Alfred Health's Universal Design Principles

Co-designing Alfred Health’s Universal Design Principles

  • Investigators

      • Associate Professor Leah Heiss, Monash University
      • Associate Professor Leah Heiss, Monash University
      • Dr Gretchen Coombs, Monash University
      • Associate Professor Kathy Waghorn, Monash University
      • Dr Rachel Couper, Monash University
      • Dr Troy McGee, Monash University
      • Dr Chuan Khoo, Monash University
      • Monika Englehard, Monash University

  • Co-investigators

      • Dr Alex Waddell - Monash University Action Lab
      • Dr Olivia Hamilton - RMIT Art and Urban Design
      • Dr Marius Foley - RMIT Design Futures
      • Hatoun Ibrahim, Monash University

  • Partner organisation

    • Alfred Health

  • Funded by

    • Alfred Health

  • Undertaken within

Alfred Health has a commitment to equitable healthcare and providing enhanced patient and employee experiences through their health services. MADA worked with Alfred Health leadership to co-design Universal Design Principles specific to Alfred Health. These Principles will be used as a broad framework to be applied across four focus areas: Service Planning and Delivery, Improvement and Innovation projects, Capital Works, and Digital Health.

Bringing together 36 stakeholders from across these focus areas, the co-design process aimed to foster collaboration, allowing Alfred Health stakeholders to define attributes of fit-for-purpose Universal Design Principles, engage with the lived experience of consumers and staff, and identify both obstacles and opportunities for implementation.

The first workshop invited participants to evaluate the currently accepted 1997 Universal Design Principles, assessing their acceptability and usability in the current Alfred Health context, and to prototype new Alfred Health Principles. In a follow up workshop the stakeholder community came together to test and modify the prototyped Principles in relation to a 2028 ‘Alfred Health Precinct’ scenario that was designed to encourage participants to consider the Principles in relation to a future context. Teams also tested the adaptability and use of the prototyped Principles in relation to the four aforementioned focus areas.

Following the co-design process and extensive consultation with Alfred Health leadership, MADA researchers developed six final Principles: Design to be Sustainable, Design to be Inclusive, Design in Partnership, Design for Ease, Design for Integration, and Design to be Safe. Alfred Health are further socialising, refining, implementing and evaluating these Alfred Health Universal Design Principles in practice settings.