Group membership
Our Consumer Advisory Group is a panel of community members with a background in health consumer affairs, and representing a wide variety of patient and consumer groups across Australia and New Zealand.
Led by one of our Fellows, they advise us on how to improve consumer engagement and patient centred care across our professional standards and education approaches, as well as policy and advocacy activities.
Ngāpei Ngatai
Tenā koutou katoa
Ko Taranaki te mounga
Ko Whai-tara nui a Ngarue te awa
Ko Te Atiawa ratou ko Ngati Mutunga o Wharekauri, Ko Ngati Maniapoto ngā iwi
Ko Ngati Te Whiti raua ko Ngati Rāhiri ngā hapu
No Taranaki au
Ko Kaimanāki Oranga
Ko Ngāpei Ngatai toku ingoa
No reira, tena koutou, tena koutou, tena koutou katoa
Greetings to everyone
Taranaki is the mountain
Whai-tara nui a Ngarue is the river
These are the names of the main tribes that I belong to
These are the names of the sub-tribes I belong to
I am from Taranaki
I am a Consumer Advisor
My name is Ngāpei Ngatai
Therefore, greetings once, greetings twice, greetings to everyone once again
Ngāpei has 10 years experience and understanding as a Consumer Advisor, bringing with her a strong cultural perspective and extensive governance skills. She is currently involved in the strategic planning and implementation of services throughout all 20 District Health Boards within Aotearoa New Zealand. Her greatest achievement and involvement to date has been in the development of the Cancer Nurse Coordinator role, Faster Cancer Treatment, Psychosocial Oncology services and Hand Hygiene. Ngāpei herself overcame breast cancer 11 years ago.
Rachel Skoss
Rachel is a health services researcher focusing on:
- building health literacy in consumers and caregivers
- how health services can better meet the needs of people with disability
She is a passionate advocate for people with intellectual disability. Rachel understands the interface between health, mental health, and disability sectors. She is a parent of a child with disability and comes from various governance and committee roles in the health, mental health and disability sectors.
Zehnab Vayani
Zehnab is committed to working collectively with others to improve healthcare in Queensland. She advocates for healthcare services to be:
- more accessible
- holistically focused
- better integrated around the needs of health consumers and their families
Zehnab focuses on social determinants of health informed by her own family lived experience of complex health care across a number of care settings.
She is a champion for co-designed innovation in healthcare that balances ethical considerations around health consumer and carer human rights, quality, safety, and accessible information to inform advances in personalised healthcare and medicine.
Jodi Adams
Jodi is a consumer representative with the National Register of Palliative Care Consumers and Carers. She is an active member in a number of advisory groups in the Royal Children's Hospital Melbourne. Jodi has a role as a volunteer Peer Support Leader for her eastern metropolitan SWAN (Syndromes Without A Name) families, facilitating social gatherings for caregivers and families. Jodi has extensive lived experience with her daughter who had a rare life limiting condition across a range of healthcare settings including Complex Care and Palliative Care.
Jodi participated in an interview sharing her personal story for the Australian Paediatric Palliative Conference in 2022. She is an advocate for supporting the whole family when their child has ongoing medical needs and is passionate about improving accessibility to services and support for carers and their families, particularly those under palliative care and continued beyond in bereavement