The newsletter of the Health Care Consumers’ Association Inc.
Volume 12 / Issue 05 / 19 April 2025

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Some fabulous events have been held and attended by the team this fortnight. Here’s a couple of photos, and you can check out more details of what we’ve been up to in the Health Literacy section below.

The team held a great event which provided information to the community for Advance Care Planning week. Don’t miss our blog post with all the resources!

Ivapene met with members of the African Australian Council ACT, Dr Yvette, Soelily and Purity to celebrate International Women's Day.

Have you recently received an invoice from ACT Pathology for services you received as far back as 2022?

We’ve heard from several people who have been sent invoices for services they received up to two years ago. Canberra Health Services advises that the delay in sending these invoices is due to a new invoicing system introduced in November 2022, as part of the move to a Digital Health Record.

If you’ve received a delayed invoice, we’d love to hear about your experience. HCCA is following up with Canberra Health Services and wants to understand how this delay may have affected you.

To share your experience, please call the HCCA office at 6230 7800 or email jessicalamb@hcca.

Canberra Health Services (CHS) is improving access to outpatient appointments and elective surgery through the introduction of a new Operations Centre in 2025. This initiative aims to improve coordination and reduce wait times for patients needing planned (non-emergency) care.

HCCA is actively involved in this work.

We are establishing a consumer reference group to help strengthen the consumer input we provide to this project, and we are looking for members.

Please get in touch with us if you are interested in this opportunity, and in the last 2 years you have:

• had a public outpatient appointment at Canberra Health Services and/or
• had elective surgery done at Canberra Health Services or
• have been on a public waitlist in the last 2 years for an outpatient appointment at Canberra Health Services.

To learn more about the group and express your interest in joining our consumer reference group, please visit Consumer Opportunities . You can read the Terms of Reference for the group here.

You may have noticed a familiar face/ voice back in the office- Charlotte has returned from adventures to help us out for a few months with keeping the HCCA office running smoothly. In other news, Darcy has moved over into a new role as a Project Officer on the QUM project, and Yelena has become our new Health Infrastructure Project Officer. We’re delighted to welcome them (back) into these roles!

We are currently recruiting to fill the HCCA Admin Officer, and the Consumer Representatives Program Coordinator roles. So if you, or someone you know belongs with us, drop us a line!

Kate Gorman
Acting Executive Director

The following is a statement from Canberra Health Services (CHS) regarding changes to the home visits service: 

"Following two recent serious incidents involving Canberra Health Services (CHS) team members during home visits, the health service has been working with WorkSafe ACT and CHS staff to ensure it has the best possible strategies in place to keep team members safe.

CHS has strengthened its risk assessment tool and team members are using it regularly. For consumers, this means you may be asked the same questions before each visit. Please understand this is about ensuring your health professional is safe to visit.

CHS is also ensuring team members have a duress device at all visits and that their manager knows where they are at all times.
Individual services are working through plans to ensure they can continue to deliver care, while ensuring the safety of staff. Ideally this will continue to be in the home. However, CHS is using alternatives such as community-based facilities where a home visit is not feasible.

One service that has been temporarily affected is the Advanced Care Planning (ACP) team. The ACP team is temporarily helping in the Home Visit Contact Centre, supporting the safety of staff as they conduct home visits.

Council on the Ageing (COTA) clinics were initially cancelled for four weeks, but it is likely these clinics will be reinstated sooner, once CHS rolls out a more permanent solution to support their staff in the community. CHS team members will return to their ACP role as soon as possible.

There has also been increased pressure on some clinic-based appointments where the health service had to reduce their capacity to offer home visits. This is minimal at this stage.

CHS apologises to any affected consumers. Any patients who are directly affected will be contacted by their treatment team."

You can get information about Advance Care Planning on the HCCA website or call the National Advance Care Planning Hotline on 1300 208 582. If you need someone to witness an Enduring Power of Attorney, you can visit a Justice of the Peace signing centre.

In this Issue

• Infrastructure Update
• Policy and Research Update
• Health Literacy Update
• Chronic Conditions Network Update
• Consumer Involvement and Representative Opportunities
• Items of Interest

Upcoming HCCA Events

Thursday 3 April, 6pm – 7:30pm
Online via Zoom

In this 1.5-hour online webinar, led by a certified Exercise Physiologist Dylan Grubb, participants will gain valuable insights and practical tools for safely incorporating exercise into their daily routine, even while managing chronic conditions. Whether you're living with arthritis, diabetes, heart disease, or any other long-term health condition, this session will provide you with the knowledge and strategies you need to move confidently and effectively. 

What you’ll learn: 

• Understanding Chronic Conditions and Exercise: Discover how chronic conditions can affect the body and how exercise can help improve quality of life, reduce symptoms, and manage long-term health. 

• Exercise Guidelines for Safety and Effectiveness: Learn evidence-based recommendations on the types, intensity, and duration of exercise suitable for various chronic conditions. Our expert Exercise Physiologist will guide you on how to modify exercises to meet your specific needs. 

• Building a Sustainable Exercise Routine: Get some tips on how to develop a personalised exercise plan that fits your lifestyle and goals, including advice on staying motivated and avoiding common exercise barriers. 

• Interactive Q&A: Have your questions answered in the Q&A session after the main presentation.
• Exercise and Wellness Resources: Walk away equipped with resources and tools, plus recommendations for additional support or classes you can explore post-webinar. 

For more information on this or other free health seminars provided by the Health Care Consumers’ Association of the ACT contact: [email protected] or phone: 6230 7800.

Learn more and register for Managing Your Health - Exercising with Chronic Conditions and Pain 

Infrastructure Update

Yesterday our team toured the new Emergency Department at Canberra Hospital to assess the current progress and see how the various pods are working with the pre-triage model. It was great to see our suggestions come to life as well as offer further input and advice on how they can improve this space.

Yelena will now be working as our Health Infrastructure Project Officer, where she will continue to support our projects. Watch this space for more exciting changes and developments!

Ivapene, Yelena, C, and Sam Scanlan touring the Canberra Hospital Emergency Department

— Yelena
(Infrastructure Project Officer)

Policy and Research Update

We are looking for consumers who want to help create resources that explain the Voluntary Assisted Dying process. These resources will support people considering using the service when it becomes available in November 2025.

If you:

• Support access to Voluntary Assisted Dying with appropriate safeguards
• Are interested in giving feedback on consumer information
• Can attend a meeting in-person on Wednesday 30 April 2025 from 10 am to 12 pm

We would love to hear from you!

To register your interest, please call the HCCA office at 6230 7800 or email [email protected].

As part of the HealthANSWERS "Evidence to Practice" series, HCCA are running a webinar.

Find out how a successful co-design process resulted in a creation of a new in-demand support service helping families of children with complex needs to navigate complexities of cross-border healthcare arrangements between the ACT and NSW.

If you work to improve healthcare services, are a researcher working with consumers, a community member, or are just interested in better patient care, this session will identify how you can collaborate with all parts of the system to successfully deliver practical solutions the community needs and will use.

Date and time: Friday, 28 March, 1-2pm

Location: Online, via Teams

— the Policy and Research team
(Jess, Stephen, and Shivana)

Health Literacy Update

It’s been a busy couple of weeks for the health literacy team with lots of information sessions and events including:

• Teaching University of Canberra Occupational Therapy students about Culturally Appropriate Health Care
• Presenting at Carers ACT about Managing Your Medicines with our friends from the North Canberra Hospital pharmacy.
• Sharing information about Advance Care Planning with Meridian’s men’s group
• Speaking to the Adult Migrant English Program students about Staying Safe in Hospital
• Talking to the seniors' social group at the Woden Community Service about Trusted Health Information

Image: Ivapene and University of Canberra Occupational Therapy students

For Advance Care Planning week 2025, we worked with Northside Community Services to put on an event at Majura Community Hall. We invited a whopping 8 organisations to present:

• Northside’s Care Finder
• Canberra Health Services’ Advance Care Planning team
• Services Australia
• ACT Public Trustee and Guardian
• Palliative Care ACT
• Pets and Positive Ageing
• ACT Health’s Voluntary Assisted Dying Taskforce
• Canberra Memorial Parks

We had a great time and many attendees said this was a fun way to learn about some difficult topics. We’ve gathered up all the useful resources and links over on our blog.

You can learn more about planning ahead on the Canberra Health Literacy Hub.

In addition, the team was out and about attending a few community events:

• Iftar Dinner celebrating the spirit of ‘Togetherness & Harmony’ with the Bluestar Institute.
• International Women’s Day celebration hosted by the African Australian Council & East African Community Association of Canberra
• YUMA Day – gathering and celebration in memory of Yerrabi’s Inaugural Patron and esteemed Ngunnawal Elder.

Image: MACM members - Shanti, Zakia, Dr Lubna, Izabela, Ivapene at the Bluestar Institute's Iftar Dinner

— the Health Literacy team
(C and Ivapene)

Our survey for people with disability and carers on health literacy is closing on 31 March. We want to hear from you about:

• how you find and use information about health
• your experiences of communication in health care
• what would make it easier for you to get the information you need.

Click here to do the survey online or if you would prefer an interview over the phone or in person, contact us at [email protected] or call 02 6230 7800 to make a time.

As we get older, changes in our health, losing loved ones, or feeling lonely can leave us sad or anxious. However, feeling down or anxious for many weeks is not a normal part of ageing.

There are many things you can do to get back to feeling well. You can use this new factsheet to help you talk to your health professionals about:

• psychological therapies
• things you can do at home
• psychological therapies
• antidepressant medicines
• what is important to you for your treatment decisions

Download the decision aid on ‘Depression or anxiety later in life: getting back to feeling well’ from our Quality Use of Medicines website. You can also find other evidence-based, resources developed with consumers to help you make informed decisions about taking antidepressant medications.

HCCA has been working closely with Eczema Support Australia (ESA) in our Quality Use of Medicines Program. Join ESA's free online webinar on Tuesday, 8 April 2025 at 10:00 AM AEST.

This webinar is a great opportunity to get practical tips on managing eczema and have your questions answered by an expert panel. It would be best for people living with eczema, their families and carers, as well as health professionals looking for up-to-date advice.

Click here for more details and to register for the webinar.

Chronic Conditions Network Update

Michelle had an exciting week this week, presenting to the first year Occupational Therapy (OT) students at the University of Canberra about the ‘Patient Journey of OT’. Michelle co-presented with Marcia Kimball, the Chair of Parkinson’s ACT and they both told a personal story to the students to help them get an understanding of patient-centered care.

Michelle talked about her 6yo son Ned’s experience with OT for his ADHD brain, and Marcia talked about her husband John’s experience with OT through their journey with Parkinson’s disease for the last 17 years. It was a lot of fun meeting the students and we hope they enjoyed our presentation.

— Michelle
(Chronic Conditions Network Coordinator)

Consumer Involvement and Representative Opportunities

Please visit Consumer Opportunities on the HCCA website to learn more about, and nominate for, any of the following opportunities.

Closing Soon!  Closing date: Friday, 28 March 2025

Have you used public health services in the last 2 years?

You might be interested in joining our Planned Care Consumer Reference Group.

Canberra Health Services is working to improve how people access public health services in a program of work called Planned Care.

The reference group will help HCCA to:

• Understand the experiences of people using public health services
• advise on the design, implementation, and evaluation of the Planned Care project at Canberra Health Services
• Advise on information and communication that CHS will provide to consumers who are using public health services

We are looking for members who in the last 2 years have:

• Had a public outpatients appointment at Canberra Health Services
• Had elective surgery done at Canberra Health Services
• Have been on a public waitlist in the last 2 years for an outpatients appointment at Canberra Health Services.

You can read the Terms of Reference for the group here

To learn more, please visit the Consumer Opportunities

Closing Soon!  Closing date: Friday, 28 March 2025

The University of Canberra is looking for 3 more consumer representatives to join the Community Partnership Group of the Clinical Research Rehabilitation and Translation group. This group launched in 2024, to raise the quality and community relevance of research at the University. Community Partnership group members are people with lived experience or carers of someone with a health condition or experience of clinical care or rehabilitation. Researchers will pitch a research idea or ask for the group to discuss a grant funding application, or results of a study or something that needs community perspectives. Members share their views, experience and opinions on these research ideas, research project designs, outcomes, or suggestions on how to make research more accessible for community members.

You can nominate for this opportunity using the online form, or by calling the HCCA office on 6230 7800.

 New!  Closing date: Friday, 04 April 2025

Canberra Health Services is looking for a consumer representative to join the Policy Document Review Panel. The panel’s role is to provide advice to guide policy development. The panel provides oversight of CHS policy documents reviews evaluations of high-risk documents with any relevant lessons learned fed back to divisions, committees or working groups. The panel makes sure policies are person centred, evidence-based and focused on the needs of consumers and carers, as well as aligning with legislation and other requirements (e.g., National Safety and Quality Health Service Standards). The panel meets once a month on every fourth Wednesday.

To learn more or nominate, please visit Consumer Opportunities

 New!  Closing date: Friday, 04 April 2025

Capital Health Network is looking for a consumer representative to join the Capital Health Network Clinical Advisory Council. The role of the council is to provide advice and feedback to the Capital Health Network (CHN) Board and management about CHN key projects, commissioning initiatives, and strategic objectives. The Clinical Council provide recommendations to the Board on key Commonwealth deliverables and initiatives relating to CHNs priority areas. The council meets minimum 4 times per year in person or online.

To learn more or nominate, please visit Consumer Opportunities

 New!  Closing date: Friday, 04 April 2025

Capital Health Network (CHN) is looking for two consumer representatives to join the Capital Health Network Community Advisory Council. The role of the community council is to provide recommendations/advice to the CHN Board and the CEO on community priority health needs and service gaps. The council also assesses if CHN activities, strategies and initiatives are consumer-focused (based on consumer feedback and preferences). The Community Advisory Council will also work with CHN’s Advisory Councils and, other community consultation mechanisms via ACT health. The Community Advisory Council meets minimum four times per year in person or online. Each meeting may last 2-3 hours.

The IMAP Steering Committee oversees IMAP Project implementation. The goal of this project is to develop a sustainable intra-muscular injection (IMI) nursing and medical officer education package. This involves a train the trainer program. This program will also focus on the administration of long acting injectables (LAIs) such as antipsychotic medication. It will introduce nurses and medical officers to the ventrogluteal medication administration site, which is considered best practice for deep IMIs. Suitable for new or experienced consumer representative. This committee may suit someone with a lived/living experience of receiving medications in the form of an injection, particularly people who have been on an LAI (commonly referred to as a depot) medication. If you are interested in nominating for this committee, please complete this form and send it to [email protected]

Items of Interest

The Optometry Board of Australia is seeking applications to fill a role for a community member on the Board’s Registration and Notifications Committee (RNC). For more information about this opportunity, please see the news item on the Board’s website, You can also apply for the position, and download the Committee’s terms of reference and applicant information guide here.

Appointment to the vacancy will assist the Board in achieving a balance of practitioner and community members on the RNC, and we are particularly interested in receiving applications from Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander people and people from diverse backgrounds.

 If you are an Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander person and would like to discuss the opportunity, please email [email protected].

For all other general enquiries, please email [email protected]

CarerHelp is offering free online information sessions throughout 2025, designed to support carers of individuals nearing the end of life.

Upcoming sessions include:

Session 1: Preparing for Care as Illness Progresses

Session 2: Preparing for the Final Weeks

Session 3: Life Beyond Loss – Navigating Grief

NRHA members, Advanced Pharmacy Australia (AdPha) and the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP) announced the release of a first-of-its-kind Medication Management at Transitions of Care resource kit to help Australians, and their care teams, through one of the riskiest stages of the patient journey.

Developed by AdPha and RACGP and addressing one of the key issues recognised by the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care, the kit comprises resources to support clear, accurate and timely communication as patients transition through care providers.

**FREE interpreter services available over the phone via the Australian Government’s Translation and Interpreting Service (TIS) on 131 450**

© 2025 Health Care Consumers' Association Inc, All rights reserved. Edited by Kate Gorman.

Our mailing address is:
70 Maclaurin Crescent Chifley ACT 2606
02 6230 7800

Consumer Bites is the newsletter of the Health Care Consumers' Association. Consumer Bites provides a small snippet of health related articles our members might find interesting to consider and analyse. The HCCA does not endorse any opinions or the claims contained within the articles.

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