By Sibanengi Dube
Community Health First (CHF) has urged the state government to reverse the 10 per cent budget cut on Integrated Health Promotion.
CHF, which is critical in ensuring better health outcomes for communities across metropolitan, regional, and rural Victoria, has expressed reservations over the slashing and implored the government to appreciate the good results coming from health promotion services.
IPC Health is part of the Community Health First.
“A short-sighted decision to reduce health promotion spending now will ultimately result in increased costs elsewhere in the health system in years to come,“ said IPC Health chief executive Jayne Nelson as a spokesperson for Community Health First.
“Health promotion services include programs that educate school children about healthy eating, work with sports clubs to include people with a disability, promote gender equity in parenting, and work with communities to address family violence and social isolation.
Health promotion plays a critical role in ensuring better health outcomes for communities across metropolitan, regional, and rural Victoria. Community health services play a critical role in the delivery of state-wide health promotion activity, and in doing so, saves the Victorian Government tens of millions of dollars each year by preventing avoidable hospital presentations and other healthcare costs.
Health promotion services engage with communities to build health literacy and empower community members to take control of their health, ultimately reducing the risks of poor health outcomes and avoiding the associated costs of poor health.
“Investment in health promotion is critical to address the escalating healthcare costs in Victoria. According to a report by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW), potentially preventable hospitalisations in Australia by age groups and small geographic areas, 38% of illness, diseases, and early deaths can be prevented. This same report also found that one in 10 hospital admission days are preventable,” Ms Nelson said.
This is particularly relevant given that the Productivity Commission Report on Government Services found that there was an annual increase of 13,000 avoidable admissions during the 2020-21 financial year in Victoria.
There are many real-life examples of the positive and life changing impacts of health promotion activity delivered by community health services throughout Victoria. A great example of this work is Gippsland Lakes Complete Health’s Health Promotion Team Leader Jaquie Nethercote, who was recently announced as a winner of the inaugural Vic Kids Eat Well Awards.
These awards recognise outstanding efforts by organisations that provide healthier food and drink options for kids across the state and highlight the positive difference that health promotion programs like Vic Kids Eat Well make at a community level.
