Wimmera Primary Care Partnership transitions to the
Grampians Public Health Unit
As of Monday 27 June, Wimmera PCP staff transitioned in to the Grampians Local Public Health Unit forming the Wimmera Southern Mallee Prevention and Population Health Team. The team will continue to serve our local Wimmera and Southern Mallee region to create healthier communities. All contact details and the office location remain the same and we look forward to building even stronger relationships across the sector and sharing our wealth of local knowledge developed over the past twenty-two years.
Recently the Victorian PCP Executive met in a celebration of the enormous amount of work the twenty-eight PCPs have accomplished over the past two decades and a transcript of former Wimmera PCP Chair, Tracey Chenoweth's speech is shared with you below.
The Rural Experience from the Wimmera & Southern Mallee
Author: Tracey Chenoweth, former Wimmera PCP Chair
So how did it all begin.
We looked at and then enacted to have a broad membership for the Wimmera PCP.
We have a membership base of 27 agencies, they come from local government, education early years thru to tertiary, welfare, health, Wimmera ACHO, Neighbourhood house network, disability, Men’s Shed network, regional arts association, regional library association, social services and the Primary Health Network. The area covered by the Wimmera PCP is 28,041 square kms with a population just over 38,000. Our most northly agency is Woomelang, southerly is Harrow, easterly is Rupanyup and the most westerly being Kaniva. We have worked hard to be strategically minded: We know tough problems and unique opportunities require a strategic & holistic perspective to allow new possibilities to emerge We use our evidence and local knowledge to underpin our decision making. We work as collaborative co-designers: We know our limitations, we work with others in partnership and we are accountable to each other. We are respectful to each other but are comfortable in being able to challenge opinions and behaviours when needed and we actively seek to understand and challenge our own thinking.
Over the journey we have been able utilise our efforts by cooperating/working together thus enabling us to do more with less. There are numerous projects that have been undertaken over the last 22 years and the following is a snap shot.
Mental Health First Aid training which is now funded through the Drought Support Program – which developed from the Wimmera Seasonal Conditions committee of which the PCP is a member. The 4 local governments area – Hindmarsh, West Wimmera, Yarriambiack and Horsham Rural city Council. WPCP is the lead for this program. The training was in response to increasing mental health issues and a number of suicides in the Wimmera & Southern Mallee area during the drought (1997-2010. The timing of this initial event was around in the mid 2000’s. Initial training was provided by trainers from Melbourne. The training was open to a broad cohort including local business owners who were becoming increasingly aware just through day to day interactions that we had significant mental health issues in our communities. The response by attendee’s following the workshop was profound. So, the WPCP undertook to manage & facilitate this program including the training of individuals from each local government area to undertake the train the trainer course. There are 6 trainers in the Wimmera Southern Mallee who are active and are required to undertake ongoing. To maintain their accreditation status as trainers they are required to remain active and deliver 3 sessions per year. 2 of the trainers have reached Masters status with Mental Health First Aid Australia, as they have delivered over 30 courses each over the journey individuals from health, welfare, local government, disability, neighbourhood house network, education, Vic Police as well as community members and local business owners and their staff have participated.
Rural Outreach Program
WPCP is also one 10 partner agencies from health and local government who have a shared concern for the Wimmera’s higher than state average of mental health and suicide.
Initially in the mid 2000’s Wimmera Uniting Care ran a rural outreach program based on a model from the wheat belt in WA. The program addresses the gap in timely and effective support for people experiencing psychological distress. That program ceased, and the Mental Health consortia looked for alternative funding and were successful. The program is very simple it has rural outreach workers across the 4 LGA’s. they act as service navigators rather than counsellors. They are able to cold call on farmers in particular, they take referrals from family members and concerned friends. I have personally made a confidential referral to the service, a number of years ago when my brother in-law was in a very bad space and my sister in-law rang to see what she should do. A phone call was made, and someone saw Peter that day. Peter received very timely support which was ongoing as well as referrals to other specialist agencies.
The Wimmera Information Portal or WIP is it a collaboration with Fed Uni who developed the program, WPCP, local government, Vic Pol and others from the Seasonal conditions group. It is a spatial portal that allows for data to be overlayed to see trends etc.
So, for example climatic events over a period are then overlayed with rates of reported DV with in the Wimmera for example. There are a number of options which include, high heat (heat wave), rain events, missing persons. You can see very clearly when communities are under stress.
The Community health & Wellbeing profiles are a shared body of work of the 3 PCP in the DoH Grampians health region. Central Highlands, Grampians Pyrenees and WPCP.
It was first produced in 2008. Nancy Vaughan maintains the living documents with updates as new data becomes available. The profiles support comprehensive & consolidated data. Agencies & other stakeholders are able to use the information for forward planning; application for funding; to assist organisations with strategic planning including developing agency health and wellbeing plans. As well as gauging the development and success of long-term health prevention, promotion & interventions. This project has been an outstanding success and has been extended to includes the south west of the state – Southern Grampians Shire, Glenelg and Moyne Shires & City of Warrnambool.
In the early years of the PCP we did considerable work in the Service Coordination space. We had considerable issues with poor or nil processes utilised by some agencies, poor practice in how referrals were delivered to the receiving agency. At the time there was project happening to improve IT connectivity with agencies in the Wimmera which involved the role out to all health & welfare agencies, thus, being linked. As a result, some agencies were able for the first time able to join the computer age and others had enhanced internet access. As part of the service coordination project, work was undertaken to look at electronic referrals and what options were available to do this. As result all agencies agreed to utilise Connecting Care and the PCP took the lead role in the role out and the ongoing support for agencies and advocating for a group licence that covered all agencies – which was successful thus giving equitable access to the smallest agency to the largest in the Wimmera and Southern Mallee. The support has been maintained along the journey.
Another significant body of ongoing work is the Cultural Awareness training developed and delivered by Jo Harrison Clarke. Jo is a proud Wotjobaluk woman from the Wimmera and a member of the stolen generation, who developed the training package and delivers it with the support and assistance of the WPCP. Jo has presented on this work at the National Rural Health Conference in 2017
There are many other projects such as the pilot undertaken in the Wimmera; heat wave planning; the small grants program and activities – the aim is to build community resilience through social connection. the drought youth bus; the role of project officer for the Wimmera southern Mallee Rural Health Alliance – project work in this space included, telehealth for various things such as cardiac rehab, wound management, pain clinic, afterhours community palliative care. The Grampians Region Memory Support Guides – which are an updated guide for the community of the Grey Matter document which was developed in 2012 and the shift in jurisdiction from the State to the Commonwealth for over 65 & over 50 for Aboriginal and Torres Strait islander clients this document needed a major review.
The Chronic Disease Road Maps for each of the 4 Wimmera LGA’s. Both of these are for community use.
So, in closing
The strength of our rural PCP has been our work with significant number of local organisations; this has allowed the development and implementation of sustainable solutions that work in the rural environment. Being a local agency who is agile and has the ability to deliver in a very timely manner. Finally, the gains over the last 22 years I hope and pray are not lost by layers of bureaucracy; at the time it took a leap of faith and now another leap of faith is needed.
