2020 Primary Healthcare Award Winners

Congratulations to our 2020 MPHN Primary Healthcare Award winners!

Outstanding Contribution to Leadership in Primary Healthcare

Lorraine Robertson

Lorraine is the practice nurse from Berrigan Medical Centre, and has worked tirelessly to keep the practice operational while the regular doctor has been unable to visit. Additional to her regular duties as the Practice Registered Nurse, Lorraine has been heavily involved in coordinating telehealth appointments, liaising with the doctor and ensuring patients understand what medications and treatments have been prescribed. Lorraine has also given exceptional 'outpatient' service to residents, visiting those in their homes that are unable to attend the Practice, checking in on their welfare and changing dressings, for example. Her caring, compassionate and dedicated service is gratefully appreciated by many in the Berrigan community. Read more here.

Promoting Healthy Living

Vitality Passport Program

The Vitality Passport Program is an evidenced-based, multi-disciplinary intervention that targets halting or reversing frailty. The program actively promotes a positive culture change on ageing well with vitality by showcasing and delivering contemporary, evidence-based interventions that allows participants to proactively apply interventions to improve their capacity to age well. A recent independent evaluation of the program concluded that both objective clinical data and patient report suggest that it has successfully achieved its goal of reducing or arresting frailty in the elderly and slowing down the common problems associated with ageing. Read more here.

Innovation

Giz A Break

Giz A Break is an innovative health promotion initiative that takes a whole of community approach to building young people's resilience. Between October 2019 and March 2020, 37 young people from the Murrumbidgee region aged between 14 and 17 participated in four camping adventures, filled with a range of activities designed to build their resilience. The initiative provides young people with an opportunity to take a break from life in drought-affected regional communities, impacting positively on their mental health. Read more here.

Murrumbidgee Community Grant of the Year

LHAC Chats Deniliquin

The Deniliquin Local Health Advisory Committee has made it a priority to actively work on disseminating information to the community around health services and programs, in response to local feedback. The Committee began by running profiles of services on its Facebook page, with an overwhelmingly positive response. To reach more of the local community, the project then expanded under the name ‘LHAC Chats’, with nine full-page advertisements running in The Pastoral Times, providing important health information for the community to access and keep. The campaign has significantly increased community awareness of services and how to access them; with anecdotal evidence suggesting an increased uptake of referrals to some of the services, including mental health supports. Read more here.