Advancing consumer participation in primary health: The case of a Victorian Primary Care Partnership

Abstract

This paper presents an overview of the North Central Metro Primary Care Partnership (NCMPCP) process to strengthen consumer participation. The NCMPCP is a voluntary alliance of 60 health and community services in Melbourne's Northern metropolitan region that aims to make positive, sustainable improvements to services from the perspective of clients, their carers and their families. The population of the NCMPCP catchment includes significant cultural and linguistic diversity and social and economic disadvantage. In strengthening consumer participation, consumers and service providers from NCMPCP member agencies identified the need for a consumer participation training resource to be developed to support the ongoing engagement of consumers in participation opportunities in primary health services. The development of a consumer participation training resource involved consumers and service providers from 14 agencies. Consumers were involved in all stages of needs identification, design, implementation and evaluation. The process to develop the consumer participation training resources has contributed to a greater understanding of consumer participation for the NCMPCP member agencies and has increased the level of engagement and participation by consumers. The process has highlighted the need for consumers and service providers to be trained, resourced and supported to carry out consumer participation work.