There has been a great deal of discussion of community engagement in health planning in Ontario. Both the LHINs as they are beginning to plan out regional priorities and the Province as it is developing its new overall health strategy want to involve as many communities and individuals as possible. It is always useful to see how other jurisdictions have met the challenges of involving residents and communities in health care planning in responsive, systematic and influential ways.
New South Wales in Australia has been doing some quite interesting things in community and public involvement in health planning. The Ministry here seems keen on their experience.
- this is a 2001 report on strategies and methods from a broad-based advisory group
- the government responded the same year, committing to implement the recommendations and announcing a state-level Health Participation Council where community members will advise on strategy, state-level support to public participation and information sharing, each Area Health Service was to develop its own structures, each Area was to have staff dedicated to community participation, etc.
- the Department of Health’s home page for health participation can be found here.