Engaging with us in your care
At SALHN, our mission is to build a thriving community, providing reliable and respectful health care. To Listen, Act, Make Better, Together is our operating principle and we use this as a framework when engaging with our consumers.
Person and Family Centred Care
We have adopted Person and Family Centered Care as our approach to health service planning, delivery and evaluation.
It is built on the concept of patients and families defining their family and determining how they will participate in care planning, goal setting and decision-making - essentially working ‘with’ patients and their support networks, rather than just doing it ‘to’ or ‘for’ them.
Health Care Rights
We believe in supporting consumers to enact their rights when engaging with us in their care.
- Access – right to access health and community services
- Safety – right to be safe from abuse
- Quality – right to high quality services
- Respect – right to be treated with respect
- Information – right to be informed
- Participation – right to actively participate
- Privacy – right to privacy and confidentiality
- Comment – right to comment and or/complain
Shared Decision Making
Shared Decision Making is the ongoing sharing of information to develop common understanding and goals between the person, their support networks and their healthcare team. This shared conversation uses plain language to promote holistic care, considering the person’s preferences, cultural needs, values and circumstances - SALHN definition.
The concept of Shared Decision Making in healthcare is a key part of the provision of Person and Family Centred healthcare. In SALHN we use a variety of tools to engage consumers in their care and in shared decision making.
Recently consumers participated in a workshop and determined a model for Shared Decision Making in our health services. We are currently working with our Partnering with Consumers Advisory Group and Comprehensive Care Committee to develop tools to support staff and consumers to partner together in shared decision making and look forward to sharing this with you.
Informed Consent
‘Consent’ means agreeing to a proposed specific procedure after you have been given proper and sufficient explanation of the nature and likely consequences and risks of the procedure.
Public hospitals in South Australia follow legislative and SA Health guidelines relating to consent. Your consent must be given in writing before all operations, blood transfusions, radiotherapy treatment, examinations under anaesthetic and non-operative procedures of a serious nature. Written consent must also be given for the administration of local, spinal or general anaesthetic procedures.
If your capacity to make decisions is impaired and you have an Advance Care Directive (ACD), your substitute decision maker will be able to provide consent on your behalf.
You may receive a consent form as part of your admission to hospital. Before you can make a decision and give your consent, it is important that you understand the procedure. A member of staff will explain it to you and, once you understand the procedure, please read all of the information on the consent form before you sign it. If there is any part of the procedure or the consent form you do not understand, please ask a member of staff for more information.
An external service provides interpreters for a range of languages, including sign language. If you need an interpreter to help you to understand what is being said so you can make an informed decision, please ask staff to arrange an interpreter for you.
Information sheets about many surgeries and procedures are available for patients and provide explanations in plain language. They can be requested from members of staff.
For more information visit the SA Health Consent to medical treatment and healthcare page.
