Community

MDH is dedicated to partnering with patients, residents, their families and carers in all aspects of our work. Community members who have utilised our services bring different perspectives to the table.

Sharing your experience helps us see things through a different lens, one that is often more about your whole experience and less about the clinical aspects of your care. Your perspective helps us understand where we are doing well and where we need to do better, make better decisions, channel our resources in the right directions and improve people’s experience.

We partner with community members in many ways, including focus groups, surveys, working groups, committees and information reviews to help further improve our systems, services and quality of care.

If you, or a family member have had experience with us then we encourage you to be involved. We welcome everyone. We encourage people from all walks of life, all ages, all abilities, all backgrounds, all relationship status, all gender and sexual identities to make contact. We encourage you to apply if you think you are not qualified; you are an expert in your own experience and that’s what we need.

3 Ways to Give to Mansfield District Hospital

1. Your time. Volunteer with us.

2. Your Voice. Share your unique perspectives to help us learn, improve, and celebrate.

3. Your money: We deeply appreciate your donations and bequests.

Ways to Get Involved

  • Community Advisory Committee

    The Community Advisory Committee (The CAC) provides advice to the Board and advocates on behalf of the community. This brings the perspectives of community representatives into strategy, planning and policy development.

    The CAC is appointed by, and reports to the MDH Board. It meets quarterly, providing a regular opportunity for the Board to engage with community members. Being a CAC member requires a moderate a amount of reading before each meeting, active participation during the meetings and sometimes follow up tasks. Read more here about the role of a Community Advisory Committee member.

  • Management Committees & Steering Groups

    These committees and groups provide advice to our Directors and Managers on projects, action plans, innovative initiatives, and clinical models of care. They can be ongoing such as the Committee to Safety and Quality Committee, or just meet for the duration of a project.

    Participation typically involves a moderate amount of reading and preparation before each meeting and contributions to discussions during the meeting. You don’t need to be an expert in healthcare or have any special qualifications. You would be there to bring your perspective to the discussions

  • Clinical Reviews

    Review panels investigate clinical errors. Sometimes, despite our best efforts, things do go wrong and we take this very seriously. A review investigates what went wrong and recommends what we need to prevent a situation happening again.

    The review will discuss in detail clinical events and outcomes which may be distressing to some people. But if this is something you may like to contribute to, you will be provided with training and support.

    The review panels don’t have a meeting schedule, they meet when they are needed. Participation on a review panel requires a significant amount of reading and preparation for each review.

  • Discussions, Interviews, Surveys, & Reviewing our Health Information

    This covers a range of activities such as reviewing the patient and resident information we produce, reviewing our website, joining focus group discussions, completing surveys, being interviewed about particular topics or your experiences, and telling your stories about your time as a patient, client or resident with us.

    Participation is less structured and often on an 'as needed' basis. It usually requires a small amount of preparation.

  • We Always Welcome Feedback

    Understanding your experience, in your words, adds a different perspective to what we know from the clinical data that we collect. It helps us understand how you felt, if your expectations were met, what you saw and heard, where there are opportunities to do things better.

    Provide Feedback

Understanding the Language Used

Words mean different things to different people. Here are some of the common terms we use and what we mean when we use them.

Patient

The term patient refers to an inpatient or outpatient of MDH

Resident

The term resident refers to people living in one of the residential aged care facilities that are managed by MDH being Buckland House and Bindaree.

Family

The definition of family differs by culture and life circumstance. Biological relatives, adoptive families, and kinship lines are some examples. A person's family is who they nominate.

Consumer

The term consumer refers to all people who use MDH’s services. In addition to patients and residents, their families and carers, this includes people who use information resources, telephone advice, and the website.

Carer

The term carer refers to a person who provides unpaid care to a patient, resident and/or consumer.

Community

The term community refers to a range of stakeholders with an interest in MDH. They may be defined by geography, cultural background, religion, sexual orientation, age, disease type and/or other commonalities. Community members may also be consumers.

Partnering

The term partnering refers to people having active and meaningful participation alongside MDH in their individual care, service development and provision, information and resources, quality improvements and/or governance.

To simplify the language the term 'consumers' is often used when referring collectively to patients, residents, their families and carers and the community.

Feedback

We value your compliments, concerns, suggestions and stories. Let us know how we can improve.

Provide Feedback

Contact

Do you have questions or would you like to know more? Call our reception team on 03 5775 8800.

Contact Us