Navigation Network: Connecting changemakers to improve navigating health
Navigating health and related systems such as disability and aged care, can be difficult. Many Australians are not aware of the complexities until they experience a health challenge and find themselves at their most vulnerable, within a system they neither understand nor feel empowered by. Access can be difficult, and pathways to managing care fragmented. The opportunity for patient-centred systems is critical.
The Nossal Institute for Global Health at the University of Melbourne is supporting emerging programs in global health. Ms Siân Slade, Nossal Institute Melbourne Enterprise Fellow, is leading the Navigation Network. This is a participatory community open to all professionals, patients and carers interested in supporting better navigation of health and related systems.
The Navigation Network builds on a Community of Practice, started in partnership with the Australian Disease Management Association (ADMA) in 2021, with bimonthly national meetings and quarterly international webinars. The practice seeks to connect advocacy in policy change at a systems level. Federal politicians, patients, health professionals and academics from across Australia are working together to improve ways of navigating the Australian health system. The Parliamentary Friends of Women's Health recently hosted a #Navigating Health event in Canberra.
“We need to effectively build capacity and capability to operationalise a culture change in health, ” says Siân Slade, #NavigatingHealth project lead. “Using the skills, knowledge and experience of patients, carers and the health professionals enables a shared approach to tackling complex problems. We all have a role to play.” Ms Slade’s research with Professors Barbara McPake, Adam Elshaug, Peter Brooks and Mr James Sanderson, NHS England, is comparing international systems navigation approaches.
As recently shared on ABC Radio National “Big Ideas”, the focus of the Navigation Network is to connect changemakers to make health systems work better for patients and those that care and support them. The network brings together all those interested in enabling streamlined journeys in health.
Our next webinar #NavigatingHealth Globally: Compassion, care, complexity, culture is on 1st August.
If you are interested in enabling more streamlined journeys in health, please join the Navigation Network.
Siân Slade, a PhD Candidate at the Nossal Institute, clinically trained as a pharmacist in the UK and holds an Executive Masters in Business Administration, Master of Public Health and is a Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.