Health outcomes and experiences for people with disability

Consultation Process

Now Closed

This online engagement was hosted on YourSAy from 10 February to 3 April 2020. Below is a record of the engagement.

What are the issues that affect health outcomes for people living with disability and their experience when engaging with the health system?

Share your thoughts with us.

What’s being decided?

We are reviewing the health outcomes for people with disabilities and their experience when interacting with the health sector.

We want to understand:

• The issues that people with disabilities experience,
• How they might impact on their overall health and wellbeing and,
• What would matter most if the health system were to change.
• You can learn more about the review in the Background section of this page.

Whether you are:

• Someone with lived experience of disability and engaging with the health system,
• A family member of someone with a disability,
• A carer of someone with a disability,
• A healthcare or disability services worker,
• Someone with an interest in this topic.
• We would like to hear about your stories and lived experience. They will help us improve our health and disability system.

We have prepared some prompting questions that you may want to consider before sharing your story.

How can your input influence the decision?

Your input will help us understand the key areas that need to be explored to improve the health and disability systems and the outcomes for the community with lived experience of disability.

Get involved

You can find out more about the work we are doing, share your stories with us, and have your say by:

Completing the online submission form

Coming to one of our events:

Drop in sessions

Listening sessions

Follow up forum (postponed until further notice)

Emailing us at Health.HPCengagement@sa.gov.au

If you are not able to come to our sessions and would prefer to talk to us, we will organise a time for a telephone interview with you. Send us an email at Health.HPCengagement@sa.gov.au or call (08) 8226 3188 for more information.

Encourage your friends, family and people in your social media networks to have their say by sharing a link to this page.

Please note: We will treat contributions in strict confidence. However, confidential submissions may still be subject to Freedom of Information laws.

What are the next steps?

Findings from this consultation, as well as proposed actions, will be reported to the Minister for Health and Wellbeing and published.

Update: Due to COVID-19, we will be postponing our follow up forum in the interest of public health and we hope to hold it later in the year.

In the meantime, we will review the valuable feedback you have provided and produce a report of what we have learned. The report will be available on this website.

The rest of the work on the project will also continue. Findings from this consultation and proposed actions will be reported to the Minister for Health and Wellbeing and published on this and the Health Performance website.

Contact

For general inquiries, email us at HealthPerformanceCouncil@sa.gov.au or call us on (08) 8226 3188 during business hours (9am to 5pm, weekdays).

Closing date: 5 pm Friday 3 April 2020

Background

What we already know

It is estimated that nearly one out of every four people in South Australia lives with a disability. Across Australia, people with disabilities report having worse health than the rest of the population but there has been very little reporting or publication of data on this topic, and less still specific to South Australia.

The Health Performance Council is conducting a review of matters relating to health outcomes for people with disability, of their experiences with the health system and of interactions between the health and disability sectors. Significant work is underway to gather and analyse insights from data but most importantly, to learn about people’s lived experiences.

In our preliminary work, we have heard various stories about people’s experiences. Even though some feedback was positive, a few limitations were also reported:

•         Hospital services
•         Workforce training opportunities
•         Complaints handling systems
•         Lack of continuity of care at the interface between the mainstream health system and the disability system; especially in relation to the National Disability Insurance Scheme.

We have considered your feedback on the draft State Disability Inclusion Plan 2019-2023. We are keeping up to date with the progress on the Disability Royal Commission. However, there are still many gaps in our knowledge. 

There is currently no systematic data collection that allows for sensible reporting on differences in life expectancy or of other quality of life indicators. It is not possible to report on differences in experience or discrimination when engaging with the health system, either. 

Through this project, we expect to report comprehensively and provide advice to the Minister that may result in positive change for people in the state living with disabilities and for their families, friends and carers.

Who is doing this work?

The Health Performance Council is a statutory body which provides expert advice to the Minister for Health and Wellbeing about:

•         The operation of South Australia’s health system,
•         Health outcomes for South Australians, and
•         The effectiveness of community and individual engagement methods.

The Council’s advice focuses on health outcomes not only for the South Australian population as a whole, but also for particular population groups.

All of the Council’s reports are published on the Health and Performance Council website.