The newsletter of the Health Care Consumers’ Association Inc.
Volume 20 / Issue 20 / 5 November 2025

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It is Annual Report season. At HCCA we are putting the finishing touches on our Annual Report and look forward to sharing that at the AGM on 12 November 2025.

The ACT Government agencies have released their Annual Reports and we have been reviewing the report for Canberra Health Services.

It clearly shows the pressure the public system is under. As consumers and carers we see this and experience it regularly. We know there are issues with timeliness of care. The waiting times for many services are outside the clinically recommended timeframes.

The key Issues in 2024-25 were:

• increasing Demand and Capacity Pressures
• recruiting and retaining skilled staff
• need to improve data systems and performance monitoring, and the DHR needs optimisation
• financial Sustainability is an issue and Balancing growth in demand with budgetary constraints is a core concern
• infrastructure Projects are underway or planned
• increasing access with more care closer to home and moving into community settings.

The report includes some good news. There was record investment in health infrastructure and health services. And the average time patients spent in ACT emergency departments decreased from 9h 49m in 2022-23 to 8h 6m in 2023-24.

We are interested to hear from members on your response to this report.

Yelena commenced parental leave at the end of September. We wish her and her family all the best for this exciting time. We are pleased that Janine Lourensz started with HCCA on 7 October to cover Yelena’s parental leave. Janine will be working 24 hours per week and her standard work days will be Tuesday – Thursday and will be focused on consumer input into the health infrastructure program.

Darlene Cox
Executive Director

In this Issue

• Upcoming HCCA Events
• Policy and Research Update
• Health Literacy Update
• Health Literacy - QUM Update
• Chronic Conditions Network Update
• Consumer Involvement and Representative Opportunities
• Items of Interest

Upcoming HCCA Events

Wednesday 12 November, 12pm – 2:00pm

The HCCA 2025 Annual General Meeting (AGM) is coming up soon. This year at the AGM we will say farewell to Darlene Cox who is leaving the Executive Director’s role in January 2026 after 18 years at the helm. We will hold the business of the meeting first, then move on to the farewell.

To attend the AGM in person, please register before 5 November 2025. If you are attending the Business of the Meeting via Zoom, please register by 10 November 2025. Only the Business of the Meeting will be held in hybrid format.

Policy and Research Update

Community Health Centres offer a combination of walk-in and appointment-based services.  A range of services is offered covering primary preventative care, secondary preventative care, early intervention, and the management of acute and chronic complex illnesses in the community. Services include physical assessment, treatment, health education and promotion, community support and range of group programmes for non-admitted patients. Services are provided by a range of health professionals and often collocated to facilitate access.

The Model of Service contains the principles and benefits for Community Health Centres.

If you would like to receive a copy of the Model of Service and/or provide input on it please contact Shivana on [email protected] or telephone (02) 6230 7800 by Monday 3 November 2025.

This forum is a key opportunity to provide feedback on the latest version of the Model of Care, especially for those with lived experience of forensic inpatient services. Your insights will help shape future improvements to care delivery.

The in-person policy forum is on Thursday 23 October 2025 from 1pm to 2:30pm. Afternoon tea will be provided and an RVSP for in-person attendance is vital to ensure adequate seating and catering on the day.

A copy of the Model of Service can be obtained from Dia Andrews, Policy & Participation Coordinator at [email protected] or telephone (02) 6230 5796.

The National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) have announced that they will be changing how they manage the Sapphire grant management system. To help with these changes, they are asking stakeholders (including consumers) who have used Sapphire to share their experiences and suggest ways to improve it.

If you have used Sapphire when involved in research in the past, we invite you to fill out the Sapphire user experience survey.

The NHMRC also plan to set up external reference groups to contribute to requirements gathering and user acceptance testing throughout different stages of the project.

If you are interested in joining a Sapphire refresh reference group, please add this when you fill out the Sapphire user experience survey. Or, email [email protected] and let them know you are a consumer who would like to be involved in a Sapphire refresh reference group.

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

Health Literacy Update

On Monday, C presented a session on Staying Safe in Hospital online. This session covered some risks you and your visitors should know about, like infections, falls and pressure injuries. You can get tips on how to stay safe and how to raise the alarm in our Staying Safe booklets.

Ivapene attended many community events in the last fortnight:

— the Health Literacy team
(C and Ivapene)

Drop the Jargon is a campaign held every year during health literacy month that reminds health workers about the importance of plain language. Plain language means:

• Swapping medical jargon for everyday terms
• Explaining any jargon that you can’t put in plain language
• Using the active voice in communication
• Avoiding idioms or cultural sayings
• Avoiding acronyms and abbreviations

Drop the Jargon have tips on their website to help workers drop the jargon every day. You can also support the campaign by adding the jargon term that annoys you to the JARGON BEGONE! List.

Saturday 11 October was World Hospice and Palliative Care Day (WHPCD). The theme for 2025 is Achieving the Promise: Universal Access to Palliative Care. The aim is to understand what’s needed for a world with universal access to palliative care.

Capital Health Network’s (CHN) Palliative Care Planning team is running a survey to understand death literacy of people in the ACT. Death literacy is the knowledge and skills you have about end-of-life options. Tools like the Death Literacy Index can measure the knowledge and skills people have. Results from the survey can help CHN find opportunities for improving death literacy in the ACT.

Take 2 minutes to do the survey on CHN’s My Say website.

October is Mental Health Month, and this year Mental Health Carers Voice — the peak body for mental health carers in the ACT — is inviting carers to share their experiences. They are gathering feedback and ideas from carers to inform their advocacy and drive improvements across the ACT mental health system. This is their 3^rd survey since 2019, which builds a picture of carer experiences over time.

You can take part in the survey online.

Health Literacy - QUM Update

Last week the team facilitated a menopause focus group with 14 multicultural women who shared their experiences of menopause. They highlighted challenges around managing symptoms, finding reliable information/support and the stigma that still surrounds menopause. Their insights will help guide the QUM menopause program in creating useful and inclusive resources for people experiencing menopause.

With Mental Health Month in Australia, we encourage you to check out our video series My Journey with Antidepressants. This is a 4-part series about four older adults lived experience. You may spot a familiar HCCA member while watching! The videos also feature key information, tips and advice from GP Dr Caroline West.

The series shares what it is like to take antidepressants. It covers:

• the reasons they started taking antidepressants
• how it felt to take them
• what it was like to come off them
• the lessons they learned

— the QUM team
(Kathryn, Nadia and Darcy)

Chronic Conditions Network Update

We had a full house for our child development pathways event on Friday the 10^th October at Northside Community Service. We had speakers from across the public, private and community sectors rotate around the 'cafe' to talk to participants about their services and supports for children with developmental differences. I really enjoyed hosting this event as it was a new and different health topic for HCCA, and we made some great new connections.

Below is a special resource that was made for the event on 'How to have Useful Conversations on Child Development'. There are two versions so far - one for educators, and one for parents. We are thinking of developing one for Health Care Professionals and GPs (I'll keep you posted!).

I'll include a link to the 'virtual goody bag' below as well which provides all the flyers given out by the services on the day. Enjoy perusing!

Virtual Goody Bag.pdf

Child Development Conversations - Parents

Child Development Conversations - Educators

— 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.

 New!  Closing date: Sunday 29th November 2025

Based at the Australian and New Zealand Intensive Care Research Centre (ANZIC-RC), Monash University. The Consumer and Community Connection Committee is a registry of interested consumers and carers who have lived experience with intensive care and wish to inform future research activities.

To learn more and to apply, please fill out the Expression of Interest form or go to the ANZIC-RC website.

 New!  Closing date: 9th November 2025

The Department of Health, Disability and Ageing are looking for people with a range of experience, including health consumer leadership to be appointed to the Australian Medical Research Advisory Board (AMRAB). They are looking for applications from a diverse range of people: from consumers and advocates to mid-career researchers and leaders in the health and medical research sector. There are opportunities available for both Member and Deputy Chair roles.

The AMRAB plays a key role in shaping the future of health and medical research in Australia. They determine the Australian Medical Research and Innovation Strategy and Priorities.

If you are interested in being involved in guiding national priorities and strategies for health and medical research, and have relevant experience, we encourage you to apply.

Items of Interest

The Australian Frailty Network is developing a new frailty education website designed for consumers, caregivers, and anyone interested in healthy ageing. This website will empower people to prevent and manage frailty through accessible and user-friendly education and resources.

We would like to hear from consumers (people affected by frailty, at risk of experiencing frailty, or interesting in healthy ageing), caregivers, healthcare professionals, researchers, educators, and peak body/advocacy organisations. Your input will help us to develop an education website that empowers Australians to age well. By completing the survey, you can go into the draw to receive a gift card.

To complete the Co-designing digital frailty education for consumers and caregivers survey here.

If you would like a paper copy of the survey or have any questions about the research, please contact Dr Sakshi Chopra: [email protected]. 

A Choice test found most popular sunscreens in Australia don’t meet their SPF claims, prompting a TGA review. Experts urge using sunscreen along with hats, shade, and clothing for full protection.

Read more on the ABC News website.

**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 Darlene Cox.

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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