31 Jan 2017
How do you make your ward the most popular in the hospital? Getting to know the end user is a good start, according to Kelsie Dummett.
Kelsie is one of the founding members of Mater Youth Consultancy, Mater Hospital’s initiative to design better services for patients making the transition from paediatric care to adult health services. Mater Youth Consultancy (MYC) was founded in 2013 in recognition of the poorer health outcomes for people in those transition years.
As the Manager of the Mater Young Adult Health Centre (MAYHC), Greg McGahan, explained, this 16 to 25 year age group need support for more than just their physical health problems. In order to fully engage in their health care, young people need holistic emotional and educational support.
Occupying the building formerly housing the Mater Children’s Hospital, the Mater Young Adult Health Centre was designed hand-in-hand with young people from the start. MYHC worked closely with Mater Youth Consultancy, a group of 14 young people, some of whom had lived experiences of health care, some local students, and also a small group from the local refugee community.
(more…)
23 Jan 2017
November 2016
The Commonwealth Department of Health is conducting consultation on the Fifth National Mental Health Plan – click on the link for details www.health.gov.au/internet/main/publishing.nsf/Content/mental-fifth-national-mental-health-plan
The first of the Infrastructure Co-Design workshops will commence 4 November. Consumers, carers and other members of the community will join with other key stakeholders as the architects consult on the design of the newly announced facility.
October 2016
Draft Model of Service Workshops are go! Our consumer participants have been working with a range of other stakeholders including doctors, nurses and educators to get the ball rolling on this important piece of work. There will be three workshops in total, with the last to be held on 10 November. These workshops represent the preliminary phase of development for the Draft Model of Service, with more consultation to come.
Check out our early brainstorming from workshop 1.
15 Dec 2016
December 2016
EOI Alert – seeking representatives for Recommendation 2 Implementation oversight group. Please click link for details. www.hcq.org.au/consumer-representative-barrett-centre-recommendation-2-implementation-oversight-group/
Do you have a story to tell about your experience with youth mental health services? Our Consumer Reference Group has developed resources to help you share your experiences and to tell your story.
If you’re a young person with lived experience of mental health services, click here to go to the consumer snapshot questions.
If you’re a family member or carer of a young person with a mental health issue, click here to go to the family/carer snapshot questions.
We’ve also prepared a storytelling template that helps you to tell your story. You can access it here.
The Draft Model of Service workshops and the Infrastructure Co-Design workshops are now complete. Over 10 consumers and carers participated in each series of workshops, providing input and views. The preliminary Model of Service should be available on the Queensland Health website shortly, for further consultation. This will also be complemented by face to face consultation in the first part of 2017. Look out for dates and locations to be announced here.
In other good news, the survey has attracted over 120 responses so far. We’ll be sharing interim results from the survey soon. Don’t forget you can share the link with others – please encourage anyone who’s had contact with the youth mental health system to hop on and complete the questions – it takes less than 10 minutes.
We have now held a total of 3 Consumer Reference Group meetings. These meetings are held monthly in Brisbane and we can also telelink people in via phone if necessary. The next meeting will be held on If you are interested in connecting with other consumers and carers who have an interest in the implementation of this project, please email Leonie on leonie.sanderson@hcq.org,au
21 Nov 2016
Health Consumers Queensland is pleased to announce the call for abstracts are now open for the 2017 Annual Forum!
We invite presenters to submit abstracts for presentations focusing on the main theme: Power and Passion: Culture change though consumer engagement and partnerships.
Call for Abstracts closes 10 January 2017.
Full abstract guidelines and template can be found here: PDF or Word Document.
< Visit 2017 Forum Page
11 Oct 2016
Our survey is live! Have your say on mental health services for young people with severe and complex mental health issues. Click on the link to go to the survey – https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/mentalhealthqld
And here’s the accompanying media release with quotes from Heath Consumers Queensland General Manager, Melissa Fox.
media-statement-barrett-survey-release-13-oct-2016
