Video transcript - See Me. Hear Me. Respect Me. Customer Stories

So I guess I'm most proud of the fact that people's voices are being heard. People with disabilities sometimes get talked and like acted like they're a baby.

I think the most important factor in the success is just the focus on people's stories.

I was diagnosed with Mosaic Down Syndrome at four. It's been an interesting journey. See me, hear me, respect me, just that title is really about acknowledging everyone.

When people think you've got a disability you're not taken seriously in terms of your thoughts. But with this campaign there was an aim to be able to create a project that educates. See me as a whole person, not just Karen, the person that has cerebral palsy.

I understand, I see you, I acknowledge you as a human just like me. I'm only of one voice but if that voice is united with other voices we can be stronger. They have the long-term knowledge and the history of what they need and they need to be able to have a strong voice so that they can have their needs and their concerns met.

Look beyond the surface. I'm proud who I am. I have many layers.

See, hear, and respect me for who I am. The brilliance of meaningful and good co-design is that you likely will unearth something that you're not expecting. This campaign's gone beyond the initial thoughts and ideas that we all got together and our members had through co-design.

See Me, Hear Me, Respect Me was basically a campaign created by people living with a disability for people living with a disability. Once we started the focus groups the message was pretty clear that the system's not listening to us. They were invisible to health practitioners.

They were unseen. They were unheard. They weren't respected.

Doctors sometimes attitude. They know the textbook. They don't know the lived life.

That's all you need to think about, looking up what's in front of you as a person, an individual who has needs and they've come to ask you. A large proportion of our patients have disability, but we may not be thinking about that or aware of the needs of those patients. Seeing the campaign and seeing the messages from the people interviewed makes us more aware of the needs of our patients.

Some disabilities are hidden disabilities, but that should not make any difference. Everyone needs to be more aware of these things. Co-design is a term that's used a lot by lots of different people in lots of different fields, but ultimately the important thing is that design element.

So you're bringing people together to collaborate on a design of something, a service, a product, a communication, an output, a resource. I think it's excellent for people who are health professionals to ask the opinion of people who receive their services, how they're feeling about the whole thing. Ask the community first, what's important to them? What's their priority? How do you prefer to be spoken to? How do you like the information presented? I think that's a big shift for an organisation.

I think it has to have the people who are interested in being part of that process at the table at the very start and not have decisions already decided that are in the heads of the people who want to make the decisions or have the power in the room. It's important that everybody has an equal voice at that table. It's about making sure that the results and the outcomes are driven by the community voice.

Nothing about us without us and also stand up for ourselves. We have a voice. Listen to us.

It just doesn't make sense to make policy and programmes and responses to healthcare for people with disability without involving them. It's essential. It's an excellent way to get a really good outcome that actually delivers meaningful change because otherwise it's just another exercise.

It creates space for people to have their say in a meaningful way, not just in consultation but in the beginning, middle and end of the process and then the future of the process. It's empowering because it gives power back to people with disability. It's not the first campaign that's used community members as spokespeople but where it was different was the focus groups led the direction of the campaign.

It was very much from their own perspective. They're treating me differently than they're treating other people. I got a bit frustrated about that.

Co-design is more than a boss work. True co-design when done well. It's a very simple formula.

Don't need to overcomplicate. This is an example of it. The see me, hear me, respect me is a completely 100% true co-designed template for others to follow.

Get in the room. Let's discuss and let's make it happen. When I'm delivering training at Metro South, I've been using the see me, hear me, respect me videos to make sure that people with disability are being seen and heard.

Really promotes that overall social inclusion. It increases respect, I think, and engagement and just further increases awareness about disability and the ways that it might be hidden or visible and how to respond or not respond to that when you're engaging on a daily basis. When a person with disability directly emailed me just saying I saw the video playing in the lift and it was really empowering and I felt welcomed.

It's a sense of connection. It's a sense of community. But it's more important.

It's a sense of family. And this campaign has really brought everyone together and it's had a ripple effect into the wider community as well. See, hear, respect, who I am.

I'm just going to try and be a person with you. Would you just try and be a person with me? I feel that this is a really, really big project and a really big step in the right direction. Look at me.

I'm literally not hiding in the shadows. I'm out there. I've got a smile on my face.

I'm doing this work. Once you see the value of co-design, it's hard to unsee and unheal it. When it's done in a meaningful way, it has great impact and great outcomes.

And I think this is a real example of that. It's important to get an understanding of the whole person because we're all complex individuals and we're all wonderful. Thank you.