David Follent

2023 Cohort

David is developing a collaborative decision-making process in health care to create change that rebalances power dynamics for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people accessing the health care system.

David is a proud Bundjalung man from the Tweed Coast of Northern NSW living on Gadigal lands of the Eora Nation/Sydney, NSW and is passionate about Aboriginal health, public health, and healthcare innovation and reform. He is committed to making positive change for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

David works as a senior project officer within the Chronic Care for Aboriginal People Team at the NSW Agency of Clinical Innovation. He is the second generation to work in Aboriginal Health Space in his family building a career in health spanning over 20 years, including as an Enrolled Nurse, Management and Public Health advisor and is currently the Chairperson of the National Association for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Workers and Practitioners (NAATSIHWP).

“I wish to develop shared decision-making process in healthcare through collaboration to create change to re-balance the power dynamic for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people accessing healthcare.”

Social change work

Internationally, shared decision-making (SDM) is seen as a hallmark of good clinical practice, an ethical imperative, and a way of enhancing patient engagement and activation. David’s social change project will focus on SDM for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and will create cultural change to re-balance the relationship and power dynamic between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander patients and the healthcare system.