Engagement was key at our recent Stakeholder Breakfast Forum

In late October we hosted a successful Agency Stakeholder Forum – the first major stakeholder event we have held in the past five years.

Staff from the NIISQ Agency and Motor Accident Insurance Commission were fortunate to come together for a breakfast discussion to generate ideas for improvement and visions for the future alongside a number of key partners in the health, disability, insurance and legal industries.

Our keynote speaker

Attendees were fortunate to hear from our keynote speaker, Matthew Ames, who shared his own lived experiences, both professional and personal, and set the scene for the importance of enhancing disability systems to support individuals to thrive. Matthew was 39 years old when what started as a sore throat resulted in the loss of all four of his limbs. He had contracted streptococcal resulting in toxic shock and was never expected to survive.

He suffered kidney failure, a detached retina, and permanent hearing loss in addition to the loss of his arms and legs. Matthew has beaten the odds, spurred on by his wonderful family. You can learn more about Matthew’s story here.

Matthew has a unique mix of professional and personal experience, and an in-depth understanding of health and disability from a system, provider and participants perspective. This includes roles as a board member for Metro South Hospital and Health Service, Centacare, Bionics Queensland, and Hear and Say, in addition to consumer advocacy roles for Queensland Health and the Australian Sepsis Network.

He was able to bring his unique experiences, aligning to our vision and purpose in what was an impactful and poignant speech to kickstart our morning of discussions.

The discussions

Our main focus for the morning was to create breakout table discussions that were targeted on key topics tied with our strategic direction. We wanted to hear from valued stakeholders about what they thought our priorities could be and learn of innovative ways to ensure our focus to be participant-driven could continue to evolve.

Our topics included:

Participant Care

• It is predicted that by 2024 NIISQ lifetime participants will be approximately 65% of our cohort (approx. 400 participants). What innovative and novel ways of participant engagement will optimise long term health outcomes and quality of life for our participants?
• Our participant cohort is predominantly young males 16-30 years old who have sustained a TBI. What service delivery approaches should the Agency target that will empower participants to explore and return to meaningful life and vocational roles?

Service Delivery and Development

• If we were to lead an evolution in service delivery for NIISQ participants, what would this look like?
• What would we need to do to achieve this and who would we need to collaborate with?

Legal Services and Claims

• What does a smooth and efficient common law process with a NIISQ participant look like?  
• How can we ensure that the purpose of the Agency to provide necessary and reasonable treatment care and support to participants is at the forefront during the litigation process? What ways can we improve/advance how we continue to work together through this process?
• Working well together is a group effort, ever-changing and evolving. If we endeavour to be collaborative, can we get through the unknown pathways of litigation for our participants and also our workers?
• Are there steps the Agency or others can take to make the litigation experience better for our participants?

Innovation and Delivery

• What are the pain points or opportunities in the participant journey that would benefit from an innovative approach?
• How might we solve for our pain points to simplify the participant journey?

NIISQ leaders and scribes led some passionate and constructive table conversations, which will continue to inform how the Scheme evolves.

It’s important to us that these conversations continue, and we are working hard to collate and action the high level of excellent input and information we received into our forward planning. The collaboration with stakeholders will directly affect our ways of working in the coming year.

Thank you to all who attended!