Whose Health is it Anyway? About the Project

About the Project

The Whose health is it anyway? Project is one of eight demonstration projects that have been funded across Australia under the Commonwealth Department of Health and Ageing Enhanced Primary Health Care Initiative.

These projects will run until June 2004 to evaluate different approaches to self-management and chronic disease.

The Whose health is it anyway? Project grew out of a partnership between:

Arthritis Tasmania,
Glenview Homes Inc, Glenorchy
The Department of Health and Human services and
The University Department of Rural Health Tasmania (UDRH)

It is based at three sites around Tasmania: Mersey-Leven (Devonport); St Helens/St Marys and Glenorchy.

Who is the project for?

The project is working with people over 50 years of age (or 35 years of age for Indigenous Australians) who are experiencing one or more of the following conditions:

asthma
diabetes
arthritis
osteoporosis
respiratory diseases
cardiovascular disease
depression (as a result of having one of the above conditions).

The project will also work with GPs, health and community workers and the broader community to increase their skills and knowledge so they are in a better position to support people with chronic conditions

What will the project do?

The project aims to:

Increase the quality of life for people with chronic conditions, as well as for their families and carers
Provide people with skills and knowledge so they can lead more independent and fulfilling lives
Improve health service providers understanding of the benefits of self-management, and their skills in supporting their clients in this.

This will be achieved through a variety of methods:

Increasing peoples awareness of existing resources and successful programs
Increasing the connections between services that currently exist
Training leaders for proven Self-management programs (Eg the 'Get the Most out of Life program' supported by Arthritis Tasmania)
Involvement and training for Peer education approaches to self management support
Development of support structures in the pilot site communities
Training and education for health and community workers

Tasmanian Project Pilot sites

To achieve these aims the Tasmanian project is focusing on three pilot sites, and exploring ways with the local community of how to facilitate the support and services necessary to let people them take a more active role in the management of their ongoing medical conditions.

These sites are:

Devonport with outreach to the Mersey/Leven region. This will look at the needs of a regional city with a rural outreach in the North west of the state
St Helens and St Marys with outreach into the Break O'Day municipality in the north east of the state: this will provide a focus on specific needs of rural and remote towns, and
the Glenorchy Council area: a major southern urban area and Glenview Homes (an aged care facility with a high proportion of polish clients)

Mission Statement

To bring about cultural changes in the health care environment to support and encourage people with a chronic disease to actively manage their own health.