The NSW Consumer, Carer, and Community Advisory Council, the Council, has been established to provide independent and impartial consumer, carer, and community perspectives and advice on strategic opportunities in NSW Health.
Made up of consumers, carers, and community members, as well as representatives from the Ministry of Health, the Council brings together members who reflect the diversity of the NSW community, with valuable links to many formal consumer, carer, and community networks, and our executive and senior team, to help guide how care is delivered across the NSW Health system.
The Council provides advice on system and state-wide issues under the authority of the Secretary for NSW Health.
For any queries, please email the Secretariat for the Council at MOH-PatientExperience@health.nsw.gov.au.
The Council comprises of consumers, carers, and community members, who reflect the breadth and diversity of the NSW community.
Also included in the membership are senior leaders and Ministry executive who are key in establishing and evaluating the Council and have consumer engagement expertise and understanding of the practical application of All of Us – a guide to engaging consumers, carers, and communities across NSW Health.
Imaaz is a dynamic and intelligent young man, passionate about adding value to the multicultural communities of greater western Sydney, especially those who are marginalised. Imaaz is skilled at identifying community needs and working with communities to harness change.
Imaaz has experience in working in a number of State and Commonwealth systemic groups, including his local health district Youth Advisory Council, Headspace Youth Reference Group, the Australian Youth Affairs Coalition eSafety Commissioner’s Youth Advisory Council.
Additionally, he supports older members of his family and community to access and navigate the healthcare system.
Imaaz is a strategic thinker and effective communicator. He has a sound understanding of the interrelated factors impacting on the social determinants of health, practically and intellectually, and is an advocate for health equity with policy makers.
Erika understands the intricacies and challenges of the health system from the perspective of a patient who does not fit the ‘standard presentation’. In addition to this, she is able to connect with the systemic landscape of healthcare delivery.
Erika is a relational worker with a capacity to think both constructively and critically. She brings her experiences as an occupational therapist, disability service provider, as well as those of a person living with a physical disability which results from a complex and rare health condition.
Erika is an experienced member of a number of committees within her local health district, such as Partnering with Consumers, Disability Inclusion Action Plan Committee, and Health Literacy Working Group.
AJ is a queer trans masculine person with 35 years of experience engaging with the NSW Health system, bringing a rich tapestry of knowledge and lived experience to the table. Their intersectional experiences as an Assigned Female at Birth (AFAB) individual, sex worker, person who has in the past been an intravenous drug user has given them a unique perspective on healthcare.
AJ's rich breadth and depth of life experience has enabled an ability and capability to build strong networks, tools of strength and resilience, enabling effective navigation of the healthcare system.
They bring a strong understanding of the importance of positive role modelling, sensitivity in engagement, and an ability to work in trauma informed ways. They recognise gaps and problems and work to find ways through and shape change over time.
They are experienced at providing a safe, supportive, and non-judgemental environment which enhances the culture of the boards and committees that they belong to and will bring an important intersectional lens to the Council.
Terry is a wise, calm, strategic and considered thinker, with deep knowledge of the issues faced by the Aboriginal community, both currently and historically. He is passionate about educating others about Aboriginal culture on Country and has a professional background, spanning 45 years in Aboriginal affairs and community development across all social determinants of health. He says, ‘what people learned, I lived’.
Terry is well connected with his community and respected across the generations. He has deep and broad statewide networks and has been involved with Coordinare’s Koori co-design project working with General Practitioners to ensure cultural safety with consumers and GP practices.
Richard, a highly regarded lived experience advocate from Albury, accompanied by Havic, an assistance Labrador. Havic's presence positively impacts Richard's life, using they/them pronouns when together. With extensive experience in the mental health system, Richard has spent the past 20 years in advocacy and co-ways of working. Richard’s perspective extends beyond personal experiences, emphasizing honesty and genuineness.
Richard's educational background complements a deep lived experience, allowing them to see the big picture and collaborate with clinicians in numerous clinical partnerships. Working from a trauma-informed and solutions-focused lens, Richard has a proven understanding of bringing about genuine change in healthcare, asking tough questions, and finding balance.
Richard holds a Bachelor of Arts, Graduate Certificate in Forensic Psychology, Graduate Diploma of Legal Studies, a Master of Social Work, and is completing a Juris Doctor. Richard’s lived experience includes living on a DSP and experiencing various restraints in the mental health system.
Andrew was diagnosed with HIV in 2012 and champions compassionate, strengths-based, trauma-informed and person-centred practice, social justice, inclusivity, and the continuous improvement in quality of life for all people who interface with the health system. Andrew is a carer and health consumer and brings curiosity, collaboration and empathy to the foundations of the Consumer, Carers and Community Council.
Andrew is also the Senior Health Promotion and Peer Navigation Manager at Positive Life NSW and Chairperson of the NSW Users and AIDS Association (NUAA). Andrew has over ten years’ community-facing experience in operations, training and facilitation, community engagement, alcohol and other drugs, policy, research, advocacy, LGBTQIA+ health, and blood borne viruses. He has expertise in organisational management and governance, and his strengths lie in community development and consultation, NGO networking and partnerships, health promotion, public health strategy and innovative community-health service delivery.
Cassandra is an accomplished lived experience leader who works well in group settings and embodies the ways of working outlined in All of Us. She is a proud Wiradjrui woman, with 35 years of lived experience of breaking cycles caused from intergenerational trauma from the stolen generation.
Cassandra’s experience of working in partnership with her local health district has helped strengthen her ability to be articulate and to translate community language to political language, in a diplomatic way.
Cassandra is a member of two governance councils for her local health district, along with the Ministry of Health’s Aboriginal Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategic Planning Steering Committee.
Cassandra’s Aboriginal heritage and understanding of local and systemic issues for First Nations communities will strengthen and add depth of understanding to the Council.
Saba brings living experience of being a migrant in regional NSW, navigating the assumptions of the healthcare system and those who work within it.
Relational ways of working are intrinsic to Saba’s connection with others, where she leans into the importance of kindness and checking in with and on others. She is genuine in her approach and recognises that the importance of both non-verbal and verbal communication.
Saba is immersed in her communities and holds membership with many organisations including Multicultural NSW, NSW P&C Federation, Country Women’s Association, Rotary Club of Wagga Wagga, health consumer advocates on Health Boards like Consumer Health Forum of Australia and Health Consumers NSW, community representative on NSW Volunteering Taskforce consumer, consumer representative on ACI Maternity and Neonatal Network, community member at Wagga Wagga Electorate Women's Advisory Group.
Saba values respectful community engagement, engaging with purpose and uses what she hears to inform her advice. Her activism centers around empowering people, advancing health literacy, and guaranteeing fair and equal access to high-quality healthcare.
Mae has lifelong experience of the health system, experiencing almost every discipline and having transitioned from childrens to adult services to now working with young people herself. This experience has afforded her with a deep knowledge and understanding of the health system, that she has leveraged into consumer advocacy and leadership.
Mae is a relational worker, understanding the broader landscape of health service provision, the importance of sharing power, and asking the questions, rather than working off assumptions.
Mae is passionate about engaging young consumers in the health system. As a mentor of young people, she is adept at contemporary communications and engagement approaches, channels and styles.
She brings strong knowledge of barriers for CALD communities at all ages and stages. She is an active member of local multicultural support groups. These cross generational multicultural networks and contacts include elderly relations in the health system.
Mae is also an experienced member on a number of statewide and local health district committees.
Depending on the challenge at hand, Mae believes ‘it’s a matter of asking the right people’.
Mel identifies themself as the self-appointed ‘poster child for adversity’; identifying as a queer, non-binary recovering addict with ADHD, who grew up in regional NSW, bouncing between government housing and the out-of-home-care system. They have experienced homelessness, been unemployable and dissolved their mental health; but has risen in the face of adversity and recovers out loud.
Mel has a wide and intersectional breadth of lived and living experience and strong ability to form meaningful long-term connections and relationships. They are engaging and genuine in their interest in sitting alongside others to learn and meaningful in their approaches to consultation and co-design.
Mel is an experienced chair, president, and member on a number of committees within their local community, and local health district.
Erin is an Aboriginal woman who lives on Wiradjuri Country. She views the health system through the lens of an Aboriginal person, accessing services for herself and also for her four young children. Erin sees systemic gaps and opportunities and forges cross sector and silo connections, seeking collective solutions.
Working across a mix of regional and rural areas, Erin is a relational worker who is able to reflect on the significant difference between listening and hearing. She sees things through a holistic lens, bringing awareness that people bring their whole selves to any situation, and that can be influenced by their positive and negative life experiences.
Erin finds their involvement in her community and representing her community rewarding. Her experiences have enabled meaningful engagement with many and contribution to improving the experiences of others within the healthcare setting.
Jenni is passionate about bringing carers and consumers to the forefront of the health system and having a bright light shone on their perspectives and contributions.
Jenni is a kind and clear communicator, operating from solutions focused and strengths-based perspectives. She is an emerging leader in the healthcare space. Jenni has systemic knowledge of the NSW Health system and is critically and constructively reflective. She is well connected with her community.
Jenni is an experienced member of many committees in her local health district and advocating for the rights of carers. As a member of the All of Us design crew she brings strong understanding and embodiment of the Six Ways of Working.
Nicholas is a self-reported ‘Executive Assistant’, navigating the health system, Government services, and daily life for his mother who lives with Alzheimer’s dementia.
Nicholas’s experience caring for his mother has been ‘profound’ and motivated him to embed himself in both research and community advocacy with Carers NSW and Dementia Australia.
Nicholas has strong connections with his local health district and primary health networks. Maintaining connections and relationships with people is important to him and reflected in how he engages and works with people.
Bella is an emerging health care leader, navigating the system as a consumer, social work student, and project officer in youth health engagement. This experience provides them with lived experience, theoretical and professional knowledge in areas including co-design, consumer engagement, intersectionality, disability, neurodiversity, and queer advocacy.
They value a balance of working independently and as part of a group that is founded on principles of safety, authenticity, honesty, and collaboration.
Bella is experienced in working in strategic groups and is a member of the Partnering with Consumers Advisory Group for the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Healthcare.
Bella is connected to Health Consumers NSW and the Association for the Wellbeing of Children in Healthcare.