Christine Petrie has been instrumental in coordinating four successive consumer and community engagement strategies for Metro North Health since 2012. The “Collaborating in Health Strategy” is the latest edition. This strategy places an emphasis on cultural change rather than policies and processes which whilst important, can unintentionally reduce engagement visions to box ticking exercises and sustain a general lack of awareness across staff around the “why” consumer and community engagement is pivotal to delivering accessible, safe and high-quality services. Based in genuine empathy yet ambitious by being evidenced based in its evaluation, this strategy is helping Metro North Health chart a path towards a future where patients and communities become true partners in shaping healthcare services. Christine will share with us:

• Practical tips for involving consumers in health service planning and governance
• Moving away from jargon and tying the strategy to a purpose all stakeholders can relate to – why culture trumps protocols and checklists
• Creating a support system to sustainably see staff and consumers adopt shared decision making and co-design in health
• Developing KPIs that improve evaluation and linkage of consumer engagement strategies with impact on care outcome