Our Work
COVID-19 Supports, Information and Resources
Local Programs and Resources
Fruit and Vegetable Consumption
Family Violence
Aboriginal Programs
Rural Updates
Chronic Disease Information and Resources
Training
Webinar
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Health and community services, local governments and community organisations are playing a vital role is supporting community through this pandemic. We would like to thank those services and staff who have been working tirelessly to respond. We are appreciative of those who are not only trying to support their own family, but who are also there for other individuals and families in our community.
Updates: Local Government Area Community Food Access Guides have been added to the COVID-19 web page under Local Information. The Alpine Mental Health Guide and the Benalla Financial/Legal Guide has also been added under Local Information. The government has also provide updates on the jobseeker payments. These updates can be found under Community Support and Information, Financial, Legal, Housing, and Business supports.
We hope the webpage continues to be a beneficial resource to the communities across Central Hume.
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Loneliness was the most widely reported source of personal stress for Australians during April, according to the third ABS Household Impacts of COVID-19 Survey.
ABS Program Manager for Household Surveys, Michelle Marquardt, said loneliness affected more women (28 per cent) than men (16 per cent).
“Around one in five people (19 per cent) also reported that they were experiencing difficulties maintaining a healthy lifestyle, which was more of a problem for those aged 18 to 64 years (22 per cent) than those aged 65 years and over (9 per cent),” added Ms Marquardt. Read More |
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Stronger and more resilient care systems and communities are better able to cope, respond and adapt to new challenges and crises such as the current COVID-19 pandemic. They are able to quickly come together to ‘act as one’ and collaborate across disciplines and sectors towards a common goal. This is the essence of integrated care and this is what the International Foundation for Integrated Care (IFIC) stands for – creating a more connected health and care system.
Our call to action is clear: the future of health and care is integrated and the journey to achieve it must be accelerated through our response to this global pandemic. Since IFIC was established in 2011, it has been advocating integrated care as an evidence-based and people-centred approach to enhance the quality, value and experience of care, improve population health and wellbeing, and increase job satisfaction in the workforce.
The speed and scale of the response required by the COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted how the fragmentation in current health and care systems significantly impairs our ability to respond effectively. Read more
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This 75 minute pre-recorded session will support practitioners across Victoria to:
• Identify family violence in the COVID-19 context
• Develop strategies to establish safety using technology
• Partner with victim survivors to undertake effective safety planning
• Explore and undertake self-care
• Stay up to date with changes in the service system.
The pre-recorded webinar will be useful for practitioners who come across adult victim survivors of family violence in the course of their work.
Register to receive a link to the pre-recorded webinar and slide pack.
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In 2018-2019, the Rural City of Wangaratta community rallied to obtain Federal Government funding to create the Grit and Resilience Program, an initiative which aims to support our community to overcome hardships together.
We are surrounded by uncertainty due to the impacts of flood, drought, bushfire and the COVID-19 pandemic. Now, more than ever, your input is vital in shaping the future of the Rural City of Wangaratta community.
We ask that you please complete our 5 minute survey, to help us to gather ideas for building community grit, resilience and connection.
Your participation will help build a stronger, more connected and resilient community, so that we can hold on and bounce back together.
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What makes our Community great?
How can our Community improve? How can we increase Community connection?
How has our Community overcome hardship before?
Sharing your ideas will help create opportunities for our Community
to connect and work together. |
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Do you know someone in our community with great ideas?
Please invite them to complete our survey by sharing this email.
Or, please let us know if there is someone we should reach out to, by emailing GritandResilience@wangaratta.vic.gov.au or phoning 03 5722 0888. |
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What's Next
Your feedback will be analysed to identify opportunities for our community.
We will vote as a community for the ideas we think are most important.
We will work together to make those ideas happen, and create a more connected, strong and resilient community.
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COLLABORATION
The Fruit & Vegetable Consortium brings together key organisations to collectively advocate for comprehensive joint action to improve Australia’s fruit and vegetable consumption.
MISSION
Our mission is to develop more effective marketing and promotional interventions that will deliver significant long-term change to fruit and vegetable consumption. We believe there is an urgent need for far greater investment to address Australia’s low levels of fruit and vegetable consumption. We believe that by working together and acting now, we can increase fruit and vegetable consumption.
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Victoria Police has launched videos in multiple languages to encourage people from culturally and linguistically diverse communities to seek help if they are experiencing family violence.
These videos raise awareness that family violence is a crime, help victims understand who they can speak to for support, and let victims know that they are not alone.
The videos are available in English and 12 other languages: Arabic, Burmese, Chinese (Simplified and Traditional), Dari, Farsi, Greek, Italian, Punjabi, Macedonian, Turkish and Vietnamese.
To view or share the videos, visit the Victoria Police website or the Victoria Police Facebook post. See audio messages in different languages.
Translated family violence fact sheets are now also available on the Department of Health and Human Services website.
You can read more about how Victoria Police continues to respond to family violence matters as a priority during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic on the Victoria Police website.
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The Coalition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community-controlled peak organisations (the Coalition of Peaks) has today launched a website aimed at engaging Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people on the new National Agreement on Closing the Gap to be agreed with Australian governments and how it will work in their communities.
The new website tells the story of who the Coalition of Peaks is, why it formed and how its community-controlled members are working with Australian governments to improve life outcomes of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. |
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While some restrictions have been eased in Victoria the virus is still with us in the community, and the safety of our women remains our absolute priority. This is why Djirra is currently confirming our COVID-19 recovery plan. For the time being, all our face-to-face services are still suspended except in rare circumstances in the legal services area where lawyers are compelled by the Court to do so. Return to our face-to-face programs and services will be announced when the plan is finalised.
With the ease of restrictions, especially with kids going back to school, we anticipate this might give more opportunities for our women to find the time and space to reach out to Djirra safely. Our expertise and our experience tells us that the violence keeps happening behind closed doors, and certainly even increasing, and we are getting ready for an increase in demand for support in the days ahead. Our internal data shows that in the month of April, 23% of women seeking legal assistance from Djirra reported that the family violence they were experiencing was triggered or made worse by COVID-19 isolation. Read More
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As we get ready for the next stage of recovery from COVID-19, we at VAEAI would really like to hear your opinion on how you think our community will best recover from the impacts of the pandemic.
VAEAI participates in many meetings with key stakeholders who continually ask for community views about the impacts of COVID-19, and we would really appreciate your ideas about what you think would benefit you, your family and community.
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AgBiz Assist continues to support both new and existing clients including primary producers and small business under COVID-19 conditions, via phone, video conferencing, email and other forms of communication to safeguard client and staff health.
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Have you thought about a plan for your farm during Covid-19?
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Recovery Connect helps you find additional payments and support during and after a bushfire. A range of services and information from charity and community organisations to government agencies is available on the Bushfire Recovery Connect website to help you connect to the support you need. Please continue to check back in as the website will be regularly updating available services.
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There are currently limited dedicated resources to inform management for people with severe asthma. Further, many of the contemporary asthma messages and resources are not tailored for people with severe asthma. The Severe Asthma Toolkit was developed to address this unmet need.
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There is an ongoing hepatitis A outbreak in Victoria affecting predominantly people who use drugs, as well as people experiencing homelessness. As of 6 May 2020, there have been 56 confirmed cases and 6 possible cases of hepatitis A associated with the outbreak since July 2019.
To control the outbreak in Victoria, a hepatitis A vaccination program targeting people who use drugs as well as people experiencing homelessness is available until 31 August 2020.
As both hepatitis B and hepatitis C are highly prevalent among people who inject drugs, hepatitis B vaccine should also be offered and screening for both conditions considered. People who positive for hepatitis B, C should be encouraged to commence treatment.
Influenza vaccine should also be provided to those eligible under the National Immunisation Program.
Key messages
- A free single-dose hepatitis A vaccination is available for people who use drugs or are experiencing homelessness until 31 August 2020.
- Vaccination is available at GP clinics providing specialised services to people who use drugs and people experiencing homelessness as well as via a mobile outreach service.
- Consider hepatitis A infection in patients presenting with a compatible illness in these risk groups and take blood for serology (IgM).
- Notify all suspected cases of acute viral hepatitis without waiting for serology results to the Department by calling 1300 651 160.
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HMF702, Healthy and Sustainable Agricultural Communities is a 12-week online professional training and postgraduate unit offered by the School of Medicine at Deakin University and the National Centre for Farmer Health. It aims to provide an overview of the social, environmental, health promotion and policy determinants of health and wellbeing in rural and remote Australia. Completion of this unit will provide you with the knowledge to positively influence the high rates of illness, injury and poor health outcomes in Agricultural communities.
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Are you a neighbourhood centre, community service or grass roots organisation working hard to support your community as they recover from the Black Summer bushfires?
Australian Red Cross Disaster Recovery Advisors and Mentors Australia (DRAMA) invites you to join us as we host Kris Newton, Manager of Mountains Community Resource Network and Anne Crestani, Manager of Step by Step Recovery Support Service as they share their own experiences and learnings of working within the post-disaster community recovery space.
This webinar will provide community organisations with insight on how to navigate formal recovery arrangements and how the work they do can support critical community-led long-term recovery.
Online via Zoom - Please register by clicking on the webinar link below:
Thursday 4 June 3:00pm:
https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_XO5-l5KcT7elHhRZz2uT3Q
Please send your questions for Kris and Anne through to
recovery@redcross.org.au
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Seize this pivotal moment
The effect of today’s unprecedented circumstances upon delivery of healthcare has been and continues to be very significant. The lockdown has shown how systems can be overwhelmed and temporarily coping is not the solution. This could be a pivotal time for the digitisation of processes and systems in healthcare, putting an emphasis on initiatives that may have been previously deprioritised due to funding or lack of resources. Also, it's time to re-examine traditional approaches to digitisation; off the shelf and build from scratch both are expensive to maintain and may not deliver agile solutions. Is there another better way?
Interactive discussion
Join us in a fire-side chat with Fiona Caldwell, CIO Estia Health, Charles Papp, Director, KRE8 IT, and Richard Davies, Sr Lead Architect, OutSystems, as we share how healthcare organisations are using low-code to innovate and streamline operations to improve patient and employee care.
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