Health Promotion

Health Promotion at West Wimmera Health Service

We work closely with our communities, always doing our best to listen to what people want and need at the local level to increase opportunities for health and wellbeing.

Community Health and Wellbeing Grants - NOW OPEN!

West Wimmera Health Service's Community Health and Wellbeing grants help you grow your ideas for making your community, club or group healthier.

We're offering both financial assistance (up to $5,000 per project) and the support of our dedicated Health Promotion team to help our local communities create opportunities to improve health and wellbeing.

Do you think that wellbeing is living your best life?
Do you have a vision to make your community, club or group healthier?
Do you live in our WWHS catchment?
Do you believe that health is more than just not being sick?

If you answered YES to the above questions, then these grants are for you!

Wanting an easy grant to apply for? Look no further!
No experience running a project? We support you through it from start to finish.
Have an idea but not sure it fits the terms of these grants? We're here to help you figure it out.

Read the grant guidelines and apply online.

Questions?

Please contact Dorothy McLaren, Health Promotion Manager
Email: dorothy.mclaren@wwhs.net.au
Phone: 0427 085 896

What is Health?

The World Health Organisation (WHO) defines health as: A state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity

What is Health Promotion?

The WHO definition of health promotion is: The process of enabling people to increase control over, and to improve, their health. It moves beyond a focus on individual behaviour towards a wide range of social and environmental interventions.

What do we do?

We will work across a broad range of communities and issues, always focussing on the social determinants of health but also supporting and/or developing smaller scale projects.

The Coping During COVID: Rural perspectives from the Wimmera and Southern Mallee report contains an initial high level analysis of the survey data, undertaken by LaTrobe University. Learnings the survey which was conducted during the initial COVID isolation period in the Wimmera and Southern Mallee, are helping to inform health promotion practice at West Wimmera Health Service (WWHS) and beyond.

Click here to view the report.

Climate Adaptation Lens for Health Promotion

West Wimmera Health Service and the Grampians region of the Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action have partnered in teh development of a Climate Adaptation Lens for Health Promotion activities. The Lens has been developed by Federation University’s Future Regions Research Centre (FRRC). Climate adaptation is a particularly high priority in the Wimmera and southern Mallee. This region is economically reliant on primary production, particularly cropping of grain, legumes and pulses. It has experienced significant drought (13 years in the Millenium drought), multiple major fire and flood events and a locust plague over the past 20 years. Agricultural production has been deeply impacted by each of these events. Annual rainfall and heat day patterns are changing. Productive timeframes are shortening. When added to the very recent trauma of the international zoonotic pandemic, Covid19, it was clear that there was a unique opportunity to look at what a co-produced climate adaptation lens for rural, place-based health promotion might look like. The resultant report has been completed and the Lens tools are now entering a trial and evaluation stage.

Contact

If you would like to contact the Health Promotion team please email health.promotion@wwhs.net.au

Health Promotion