Albany preventative health partnership named as finalist in Health Excellence Awards
From left: Kirsten Rudolph and Charlie Walters from Port Albany football club sampling some healthy canteen snacks with WACHS Healthy Albany, Project Officer, Megan Press.
Albany residents now have a local government that puts the community’s health and wellbeing at the heart of all that they do, thanks to the Healthy Albany partnership.
Recently named as finalist in the Health Excellence Awards’ Promotion of Preventative Health category, Healthy Albany has been a three year project led in partnership by WA Country Health Service Great Southern and the City of Albany.
The project aimed to address the high prevalence of overweight and obesity and associated chronic disease in the Albany community. By making sustainable changes to the environments in which people live, work, and play – places which the City of Albany has the power to make a positive impact to.
WA Country Health Service Great Southern Health Promotion Coordinator Kate Jones said the local reach and influence of the City of Albany was used to deliver health promotion initiatives to improve diet, reduce tobacco use and exposure, reduce alcohol consumption, increase physical activity and improve mental health.
“Our community initiatives such as Healthy Club Canteens, Healthy Community Events, and Jamie’s Ministry of Food were all about making the healthier choice, the easier choice for Albany residents.”
“They were also an opportunity to build the health promotion capacity of City of Albany staff and management,” Ms Jones added.
In addition, several public and internal policies addressing key health risk factors were developed and implemented by the City of Albany, including the City’s Smoke-free Outdoors Policy which was highly commended by the Public Health Advocacy Institute of WA earlier this year.
The project culminated with the development of the City’s Public Health Plan 2018-2022 which provides a strong platform for the regional council to strategically plan for and continue its community health and wellbeing focus into the future.
The WA Health Excellence Awards was in Perth on 7 November.
WA Country Health Service had nine finalists across eight project categories.
You can view the complete list of finalists here.