Aboriginal Consumer and Community Engagement

Shared relationships and Aboriginal Community engagement help us to ensure high quality services, that respond to the needs of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and community expectations.

Partnering with consumers allows us to have ongoing conversations with the community about the planning, designing, monitoring and delivery of quality care to Aboriginal patients and families across our network.

At CALHN, we value these relationships and the meaningful involvement that these groups and committees provide, as an essential part of strengthening trust in our services now and into the future.

The Yaitya Marnintyarla Kangka Committee is CALHN’s Aboriginal Priority Care Committee which brings together multi-disciplinary staff and Aboriginal consumers. 

The committee ensures that governance is in place for the network to deliver culturally safe care and better services.

The work of the Yaitya Marnintyarla Kangka Committee deliberately aligns to the six Aboriginal specific actions in the National Safety Quality Health Service Standards (NSQHSS), recognising that the robust, externally validated framework ensures CALHN address the right things, and delivers meaningful and effective change.

The NSQHSS framework also enables the Committee to monitor and support implementation of CALHN’s guiding Aboriginal frameworks, strategies and guidelines. These are also aligned to SA Health’s approach to the National Agreement on Closing the Gap, and supports key state and national Aboriginal guiding documents.

Aboriginal consumer groups at CALHN ensure that Aboriginal consumers have opportunities to contribute to and inform the improvement of health services, to respond to the needs of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander patients and families.

CALHN’s consumer representatives partner with us in a variety of roles, including:

• sitting on decision-making committees across CALHN
• providing service feedback
• reviewing consumer information sheets
• being a member of quality improvement teams
• being part of reference and working groups
• connecting through the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health and Wellbeing Hub Yarn and Lunch Sessions. These sessions connect CALHN staff and Aboriginal consumers to come together to yarn about topics that are important to them. 

If you are interested in joining our dedicated group of consumers, register your interest through Consumer Partnering. 

The Aboriginal Stakeholder Reference Group provides a forum for Aboriginal stakeholders and organisations to network, collaborate and establish partnerships to improve the services that CALHN provides for the Aboriginal community, ensuring these services are efficient, sustainable and culturally appropriate.

Get in touch to learn more.