Consumer and Community involvement (CCI)

Valsamma Eapen, Raghu Lingam, Antonio Mendoza Diaz, Teresa Winata, Christa Lam-Cassettari, James John.

Leveraging the Youth Advisory Council comprising >90 children from the Liverpool Boys and Girls schools, we are working with young people from SWS to empower them to identify and execute solutions to their health-related problems. In this regard, we are creating one-stop shops for families to access services and trials, facilitating service access and research engagement. We are consulting stakeholders to ensure “intervention hubs” satisfy real needs and currently working on a draft protocol and finalising a logistic model. 

We have now re-engaged with the schools following the COVID period. We have completed one of three planned workshops where we will aim to understand the views and experiences of students in several health topics such as mental health, trust with health service providers, long-COVID, vaping effects in young people, and involving parents in mental health-related discussion.

Publication: Our initial engagement with the students has been published. Diaz AM,.., Eapen V. School-based integrated healthcare model: how Our Mia Mia is improving health and education outcomes for children and young people. Australian Journal of Primary Health. 2021 Mar 18;27(2):71-5.

Co-design workshops with stakeholders have been held in partnership with Karitane regarding creating one-stop shop hubs for families to access health and wrap around social care services facilitating service access and research engagement. We are consulting stakeholders to ensure “Integrated Child and Family hubs” satisfy the real needs of the families and improve family resilience and community connections. We are currently working on a service navigation framework and finalising a logic model. This is a direct example of community engagement in research and increasing the capacity for CCI work.