Issue 9 – December, 2015

Consumer Newsletter Consumer and Community Engagement

Consumer Engagement Unit Update

As I make my through the corridors of the Hospital and around

the community it is evident that consumer-centred care is part

of our DNA. I can feel this by the level of engagement

consumers have in making decisions. I hear it when I talk with

consumers, who are amazed by the standard of shared

decision-making that occurs within our Network. I can see it

through the information that is displayed throughout our waiting

room and in our various publications about how we are striving

for better health outcomes

I really appreciate the fact that an open-minded and

questioning culture exists among our staff which embraces the consumer from the ward

level to the executive level. This year has been a wonderful opportunity to advance the

consumer voice within our Network. We have developed a solid Consumer and

Community Engagement Strategy in partnership with the Health Consumers Alliance of

South Australia and we have built a consumer database of 124 active people which

enables the Network to progress with authentic engagement. The network has a refreshed

and newly shaped Consumer Engagement Core which serves the staff of the Network and

the vast and diverse stakeholders in our community. There are new governance structures

including procedures and policies to confidently work in partnership with consumers and a

committee structure which promotes diversity as much as providing opportunity for

authentic engagement.

I hope you enjoy this edition and reading about the assorted range of activities our

consumer workforce has been involved in.

This is the last edition of Consumer Newsletter for 2015. I’d like to wish you all well for the

festive season and that 2016 is even better. Merry Christmas and thank you for being part

of the team to ensure that our Network has a consumer footprint at its core.

Allan J Ball

Manager, Consumer & Community Engagement

December 2015 opportunities

Capacity Development Month: November

Health Literacy Group training

On 13 November, more than 16 staff joined Dr Anne Johnson, representing the HCASA, for a

discussion about how we can become a health literate organisation.

Person and Family Centred Care Network training

From 26-28 November, consumers and staff from the Person and Family Centred Care

Network met to discuss advancing the strategic focus on operational plans to become even

more person and family centred.

Person and Family Centered Care Network Training with HCASA

Review and Reflections:

December 11

9:30am – 10:30am.

Calling all Consumer Representatives

who have taken part in Network activities

in 2015 to gather in Room 102 at the

Women’s and Children’s Hospital (the

floor above Allan’s office) to review and

reflect on our achievements. We will also

be planning and co-designing capacity

development for 2016, so come prepared

with some ideas for training. RSVP by

10th December by emailing Allan.

Consumer Representatives

online space

The unit is currently looking for women

who have had an outpatient or birthing

experience and families of children

who have accessed day surgery to join

the online consultation database.

During January/and February

information will be uploaded, which

would benefit from your input. The

online database is a safe and secure

participatory space for the hospital and

Network. To join please email Allan

and he will send you the link. This is a

secure space.

December 18th please email Allan.

ActNow Theatre extravaganza

Local theatre company ActNow was engaged recently to host several training sessions with

WCHN staff and community members to discuss the notion of person and family centred

care and how it could be embraced by the Network. Three sessions were held over two days

at the Women’s and Children’s Hospital. A total of 133 staff attended the sessions. Divisions

represented included; Women’s and Babies, Surgical Services and Paediatric Medicine.

There was a mixture of clinical staff [Nurses, Midwives, Doctors, Clinicians and Allied

Health] (75%), non-clinical staff [administration and Spotless cleaning] (20%) and

executive/community members (5%). An essential part of the training was to have a

multidisciplinary cohort participate, in line with the network’s endorsement of ‘Person and

Family Centred’ as one of six underlying principles to guide all practice. Coupled with this is a

clear mandate from the Consumer and Community Engagement Unit that all staff of the

Network contributes to better health outcomes and we must exceed these outcomes for our

consumers.

The training was unique for the Network, as it involved the use of everyday technology such

as smartphones in lieu of lectures, butcher’s paper sessions and PowerPoint presentations.

Staff were asked to use their smartphone to answer questions anonymously throughout the

session with the collective results beaming live to a large screen for the wider audience to

reflect on and even have a laugh. Discussions were led by the Director of the ActNOW;

Edwin Kemp, four actors played out three consumer stories, which highlighted the features of

empathic, respectful and dignified care or lack of care. Following the role play sessions staff

were given opportunities to reflect on similar scenarios they had witnessed in real-world and

online conversations. Many thanks to the nine consumers who shared their stories to help

shape the scripts for this unique training session. The partnership between Act Now and

Women’s and Children’s Health Network is now a strong one. In 2016, a report which was

commissioned as part of an evaluation of this project recommends rolling this type of training

out further across the divisions and community teams.

If you are interested in reading the report or finding out more please contact Allan

Paediatric Medicine staff at one of the ActNow interactive training sessions

Proposed consumer experience structure We want to hear from you!

A refreshed system for gathering consumer feedback is currently being developed by the

Consumer and Community Partnership Council. The underlying principles of the refreshed

system are diversity, transparency and person and family centred care. The structure will

aim to reflect new developmentally appropriate data sources ranging from:

> Face painting feedback sessions (occurring for children and those young

at heart in the Hospital during school holidays);

> Online gathering tools such as Fabio the Frog (already rolled out in some

areas and others to come in 2016);

> Monthly Coffee Club for Consumers run by consumers to gather

feedback in a relaxed and percolated manner;

> Poetry Consumer Feedback – A Consumer Representative hears the

stories of consumers and relays their message back to them and shares

with the Network using poetry (to commence in March 2016);

> Letterboxes so children or teens can write to the managers of WCHN

units and wards and provide direct feedback ( to arrive in March 2016);

> Youth-led safety and quality walk rounds run by the Youth Advisory

Group so young people can have a say as to what is important to them

regarding safety and quality of care;

> Listening posts run by Consumer Representatives to listen directly to

consumers commenced in Women’s and Babies Division in 2015 and will

be rolled out to the Network in 2016;

> Executive leadership walk arounds with Consumer Representative

involvement (commenced in 2015 with Vicki being our star consumer);

> Ongoing commitment of a full-time coordinator of consumer feedback;

> A new management committee including a consumer to review themes

and trends before reporting to the Consumer Feedback and Improvement

Group.

Divisions and units across the Network will still be able to gather local feedback in their

unique way. For example, the Child Protection Unit recently launched a consumer feedback

survey which has had an amazing response rate including from some of our most vulnerable

consumers.

All the feedback analysis will be discussed by a proposed central management group made

up of safety and quality coordinators, Beth McErlean, Tanya Cheeseman and Allan. This

group will be responsible for pulling themes and trends into a report which will go to the

Consumer Feedback and Improvement Group for analysis.

To provide feedback into this process contact Allan and he will add you to the online

discussion.

Health Literacy Group

The beginning of a new era of consumer engagement and collaboration across the WCHN

commenced on Friday, 13 November when staff and consumers gathered for the inaugural

Health Literacy Group (HLG).

The role of the HLG is to review, monitor and provide effective oversight of the WCHN

becoming a health literate organisation. It aims to ensure WCHN effectively communicates

with diverse groups of consumer and community stakeholders and provides access to a wide

range of best practice community information about health issues, services and engagement

opportunities.

In the first 12 months the group will be responsible for:

> analysing what staff and consumers understand about health literacy > discovering examples of best practice within the WCHN > developing a framework that can be embedded within the culture of WCHN.

For further information contact: Kylie Eddy or Allan Ball

Introducing Penny Lello, Consumer Representative.

Co-Chair of the Consumer and Community Partnership Council

Who am I?

I am Penny. I had the pleasure of giving birth to my son in 2014 through the Women's and

Children's Hospital’s Midwifery Group Practice. We are truly grateful as a family to continue

to experience the support from truly gifted professionals in our new journey of growing a little

human being for the first time.

What does being on the Consumer and Community Partnership Council mean to me?

It means serving the hospital and Network to achieve their goals and being the bridge

between the realities of being a consumer and helping the hospital achieve their goals in

delivering outstanding health care in the future.

What do I want to achieve in my 24-month term?

If I can link my son, and those little and big people around us, – knowing how much little

people thrive on love in their care – closer to the hospital's redesign in initiatives I will feel

successful. It's all about creating services that truly serve the little and big people that use

them, touching them in truly transformative times of their lives.

What are some of the challenges facing the Health Network and what could be done to

resolve them?

There are lots of challenges ahead as digital disruption touches health more and

more. Keeping consumer voices at the heart of decision making will make a major difference.

What are WCHN’s greatest strengths?

The Network has already reached out to the voice of the little people it serves. Their voices in

their own words create the launchpad to do extraordinary things. Given that the hospital has

already taken these steps, wow, what a strength.

To be different we must think differently, what can you suggest as some creative ways

to bring on change?

Keep bringing in the voice of the little people as to what they want. It will mean change will

always be meaningful and be in service of the very important people.

What would you say to an aspiring consumer representative about being involved in

the WCHN?

Bring your passion, bring your heart, bring your soul.

New person and family centred care poster

A new poster is available for display in units and divisions reflecting the eight principles that

underpin person and family centred care for the Network. Contact Allan to get your copy.

SA Health Awards – Update

Sophie, Tessa, Health Consumers Alliance and staff from WCHN attended the SA Health

Awards on Friday 13 November. It was great to see consumers mix with staff in a celebratory

fashion. Four initiatives from the Network were finalists and one – Parent education program

for gavage feeding of preterm infants took out the award in the Research/Education in

Patient/Consumer Safety category”. The Developmental Care Group within SCBU/NICU is a

group of nurses, midwives and ancillary healthcare workers who meet monthly to discuss

strategies to actively involve parents in the care of their premature infant. It is recognized that

developmental care through a family centered care model, can improve the engagement

between parents and their preterm infant and contribute to improving long term outcomes. A

Cochrane Review in 2004 on Early Discharge with Home Support for Nasogastric (NGT)

Feeding via gavage, described benefits of educating parents on how to gavage their baby,

contributing to earlier discharge and positive parental satisfaction. In November 2012 the

Developmental Care Group discussed the development of an education package for parents

to learn and be evaluated on NGT feeding of their preterm infant while an inpatient. This

practice increases parental engagement with their preterm infants. Our Consumer and

Community Engagement and Responsiveness Strategy was a finalist for this year’s awards in

the Building and Strengthening Partnerships category. Thanks to Lil, Vicki and their kids

whohelped put together the promotional video for our nomination. You can view it here along

with the other finalists’ videos.

Safety Update: Pharmacy SMS notification trial

On Wednesday 11 November, Pharmacy will be trialling SMS notification to

patients/families/carers to communicate when medicines are ready for collection. This

initiative forms part of the internal Pharmacy review aiming to improve our dispensing

services. Any information please speak with the Pharmacy Team, but this is a great example

of how technology and person and family centred care has been adopted to improve the

consumer experience within the Network.

Consumer Engagement Leading CAMHS Radical Re-Design

Over the past 12 months consumers have been actively involved in the redesign of CAMHS.

From 24- 25 November; Jason, Tanya, Ingrid, Jane and Tiffany joined CAMHS staff, and

stakeholders from WCHN and beyond to reflect on what has been achieved. Jason, Ingrid

and Tanya hosted a 60-minute Q and A session and represented the consumer voice with

professionalism, flair and optimism.

Prior to the meeting Allan worked with the ELECT Group (peak parent and carer group for

CAMHS) to gain an understanding of what partnerships have meant to them over the last 12

months. Most importantly, the group is seeing a shift in perception of the consumer as a

“black sheep” to a conduit of quality feedback and co-design. Below is a summary of some

of the comments made at the ELECT meeting:

How would you describe your role as a Consumer Representative for the CAMHS over the past 12 months?

> Using lived experience.

> Having my voice heard.

> Being proactive.

> Being involved in change agency processes.

> Culture change.

> Being kept in the loop.

> Becoming more of an advocate.

> To open up staff who have been removed from consumer involvement.

> Influencing different perspectives.

> Seeing an appreciation of our voice, being wanted and needed.

What is something you have contributed and what was the impact?

> Boylan Ward having an educational staff member within its trial. More hours of

educational and vocational time being completed in Boylan Ward.

> That we advocated for CAMHS to be at the table when the better behavioural centres

meet. CAMHS staff will now be part of these conversations.

> Having early identification measures in place in CAMHS intervention processes.

> Having mental health education and advocacy within the educational setting.

> Starting conversations about what needs to be done for better health outcomes.

> Website design – What is developmentally appropriate for a kid and for a teenager.

What are the components that are required in a modern technological service.

> Crystalising ideas and giving direction over where to take redesign projects.

> Attending the Canberra THEMES conference in 2015 to learn about the advances in

child and teenage mental health services across Australia and New Zealand. WCHN

funded two consumers to attend.

What moments have been a highlight?

> Being able to fix gaps in service delivery.

> Being heard and having conversations with staff that I may never have chatted to.

> Having value.

> As a young person, who was an ex Boylan patient, I feel inspired that I have made a

change for others to improve the delivery of services for future young people.

> Getting up front and presenting to a staff group and being provided with the

opportunity to take part in a co-design forum.

> Being a consumer representative who went out and chatted to current users of

CAMHS and seeing their insight and the brilliance of their ideas for transforming

organisational thinking.

> Developing rich pictures of what an organisation should look like that deals with

children’s and teenagers’ mental health.

> At first it was like thinking about what the problem was, then there was some

murkiness where there was just a free for all of loads of ideas. But then, with

boundaries (put in place) decisions were made to focus our thinking and give the

organisation discipline to develop pilot projects.

> A freedom to dream.

> Having a CALD forum with many stakeholders involved talking about the cultural

group.

> The transition of ELECT from a core group of consumers to ELECT as a core group

linking up with current consumers.

What do you want to tell another consumer representative who is about to start in another division?

> Ask questions and listen actively.

> Draw clarity of what will be involved.

> Speak up when you think you have something valuable to add.

> You are always a valued member for the meeting.

> Watch your confidence grow.

> Be ready for a roller coaster ride of high emotions.

> To ask for feedback on your feedback to see if it is hitting the sweet spot.

> Be open to look at the themes and trends of current issues.

> Have networks to canvass.

Tanya, Ingrid and Tiffany consulting on a new model for Consumer Co-Design for CAMHS 2016 and beyond.

ELECT Meeting on November 9h to prepare for the CAMHS radical redesign presentation

Ingrid, Jason and Tanya training CAMHS staff and WCHN stakeholders including Executive at West Beach

Communicating with consumers around the Network

Communication with our consumer and their families is important, not just for safety and

quality but for ensuring that consumers are aware of other services they can access,

understand how they can give feedback and how, as a Network, we are supporting an

increase in their health literacy levels. Below are some great examples of how well we

communicate with our consumers across the Network.

Aboriginal Liaison Unit displaying consumer

information for Aboriginal and Torres Strait

Islander consumers, including feedback forms and

how to get involved with the Network.

Surgical Ward activities consume poster

Women’s and Babies Division foyer; information about birthing from around the world in languages other than English.

Celebrating the 1000 mark

In August the Network launched a Know your Rights Colouring Book and Teen Postcard for

our youngest consumers. In November, we surpassed the 1000 mark with the assistance of

Surgical Services and Disability/Complex Care ordering and distributing of over 400 of these.

And in the last month, the My Time team within Disability/Complex Care has distributed 300

to its consumers.

This initiative is another example of how important it is to communicate at a level that can be

understood by younger consumers.

Consumer Snapshot

Over the past month:

The Network hosted it first Health Literacy Group.

Vikki went on her second Leadership Safety and Quality Walk Around in Day

Surgery.

Strong feedback received from Mark Avery who provided insight into how well the

Network is doing in meeting the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in

Health Care standards. Standard 2 was represented well by consumers and staff.

SA Health Awards 2015 were held with Governing Council Presiding Member

Margaret Wallace, WCHN CEO Naomi Dwyer, Executive Director, Corporate

Service Phil Robinson, Allan Ball and other staff attending along with HCASA staff

and consumers representing WCHN.

In November, CAMHS hosted its final two days for the Radical Redesign for

which ELECT (peak consumer group for carers and parents for CAMHS) with

Jason and Jane prepared a 60 minute Q and A session Executive Directors heard

about the new programs which have been highly influenced by the consumers

from across the community.

Consumer and Community Partnering Council held its second meeting. They

provided endorsement on the Implementation Plan, which will now be provided to

the Chairs of the Consumer Governance System for implementation. Penny was

nominated and approved as Co-Chair with the CEO. The first consumer reports

from the Youth Advisory Group, Health Literacy Group and Person and Family

Centred Care Group were discussed.

Divisions are busy with large improvements and ideas about Person and Family

Centred Care. There are new information brochures coming from Paediatric

Medicine, Outpatients, and discussions about virtual billboards for WABS and a

host of initiatives for the CAMHS Radical Redesign.

ActNow hosted their training, and nine consumers were absorbed all month

providing feedback into the scripts and sharing their stories to be shaped for the

training days on 11 and 12 November with 133 staff from the Hospital.

The second Coffee Club was hosted by Tara, Sharon and Fiona. A growing turn-

out was recorded. The Consumer Coffee Club provides another way for

consumers to provide feedback, this time to peers which is captured and taken to

the Consumer Feedback and Improvement Group.

On 25 November, the Network hosted a White Ribbon Event, in which

consumers joined staff to take an oath to stop violence against women. Allan

warmly received and was humbled to be nominated an Ambassador alongside

other male staff across the Network. This is an important social and health

initiative.

Consumers have helped provide feedback to Rose Ward for the Oxim Information

Patient Sheet.

Allan attended the Trauma and Emergency Department Open Day on Thursday

19 November, which was open to community members; and it also had the

pictures developed by the School Ambassador Program on show to the

community.

CaFHS held its first Safety and Quality meeting with consumer representatives.

CaFHS is leading the way by including Consumer input into designing safe

systems.

Allan has been active in enhancing the consumer voice across the Network

evidenced by; a new safety and quality health promotion initiative using paper

cups from the Café, speaking at the Southern CaFHS full-day training session on

person and family centred care approaches, and working with Karen Ross and the

administration team on what person and family centred care must look like.

Tessa attended and presented at the Women’s Healthcare Australasia

Conference in Melbourne and reflected the work we are doing in the Network at a

National Level.

Consumer and Community Engagement Unit launched a new poster for Units and

Divisions, “8 ways to be person and family centred”. Staff have already been using

it across the Network for educational purposes and for communicating with

consumers.

E-learning module for partnering with consumers was launched. The module

focuses on providing staff with a solid grounding in the principles of person and

family centred care. The Women’s and Children’s Health Network has had the

largest uptake of staff of any LHN participating in the training.

Online consultation space welcomed six new consumers this month. There is

No Such Thing as a Silly Question, MET Call Out, Safety Messages on Paper

Cups and Welcome to the Hospital Information Guide had around 42 unique

consumer representatives provide feedback through online mechanisms. The

online engagement space is certainly heating up.

Allan represented the Network with consumers to speak at a panel on consumer

advocacy on Monday 23 November for the Health Consumers Alliance of South

Australia, Annual General Meeting.

For more information

Consumer and Community Engagement Unit

Women’s and Children’s Health Network

72 King William Road

North Adelaide SA 5006

Telephone: 8161 6935

Email: Allan.Ball@sa.gov.au

www.wch.sa.gov.au

© Department for Health and Ageing, Government of South Australia. All rights reserved.

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Edwin (Director of ActNow) and Manal (Actor) training staff.

Sharon, Tara and Fiona at the Coffee Club in November

Vicki with WCH Surgical Staff (name of staff member??) and Director of Strategy

CAMHS, Liz Prowse during one of the Safety Walk Arounds.

Staff using SMART phone in ACT

NOW Training.

WCHN staff and Tessa and Sophie using the photo

booth at the SA Health Awards 2015