Health Promotion
Gippsland Women’s Health recognises that all aspects of a woman’s can influence how she feels and how healthy she is. We work together with other organisations and the community to develop health related programs that address a range of issues.
The following provide an example of the issues which face women in the Gippsland community.
A snapshot of recent and ongoing programs follows.
Prevention of violence against women
Respectful Relationships Education in Schools
Five secondary schools from Latrobe participated in in the first phase of this project in 2006. We worked individually with each school to identify their level of understanding around family violence and to identify the needs of each school in regard to professional development and policy and procedure development.
As a result each school took an individual approach to their involvement in the project and this had lead to the development of a flexible professional development package that can be delivered to targeted staff or whole of staff information sessions in schools across Gippsland.
This project has now been expanded to include schools in East Gippsland and Wellington. We anticipate expanding further into areas of South Gippsland in the near future.
Information underpinning the GWHS Respectful Relationships in Schools programs can be found in the attached documents,
A Right to Respect - Victoria's Plan to Prevent Violence Against Women 2010-2020 (A Victorian Government Initiative) PDF 1.04MB and Respectful Relationships Education - Violence prevention and respectful relationships education in Victorian Secondary Schools (Department of Education and Early Childhood Development. ) Part 1
(PDF 3MB)
"Say No to Violence" Campaign
A partnership was formed with the Sale City Football Network Club to implement a family violence community awareness program. As a result all Senior, Reserve, Thirds Football and Senior Netball players display family violence prevention messages on their team sporting uniform.
Information sessions have been held for Thirds Football and Senior Netball players, and a duty of care session for the Junior and Senior Committee members and Board members. A sign has been provided for the football ground boundary fence and information is displayed in the Club male and female toilets.
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Promoting mental health and wellbeing
Lifeskills for Women
Central Gippsland Alcohol and Drug Services in 1995. Since that time the project has been delivered to a significant number of women throughout Gippsland, in response to requests from established groups and workplaces, either as a full time program or through the delivery of specific modules.
The program is designed as a capacity building program to aid social connectedness and support mental health and wellbeing.
There are six complementary and inter-related topic areas:
- Self-esteem
- Effective communication
- Negotiation
- Appropriate assertiveness
- Anger management
- Stress management.
The program has also been successfully adapted and delivered to women living with intellectual and/or psychiatric disabilities. In addition to the direct program delivery, health professionals in Gippsland have been trained to deliver the program through a Train the Trainer approach.
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Sexual and reproductive health
Gippsland Sexual and Reproductive Health Strategy January 2010
The importance of developing a sexual and reproductive health strategy is clearly articulated in the following quote from the “Time for a national sexual and reproductive health strategy for Australia: Background Paper 2008"
“Like many other areas of health, sexual and reproductive health is multidimensional, influenced by a complex interplay of biological, psychological and social determinants.
Social determinants such as income, employment, housing, education, gender roles, and access to community resources, heavily impact on sexual and reproductive health, causing gross inequalities between population groups. In general, the lower an individual or group’s social status, the lower their access to resources and opportunities that enable control over their lives (and health).
Sexual and reproductive ill health disproportionately affects the following groups in Australia:
- Adolescents and young people
- Indigenous people
- People with disabilities
- People living in rural and remote areas
- People from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds, including refugees
- Same-sex attracted, gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and intersex people
- Sex workers
- People in prison
- Homeless people
In addition to these general social determinants, sexual and reproductive health is particularly vulnerable to societal attitudes. The best sexual and reproductive health outcomes are found in countries with egalitarian attitudes about sexuality, that are reflected in popular culture, laws, policies and programs that respect, protect and fulfil sexual and reproductive rights.”
In recognition of the growing need to address sexual and reproductive health issues, particularly from a health promotion perspective, the Department of Health has appointed Gippsland Women’s Health Service to lead the development of a regional Sexual and Reproductive Health Promotion Strategy for 2009-2012.
The aim of the strategy is to develop a comprehensive, evidence-based regional plan that will direct and inform health promotion activity for sexual and reproductive health.
Key activities in the development of the strategy have so far included:
- An endorsed Action Plan and Framework to guide the development of the strategy.
- The establishment of a reference group. The first meeting of the Gippsland Sexual and Reproductive Health Strategy was held on February 24th 2009. Invitations to join the group were extended across the health, community and education sectors.
Membership is open and currently has representatives from the following organisations:
- Gippsland Women’s Health Service
- Central Gippsland Health Service
- Latrobe Community Health Service
- Bass Coast Community Health Service
- Bairnsdale Regional Health
- Department of Health
- Department of Education and Early Childhood Development
- Central West Primary Care Partnership
- East Gippsland Primary Care Partnership
- South Gippsland Primary Care Partnership
- Wellington Primary Care Partnership
- Ramahyuck District Aboriginal Corporation
- Family Planning Victoria
- Gippsland Southern Health
- Scoping of sexual and reproductive health issues and potential interventions for the region.
- Managing a prioritisation process to determine the interventions to be included in the strategy.
- Mapping of current organisational activity in sexual and reproductive health.
- Mapping of current sexuality education in Gippsland schools.
- Presentation at a regional professional development day for teachers.
- GWHS joining the steering committee for the state-wide Mind the Gap project.
- Writing a draft of the Strategy.
This strategy is a living document and as such will be updated as new policy and evidence becomes known.
For more information about the strategy, please contact Jodie Pullman on 51 431 600 or hpo@gwhealth.asn.au
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Alcohol and other drugs
Girls on the Edge Postcard Project
In response to anecdotal data that indicated that young women are engaging in unsafe sex and alcohol practices at parties and school events such as debutante balls, we developed an art project that involved working with young people and a graphic artist to design postcards depicting safe sex / safe partying messages to display in places that are predominantly used by young women.
Phase Two of the project included interactive information sessions with parents to assist them in better understanding of the effects of alcohol and tips on how to communicate effectively with their children about alcohol use.
Phase Three will see a wider distribution of the postcards and posters to schools across the region.
These postcards have now been reproduced as posters. Click on the thumbnail to look at a larger view.
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