Abstract
NRCCPH is excited to announce its new website: www.partici-pateinhealth.org.au. The website contains a host of up-to-date information about consumer participation in health. It is a valuable resource for consumers, consumer groups, health service providers and policy-makers. Please take the time to visit the website. The site includes about 55 resources which can be directly down-loaded and an online catalogue. The Centre also provides a free call inquiry/support line 1800 625 619 and the staff can send resources to you by mail. The Centre provides information about methods and models for community and consumer engagement, contributes to research and enhances the capacity of organisations and groups to integrate consumer participation into health care.
For consumers, participation in health can be about being listened to and respected by health providers and giving consumer feedback so that the quality of the service can be improved and so that the services can better meet their needs. For mental health service providers, consumer participation in health can be about incorporating consumer mechanisms into their organisations such as complaints processes, appointing consumer representatives to their committees, consumer-orientated training of their staff and/or one-on-one discussions between consumers and providers. Many mental health providers see consumer participation as a way of improving their services.
In many respects, mental health consumers have led the way for consumer participation in health. Consumer participation processes advanced by mental health consumers and advocates have had an effect on the wider health sector. The Centre has over 130 articles specifically about mental health services and a number of provider reports and consumer kits produced by the mental health sector. For example, from the Centre's new website you can down-load Alfred Psychiatry Consumer Participation Program: Consumer Collaboration in Treatment: Final Report 2001 and Alfred Psychiatry Consumer Participation: Book of procedures 2001 or Telling it like it is: Project report 2002 Southern Regional Consumer Advisory Group and Division of Mental Health, Noarlunga Health Services, South Australia. Also available are: National Mental Health Strategy, The Kit – A Guide to the Advocacy We Choose to do, Canberra, 1999, and Developing effective consumer participation in mental health services: the report of the Lemon Tree Learning Project. Epstein and Shaw, Victorian Mental Illness Awareness Council, 1997.
