Monday Lunch Live

26 February 2024

Your Thoughts Matter, a whole of organisation communication program for skilled conversations. 

Your Thoughts Matter is a program aiming to enhance education capacity and communication skills within our health services. It is centred around, informed by, and co-delivered by health consumers. Your Thoughts Matter is an evidence-based sustainable program for the health services workforce, designed to build education capacity and embed core communication skills. By ensuring these skills are consistently delivered in every patient encounter by every staff member, clinical and non-clinical, the program aims to ensure that patients can share 'what matters to them', rather than a focus on 'what is the matter with them.'

This webinar covers the design and delivery of the program by its creators from Deakin University's Centre for Organisational Change in Person-Centred Healthcare (OCPH), and the experience of a health consumer educator in delivering the program.

Presenters 

Professor Peter Martin
Professor of Clinical Communication and End of Life Care, School of Medicine, Deakin University; Director, OCPH

Prof Martin has been involved with communication skills training for 30 years and has been a clinician for almost 40 years, with an interest in cancer cachexia. He has taught communication skills at Cambridge, Monash, Melbourne and Deakin medical schools. He has also taught at numerous postgraduate courses with a variety of health professional disciplines, nationally and internationally, for more than 20 years. 
 
Since becoming Director of OCPH, the team has developed and ran numerous 1,2 or 3-day courses on healthcare communication, including numerous train-the-trainer courses. The OCPH’s major intervention is Your Thoughts Matter, an organisational-level program to drive person-centred healthcare communication. 

Meg Chiswell
Senior Lecturer, School of Medicine, Deakin University; Deputy Director, OCPH

Meg began her career as an educator at RMIT University before moving into strategic oversight of the Cancer Information and Support Service at Cancer Council Victoria. In partnership with International Association for Communication in Healthcare (EACH) and the Victorian Department of Health, she championed the Victorian Cancer Clinicians Communication Program, and convened the inaugural Teaching Communication in Healthcare Conference and Education Program.

Meg has been instrumental in building communication skills programs for health professionals and non-clinical staff across Australia, having personally trained more than 3000 healthcare professionals and staff in over 100 experiential healthcare communication skills programs. She also works with emerging leaders in individual and group coaching sessions to elevate their practice using evidence-based communication skills. Since 2019, Meg has worked closely with Prof Peter Martin in leading OCPH. She is the co-creator of Your Thoughts Matter and Conversations Matter. 

Joanne Hickman
Consumer representative, Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre; Community Advisory Committee Member and Your Thoughts Matter Education Faculty Member.

Joanne Hickman has a career in nursing, working primarily in the disciplines of cardiac care and immunisation. Jo was formerly the Nurse Unit Manager for Monash Immunisation, a hospital-based immunisation service for high-risk patients. In 2017, Joanne was diagnosed with Hodgkins Lymphoma. Being on the other side and receiving care made Joanne realise that the lived experience of being a patient is an essential part of delivering a health service.

In 2019, after a year of navigating a new ‘normal’, Jo became involved with Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre as a consumer representative. She sits on various committees, including the Community Advisory Committee, and participates in other projects as they present. Jo recently commenced a part-time role with the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute as Consumer Engagement Manager for the Centre of Health Analytics, Melbourne Children’s Campus.