Developing a Consumer and Community Engagement Strategy: A Toolkit for Hospital and Health Services

"The Toolkit is a companion document to Health Consumers Queensland’s Consumer and Community Engagement Framework (the Framework). It supports the practical application of HCQ’s Framework and contains information, tools and tip sheets to support the stages and steps health service organizations may undertake to develop effective engagement strategies. The Toolkit supports the development of strategies tailored to meet the purpose of the engagement, and the needs of the consumers and communities within the local area. While it has been developed to specifically support HHSs, the Toolkit also has application across public and private health service organizations delivering health promotion, prevention, primary, acute, sub-acute and community health services. It provides a suite of information, tools and tip sheets to support the steps and processes that health service organizations may undertake to develop effective engagement strategies. The Toolkit can be used to review current consumer and community engagement initiatives, so that organizations can build upon what is working well and identify gaps and opportunities for engagement at the individual, service, network and system levels. The Toolkit outlines four stages – scope, plan, engage and review, and 11 steps in developing an effective consumer and community engagement strategy. It is divided into three sections to provide a comprehensive resource. The tip sheets and resources in Section 3 have been designed for use as independent resources. The Toolkit consists of: • Section 1: Introduction • Section 2: Steps to developing a consumer and community engagement strategy • Section 3: Tools and resources."