La Trobe University has received $3 million from the Violet Vines Marshman Charitable Trust, funding that will establish a new initiative to support rural and regional health research.
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La Trobe Rural Health School’s Professor Amanda Kenny said the investment would help expand on the university’s research on community driven models for primary health care.
“Our research captures the experiences of, and supports communities to empower them to develop services and strategies they can use to improve their access to healthcare,” Professor Kenny said.
Professor Kenny emphasised the importance of healthcare to regional and rural communities.
“The reality is we still have quite significant disparities between people who live in metropolitan areas compared to rural,” she said.
“People in rural areas deserve the same access to healthcare, but it doesn’t always happen.”
Professor Kenny will be become the Violet Vines Marshman Rural Health Initiative’s inaugural chair.
The initiative will also appoint a research fellow, scholarships for postgraduate students and the potential for co-funded healthcare focused PhDs.
La Trobe’s Rural Health School is Australia’s largest with campuses in Bendigo, Shepparton, Albury-Wodonga and Mildura.
Violet Vines Marshman was a nurse who devoted her life to improving the health and wellbeing of regional and rural communities.
Violet’s son and trustee, Associate Professor Ian Marshman said the trust was confident the university’s work will make a “real difference” to regional and rural areas, something his mother would’ve appreciated.
“She would have liked the grass roots approach, working with local communities to help them identify what their needs are and to help deliver strategies that can improve lives,” Associate Professor Marshman said.
Before her death in 2014, she established the trust with her sons Ian, Neil and Ken as the trustees, which has supported various rural health initiatives.
