What is Consumers Connect?

Consumers Connect was created for people with personal or professional experience of healthcare or health policy to help everyday people navigate the health system. It’s a place to share knowledge and network with other like-minded people that want to contribute to improving the healthcare system for everyone.

What makes a strong Consumer Advocate?

In our experience, three simple criteria make for a strong consumer advocate. Any one of these helps to develop relevant insights that can help others:

  • A career in healthcare or policy
  • Experience of caring for a family member or friend
  • Personal experience with ill health or injury

Promoting Diversity & Inclusion in the Health System

Part of our mission at Health Issues Centre is to foster and promote inclusion and diverse representation within the health system. This means ensuring that the needs of all people are represented – not just the consumers most able to participate. 

Groups often left out of consultation are often the most marginalised, vulnerable and hard to reach. They include people from culturally diverse backgrounds where language may be a barrier, and people who are less able to engage for practical reasons – such as young mothers, homeless people and isolated elderly people living in the community. 

As a consumer advocate, you can have a role in ensuring these often under-represented groups have a voice by understanding the issues that face them and advocating on their behalf.

If standing up for everyday people is your passion, consider the many ways to get involved.

Get Connected

Join our network

Find out about the latest news, events and opportunities in the consumer health space by joining our network.
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Get social

Join our Consumers Connect facebook group to network with other people like you

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Networking

Meet other passionate consumer champions in person at workshops, forums and other events.

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Training

Benefit from the range of engaging accredited courses and group workshops available at Health Issues Centre.

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Advocacy

See ways you can get involved to make our health system better for everyone.

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Happening Now

Learn about our current Health Issues Centre campaigns – including (consumer*) research you could get involved in.

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Vacancies

See if there’s a consumer advocacy role available whether it be in a committee, working group, focus group, advisory panel or as part of a consultation.

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Free Resource Library

Health Issues Centre curates a range of handy resources to support consumer advocates. We also provide a Consumer Advocates Toolkit that you can download here.

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Advertise a Consumer Representative Vacancy. Click here.

HIC was part of getting us up to speed with impactful, meaningful consumer engagement not just tick-the-box stuff

HIC was part of getting us up to speed with impactful, meaningful consumer engagement not just tick-the-box stuff

Free Resource Library

Find handy resources to support consumer representatives/ advocates, including a Consumer Representatives Toolkit that you can download here.
See Resources