Page 5 - Experience Based Co-design - a toolkit for Australia

Foreword
I'm a great believer that if you help people to create purposeful relationships and share their respective expertise; amazing things happen. Many health and care services from around the world are achieving this through partnerships where consumers, families, staff and other stakeholders use co-design methods to better understand how it feels to deliver and receive care and then make improvements together. The need for these skills has increasingly come into sharp focus as those working in health and care services strive to provide excellence every day. Pooling the considerable expertise of health and care staff along with the unique expertise of those who have ‘lived experience’ of health and care services is a recipe for success.
I have had the pleasure of working with Dr. Paresh Dawda and over the years have witnessed his unwavering passion to support teams to increase quality and safety. He uses an analogy of a golden thread to describe his vision of meaningfully involving patients and families alongside staff to achieve this.
I am delighted to have been invited to write the foreword to this Experience Based Co-Design Toolkit which is specifically orientated for Australia. It is an excellent resource, hosted by the Australian Hospitals and Healthcare Association (AHHA) and Consumer Health Forum (CHF) of Australia, which sets the context for working differently and provides a wealth of tools, tips and case studies from organisations and teams across Australia and beyond. The toolkit also points you to a range of sources where you can find how teams have improved safety, environments and clinical outcomes, reduced waste and enriched both staff and consumer experiences.
I know it will inspire you to put co-design at the heart of what you do.
Dr. Lynne Maher
Director of Innovation, Ko Awatea, Counties Manuaku Health, Auckland Associate Honorary Professor of Nursing, University of Auckland Adjunct Associate Professor, School of Medicine, University of Tasmania