Rural and remote Australian communities are affected by complex disadvantages which impact the health and well-being of residents. These challenges contribute to a higher incidence of diabetes, obesity, cardiovascular disease and related conditions.
It is our mission to pioneer an integrated, whole-of-community approach to health, providing real-world solutions with benefits for communities across the nation.
Our program, Healthy Broken Hill (HBH), embodies this approach in addressing diabetes, obesity and cardiovascular disease and related conditions. The initiative has been under development since early 2015 and grew out of concern in Broken Hill that local programs to address these conditions have yet to create significant and sustainable change at the population level.
The capacity to effect change in Broken Hill is underpinned by extensive external networks that are committed to working collaboratively with community stakeholders. We work with a number of partners in the community to properly address the myriad issues effecting the health of residents.
Improved health for the local Broken Hill community for years to come. Through our pioneering integrated health model, we are aiming to act as a model for other communities across the country.
Prevention programs should be recognised as just one part of a ‘system’ which combines to influence chronic disease prevention. This project analyses local prevention systems in Broken Hill, the role of policies and programs, as well as other system elements in influencing local prevention systems, aiming to identify what can be done to activate these local prevention systems to achieve maximum population health impact.
A project nearing completion that will present a comprehensive mapping of diabetes, obesity and cardiovascular disease preventive programs and services in Broken Hill, understanding the barriers to the uptake of existing services. These findings help to show what is working and what needs rethinking.
A project that is consulting with community and seeking their advice on appropriate and effective community engagement strategies and shared decision-making, with the intention to extend the reach and relevance of HBH across the whole community.
Our work would not be possible without the support and collaboration of our partners:
Read more about partnerships at the Charles Perkins Centre.