Meeting tips, strategies and resources
Presentation from training workshop
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Missed the training workshop? Learn more about consumer representation and how to do it from this shortened presentation.
Strategies for consumer reps
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Learn more about effective strategies you could use as a consumer representative including how to use stories, choose battles, agree and disagree, ask questions and know your resource and limitations.
Meeting terminology and advice
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Become more familiar with meeting terminology and advice about meeting protocols and consumer representation.
The first meeting
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About to attend your first ever meeting as a consumer rep? These strategies might be useful.
Charter of Health Consumer Rights
https://www.chf.org.au/pdfs/fac/fac-charter-of-health-consumer-rights.pdf
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Consumer Health Forum of Australia’s charter of rights for consumers.
Consumer representatives program: Consumer handbook
www.health.qld.gov.au/hcq/network_reps/cons_handbook.pdf
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Health Consumers Queensland have produced this 68 page resource specifically for consumer representatives. Much of it relates specifically to Health Consumers Queensland’s own consumer representatives program, but there is a lot of really useful information in here for consumer representatives.
Consumer representatives program: Agency handbook
www.health.qld.gov.au/hcq/network_reps/agen_handbook.pdf
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Health Consumers Queensland has produced this 50 page document to help agencies who may engage a consumer representative to do it effectively. If your committee or chair wants more information about consumer representation and what they could do to facilitate your involvement, this document is a useful resource – as is Health Consumers QLD.
Advocacy Toolkit
http://www.health.qld.gov.au/hcq/publications/hcq_toolkit_may11.pdf
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Health Consumers QLD have produced this Advocacy Toolkit for consumers to use to negotiate their healthcare. It mostly discusses advocacy for individuals but devotes a number of pages to systems advocacy which may be very useful for consumer representatives.
Guidelines for consumer representatives 4th edition
https://www.chf.org.au/resources-guidelines.php
Consumers’ Health Forum of Australia have produced a comprehensive 32 page document that covers many of the concepts, issues and concerns covering consumer representation. The guidelines were reprinted in 2001 but most of the material is still contemporary and useful.
Fact sheet inserts from the Guidelines for consumer representatives 4th edition
https://www.chf.org.au/resources-guidelines.php
A series of useful factsheets produced by Consumers’ Health Forum of Australia including:
Fact sheet 2: Before you start
Lists a number of useful things a consumer representative could do before they attend their first committee meeting.
Fact sheet 3: Dollars and Sense – Resource Checklist
Discusses the exchange between the consumer representative and the committee they sit – the exchange of ideas, finances and resources.
Fact sheet 4: Common Problems and Solutions
Highlights a number of common problems consumer representatives may face and some ways to find a solution.
Fact sheet 5: Effective representation – You’re OK.
Discusses some practical ideas about being an effective consumer representative.
Guidelines for consumer representatives on conference organising committees
https://www.chf.org.au/pdfs/fac/fac-conference-organising-committee.pdf
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A fact sheet produced by Consumers’ Health Forum of Australia.
Strengthening meeting skills for teleconferences
https://www.chf.org.au/pdfs/fac/fac-teleconferences.pdf
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A fact sheet produced by Consumers’ Health Forum of Australia.
Meeting resources
Reporting back to your organisation
Representation and accountability are important principles of consumer representation. This one page report template will make it easier to report back regularly to the consumer organisation you represent on your committee. You can download this Word document and save it on your computer to make report writing even easier.
Report template (Word document)
Invoice
Some consumer representatives receive a sitting fee for their time on a committee. Here is a template for how an invoice may look to make it easier to invoice the committee. You can download this Word document and save it to your computer to help making invoicing even easier.
Invoice template (Word document)
Remuneration and reimbursement guidelines
There are no statewide guidelines about how much consumer representatives should be paid for their work – or even if they should get paid! Although old, nothing has ever replaced this so it’s still useful to send to a committee that wants to know if/how much they should pay you for your time – or at the very least, reimburse your costs of attending e.g. babysitting, parking, travel, accommodation etc.
Remuneration and reimbursement guidelines for consumer participation (PDF) produced by the Quality improvement and enhancement program 1999-2004.
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