NZ - Community Health Council wants patient input (not ME-specific)

[Ravn]

From an announcement by the Community Health Council (CHC) covering the Southern DHB area (don't know if other areas have similar initiatives).

Not ME-specific but there may be an opportunity here for some input?

the CHC is encouraging people to become involved with decision-making and influencing the health system at Southern […] There are a number of new opportunities for people to get involved [...]

Patient Stories

This is a new piece of work focussed on collecting Patient Stories from people based on their experiences in the health system– they are a powerful tool used for both staff education purposes and also for raising issues with the general public. If you have a story and wish to tell it or support a whānau/ family member in sharing their story please contact communications@southerndhb.govt.nz - your story will only be shared through the channels you wish it to be shared.

Some of the stories can be seen here, all are short videos, around 2 minutes long https://www.southerndhb.govt.nz/pages/patient-stories/

The videos are of the feel-good variety, all about how wonderful the healthcare received was, but some also include a little bit about what it's like to live with their respective conditions. I could be wrong but I doubt they'd want to put negative stories on. However, if there's anyone in the region who actually has a positive story and is willing to tell it, plus how hard it is to live with ME (all in 2 minutes!), maybe that could encourage some other health professionals to approach ME patients in a positive way, too?

Sign up as an Advisor

Since our last People’s Caucus the CHC has worked with the DHB and WellSouth to create a systematic process whereby healthcare staff are strongly encouraged to involve community, whānau and patients in decision-making from something as small as developing an information sheet for a patient and family member through to longer-term projects focussed on the re-design of services. During our recent forums we provided some examples of projects CHC members have been involved with but we need more community, whānau and patient representatives to be on a database that the CHC would call on as people are required.

Contact chc@southerndhb.govt.nz if you want to be involved as an advisor.