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• Next Meeting (In-Person)
• Upcoming Events
• Useful Info & Updates
• Service Updates
• Policy Update & Surveys

The next meeting is our In-Person Networking Meeting on:

Wednesday the 29th of April, 10am to 11:30am 

We look forward to seeing you at the Chifley Health Hub, 70 Maclaurin Crecent, Chifley, ACT, 2606.

Click on the below link to go to the tickets page and register.  

Here are some upcoming events you might be interested in.

Canberra Health Services (CHS) is reviewing its Research Strategy which expired at the end of 2025.

The strategy sets out how CHS will build a stronger research culture, work more closely with academic partners, and involve consumers, carers, and communities in health research. 

Time: 12noon-2:30pm

Date: Wednesday, 22 April 2026

Location: Community Room, Chifley Community Centre, 70 Maclaurin Cres, Chifley

Join us if you are a community member and:

• Have used CHS services (or cared for someone who has)
• Are interested in how health research is done and the role of consumers, carer and community
• Want to help shape research priorities for the ACT community
• Have been involved in research partnerships or are interested

No research experience required. Community members will be provided a $50 gift voucher to thank them for their participation.

RSVP to Jutta Thwaites via email [email protected] 

Please let us know if you can attend by Friday 10 April 2026.

HCCA are inviting consumer representatives to take part in a focus group session to help shape the planning and design of the new Northside Hospital Project.

Consumer experience and practical insights will help ensure the hospital is safe, welcoming, inclusive, and accessible for patients, families, carers, and visitors.

Focus Session - Accessibility

Thursday 9th April: 10am-12 noon

Online via Teams

In this session, we will discuss how to make the new hospital easy to access and navigate for everyone.  Discussion topics may include:

• Accessible toilets and change rooms
• Mobility aid parking and storage
• All-gender amenities
• Changing places and facilities

If you would like to attend this session, please RSVP to [email protected] and a link will be provided prior to the session.

Some of our long term HCCA members have been working on a project with Wiser Healthcare looking to address misinformation from social media influencers. Wiser is the research collaborative the focusses on overdiagnosis and overtreatment. HCCA has been involved in Wiser for about 10 years. 

They have developed, and now launched, a small novel research-based campaign, which aims to use evidence-based social media posts to raise awareness, and debunk misleading health information promoted by some influencers online.

The campaign arose from a major study published last year in JAMA Network Open, finding widespread misleading information in influencer and social media posts about widely promoted medical tests:  https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2830758.

They have three topics for the newly created evidence-based posts, starting with Full Body MRI Scans, then AMH as Fertility Tests then last with Testosterone Tests.

The posts on Whole Body MRI are out now. Check them out at the below links, and feel free to share this messaging around health misinformation on social media. 

https://www.instagram.com/p/DWNXtg5CV4M/ 

https://www.facebook.com/reel/1271122994522747 

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/f4PC4N6xrA8

Please find the latest service updates from our most recent Chronic Conditions Network Meeting where we talked about upskilling members in consumer participation. 

In 2022 HCCA did some work for the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care about what consumers need to be able to give informed consent to health care procedures. Following that work, HCCA will soon be reviewing two new information resources the Commission has drafted. These are intended to give practical guidance about informed consent to patients and also to people who are substitute decision makers for others.

We are looking for people who are interested in reviewing these guides from a patient perspective or from a substitute decision maker perspective. Each guide is 4-5 pages long. To provide feedback you could

• participate in a focus group
• have a one-on-one chat with staff
• review a copy and provide written comments

If you are interested in helping us review and provide feedback on these guides, please complete this expression of interest form. The team is looking forward to hearing your feedback.

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