Connecting the #NavigatingHealth Changemakers
Health system complexity is a challenge faced by patients, carers, professionals and policy makers everyday. #NavigatingHealth is a solutions focused collaboration connecting change makers, addressing silos and elevating enablers.
Change starts with conversations. Last week in Australia, a group of “citizen scientists” and academics, met in Parliament House in Canberra with multipartisan members of parliament thanks to Peta Murphy and Bridget Archer, co-leads of the Parliamentary Friends of Women’s Health. This event was supported by Professor Jane Gunn, the Dean of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences at the University of Melbourne and the Nossal Institute for Global Health.
Being confronted with health challenges is in itself a difficult time, so it’s important that the system is there to support patients during their time of need. I am pleased to host this important discussion on how we can make the health system easier to navigate for both patients and their families.
Peta Murphy, Federal MP for Dunkley, Co-chair of the Parliamentary Friends of Women’s Health
Politics at its most fundamental represents constituency and community needs. In their books, The Health Gap and The Political Determinants of Health, Professor Sir Michael Marmot and Professor Daniel Dawes talk to the role and importance of politics and politicians in addressing equity.
Having the opportunity to meet with House of Representative members including Ministerial leads was powerful, and reaffirmed the important role politics and politicians play in setting health care agendas. We were able to underline the importance and impact on outcomes of #NavigatingHealthvision: Right patient, right care, right time, every time – and offer our evidence based thoughts on the policy steps needed.
#NavigatingHealth is a project that started from the social problem of seeing the challenges patients have in navigating the health system. This evolved into an Australian-based project for the Master of Public Health and now an international doctoral research project at the Nossal Institute for Global Health at the University of Melbourne.
Co-travelling the thesis, the now global advocacy project has had speakers from more than 50 organisations in Australia and globally, reached over 2000 people in regular network meetings and webinars, will shortly be launching a regular podcast and has an active following on LinkedIn.
#NavigatingHealth is a problem that impacts all of us when we are at our most vulnerable, whether we are patients, carers or witnessing the challenges of loved ones, friends or family members and feeling unable to do something about it. We welcome any any all support and advocacy. If this is an area of interest to you, please join us – in person or on line or in spirit.
Join the global webinar on Tues 18th April.
Learn more about #NavigatingHealth
Siân Slade is completing her PhD at the Nossal Institute for Global Health, University of Melbourne. Sian has played an active part of developing shared care approaches. Her PhD research, in Australia and UK, aims to identify the mechanisms that are being developed and deployed to enable patients to access and manage their healthcare across the levels of health.