Systemic Advocacy

Systemic Advocacy at Health Consumers’ Council WA

Summary
Systemic advocacy addresses healthcare issues that affect whole communities, not just individuals. HCCWA leads this work in WA by influencing policy, partnering with health services, and ensuring consumer voices shape systemic change.

What Is Systemic Advocacy?

Systemic advocacy addresses issues that affect many people, not just one individual.
It focuses on:

  • Policy reform

  • Service design and delivery

  • Consumer representation in decision-making

This work helps to create a fairer, safer, and more responsive healthcare system.

Why It Matters

  • Equity: Ensures healthcare is accessible for all, regardless of location, background, or income.

  • Consumer voice: Embeds lived experience in health policy and planning.

  • Accountability: Holds health services and decision-makers to public standards.

  • Long-term change: Reduces the need for repeated individual advocacy by fixing root causes.

How We Do It

HCCWA works across multiple areas of systemic advocacy:

  • Policy submissions and consultations: We provide evidence and consumer perspectives to WA Health, Parliament, and national reviews.

  • Partnerships: We collaborate with health services, researchers, and community organisations to embed consumer input.

  • Campaigns: We highlight urgent issues such as hospital parking costs, dental affordability, and access to urgent care.

  • Consumer representatives: We train and support people to bring lived experience to committees and decision-making forums.

Recent Systemic Advocacy Projects

  • Emergency access reform

  • Sustainable Health Review

  • Guardianship Act Review submission

  • Ambulance services and emergency care

  • Digital health and patient records

  • Palliative care, pregnancy, and maternity services

(See Policy Submissions & Partnerships for details)

Your Role in Systemic Advocacy

Consumers, carers, and community members are central to this work.
You can:

FAQs

1. What is the difference between individual and systemic advocacy?
Individual advocacy supports one person with a specific issue. Systemic advocacy focuses on broader changes that affect many people.

2. How does HCCWA influence government decisions?
We provide submissions, attend consultations, and support consumer representatives to sit at decision-making tables.

3. How can I get involved in systemic advocacy?
You can join our network, respond to consultations, or become a consumer representative through HCCWA.

Call to Action

If you want to help shape fairer healthcare in WA, get involved with systemic advocacy today.

 

 

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The definition of systemic advocacy is:

Organisations, groups, or individuals working for long-term social and legislative change to make sure legislation, policies and practices equitably support the rights, needs and interests of all people. Advocacy is done through acting, speaking, listening, and writing to promote, protect and defend the rights of a person or community.

The systemic advocacy work we do aims to:

  • Introduce, support, and influence positive long-term changes to the WA Health System; changes that support and respond to the voices and needs of the community, including legislative, policy and practice environments throughout public and private sectors
  • Ensure that the rights and interests of all people living in Western Australia are listened to and upheld, especially diverse and marginalised people and communities, including First Nations people, people in rural and remote areas, Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CaLD) people, children and youth, people serving time in the justice system and members of the LGBTQIA+ community
  • Promote and partner in improving opportunities and outcomes involving living-expertise and collaboration
  • Ensure the issues and experiences of individuals and communities inform the focus of our work
  • Share information and opportunities for community involvement
  • Represent the Consumer Voice to WA Health

Our systemic advocacy work aims to support and further HCC’s vision of equitable, person-centered, quality healthcare for all those living in Western Australia, and aims to model the values of respect, kindness, equity, working together, integrity and empowerment.

If you have any questions about Systemic Advocacy in the Health System, or about any of our listed involvements, please email info@hconc.org.au 

 

Advocating through Committees

 

Archived Systemic Advocacy work