MEETING THE DESIRE FOR DIFFERENT LEADERS IN THE HEALTH SYSTEM: INVENTING CONSUMER LEADERSHIP

The authors were engaged by a State Government Health agency to develop and deliver a 'Consumer Leadership Development Programme' for consumer representatives who held positions on various Boards and Advisory Committees of health services (such as hospitals and specialist services). The programme was designed along the principles of 'discovery learning'. So far as we can tell, it is without precedent in local or international leadership development programmes. We explore the idea of consumer leadership as an 'in-between role' and enquire into its emergence at this time within public health services, and offer some hypotheses on the what consumer leadership may represent of an unconscious social desire and of a possible displacement of failed leadership within the public health sector.