pandemic and hospital resources and intensive care beds were impacted.
In the early stages of the work, Health Consumers Queensland was approached to support the development of the framework. From that point on consumers were involved and consulted at every stage. Engagement Advisor, Leonie Sanderson also consulted with current and past members of the Queensland Health Consumers Collaborative and HCQ Consumer Advisory Group on the framework values and principles whilst Anne Curtis, Engagement Consultant, Special Projects, undertook rapid consultation with the broader community to hear what was important to them if we were in a pandemic situation. In all, more than 80 consumers and community members informed the framework.
The Queensland Ethical Decision-Making Framework is the result of a partnership between clinicians, consumers and other stakeholders, and was the first framework in Australia to be developed with consumers. The framework and the supporting consumer resources are located on the Queensland Health website: https://www.health.qld.gov.au/clinical-practice/guidelines-procedures/novel-coronavirus-qld-clinicians/resources-for-clinicians
The three documents can be found under the section heading:
Statements, guidelines and directions from professional groups
Queensland ethical framework to guide clinical decision making in the COVID-19 pandemic (PDF 1269 kB)
Queensland ethical decision-making framework – Frequently asked questions (PDF 309 kB)
Shared decision making in Hospital Intensive Care Units during COVID-19 (PDF 2160 kB)
Six of the participating consumers have also worked on the development of consumer resources to ensure consumers and the community understand the purpose of the framework if it is required to be actioned. A shared decision-making infographic and Frequently Asked Questions now sit under the Framework on the Queensland Health website.
We would like to acknowledge Lis Miller, Keren Pointon, Hamza Vayani, Sharon Boyce, Satrio Nindyo Istiko and Tanya Kretschmann, Helen Mees, Phil Carswell, Martin Chambers, Adele Witte, Lila Pratap, Jim Madden and Delphine Geia for their involvement with the development of the framework and the supporting consumer and clinician resources.
26 Jun 2020
Health Consumers Queensland has been facilitating Consumer Conversations since 25 March to hear directly from consumers during COVID-19. Since then we have held 26 sessions with more than 500 consumers. The early conversations were during a lot of uncertainty as public health restrictions were being imposed and we simply asked “what is working, what isn’t and what are you concerned about?” As the curve began to flatten, we refined the conversations to focus on specific topics, based on what we were hearing from consumers. Consumers routinely identified early key issues for the community, which we were able to feed through to the health system. This enabled the system to respond in the knowledge of consumer insights and expectations.
Read the full summary >
19 Jun 2020
COVID-19 has shone a spotlight on mental health service provision in Queensland like never before, as people grapple with prolonged social isolation, fear and uncertainty, unemployment, restricted access to health care, home-schooling, withdrawal of support and services, and many reporting feeling forgotten by the government and its pandemic responses.
Currently Queensland Health provides mostly acute mental health care services but some consumers consider the scale of the mental health crisis facing the public health system is “another pandemic in itself”.
In every single one of the 24 Consumer conversations we have hosted since March, over 400 consumers have shared their concerns about people’s mental health at this time.
In this week’s Consumer Conversations we asked:
- What have you learned about the current mental health system during COVID-19?
- What do you think is working?
- What do you think could be improved?
They told us that a prescriptive, inflexible and reactive approach to mental health care is not working – or helping. Consumers want tailored, individualised care and communication and a system which prioritises and values preventative mental health care measures.
Continue reading eAlert >
19 Jun 2020
COVID-19 has shone a spotlight on mental health service provision in Queensland like never before, as people grapple with prolonged social isolation, fear and uncertainty, unemployment, restricted access to health care, home-schooling, withdrawal of support and services, with many reporting feeling forgotten by the government and its pandemic responses.
Currently Queensland Health provides mostly acute mental health care services but some consumers consider the scale of the mental health crisis facing the public health system is “another pandemic in itself”.
Consumers told us that a prescriptive, inflexible and reactive approach to mental health care is not working – or helping. They want tailored, individualised care and communication and a system which prioritises and values preventative mental health care measures.
Ultimately, their vision is for a strong, integrated mental health system for everyone which is well-funded, resourced and staffed by skilled and well-trained professionals.
Read the Issues Paper on the Mental Health System >
12 Jun 2020
The message from Queensland Health is that we need more people tested for COVID-19, but consumer continue to be unclear about eligibility for testing, what testing entails, and what measures need to be taken either side of having a test. Many are reluctant to seek out testing if they are only showing mild symptoms, with the thought of isolation another disincentive.
While the Queensland Health COVID-19 site was given the thumbs-up by many as a good source of fact, inconsistencies between local and state information is compounding uncertainty on what to do. Most agreed that we should look to the tried and true strategies used during natural disasters, with regular centralized government messaging and local radio and news broadcasts nominated as the key vehicles for getting information out to the public.
Read the Issues Paper >
