Why should lived-experience have a seat at the table?
As public an activity as advocacy is, you might be surprised to know that most significant systemic reform and innovation in health happens behind closed doors. Because of this, the question of who gets a seat at the table where decisions that effect millions of people are being made is a crucial one.
Not having the right voices in the room representing values and communities that often go unheard is one of the key reasons that the public often disengages from or is critical of the services they end up with.
In addition, it means that important design and governance decisions are made without the input of the most important stakeholder in any health initiative: the patient or health consumer.
“Harry - thank you for your inspired thinking based on your experiences of the health system. We can do so much more in co-design of services with our patients and consumers. Keep us honest Harry.”
Committee and expert working group memberships are a forum in which I can draw on my lived-experience and expertise in other areas of professional work to represent the interests of health consumers and offer unique insight in an environment that can often be difficult to engage with from the outside.
By having a seat at that table, the public can have confidence that their concerns, values, and ideas are reaching an audience of health industry, peak body, and government executives - and are being incorporated into the design and delivery of services and strategies.
My membership of these committees and working groups also empowers me to challenge ways of thinking, and advocate for governance structures in the future that are built on principles of accessibility and transparency to earn public trust, and empower other lived-experiences advocates to join me at the decision-making table.
notable current, and former committee and expert advisory group memberships I hold include
Co-Chair of MyHealth Record Improvement Group (board advisory committee), Australian Digital Health Agency
Australian Youth Advocate for Mental Health (AYAMH) - headspace, Orygen, Batyr, Beyond Blue, Butterfly Foundation, Black Dog Inst., Mind, Sane Australia, Consumer’s Health Forum, Australian Federal Government
Health consumer representative on National Children’s Digital Health Collaborative Steering Committee - Australian Digital Health Agency, Australian Department of Health, and eHealth NSW
Youth mental health representative on National Suicide Prevention Task-force Summit - Australian Department of Health, National Mental Health Commission, and Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet
Consumer Representative - National Health and Medical Research Council’s Consumer Advisory Committee, and Health Priority One Working Group
Youth Health Forum Steering Committee member - Consumer’s Health Forum of Australia and Youth Health Forum
Consumer and Community Advisory Group member - National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC)
Health consumer representative on MBS Expert Committee - Australian Psychology Society, Australian Department of Health, and Medicare
Health consumer representative on NSW Agency for Clinical Innovation and NSW Clinical Excellence Commission’s Joint Consumer Advisory Committee - NSW ACI and NSW CEC
Health consumer representative on funding assessment panel member - The Sydney Partnership for Health, Education, Research & Enterprise (SHPERE)
Health consumer representative on Digital Mental Health Technical Working Group - Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care