WOMEN’S Health Loddon Mallee is calling on the region’s health organisations to create a new norm for sexual and reproductive health.
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A detailed strategy, to be launched in Bendigo today, identifies four priorities for improving the region’s health outcomes.
It also provides a blueprint for organisations to make the necessary changes.
The strategy is a first for the Loddon Mallee region and tackles issues such as fertility, pregnancy and birth.
Other priorities include reproductive choices, such as abortion and improved access to contraception.
But the strategy isn’t just about babies. It’s also about reproductive health conditions and managing the natural transitions that occur during a woman’s lifetime.
Women’s Health Loddon Mallee services an area home to an estimated 324,124 people.
The region – which extends from Mildura to the Macedon Ranges – consists of about 164,673 women.
WHLM executive officer Tricia Currie said the strategy stressed the importance of a positive view of sexual and reproductive health – both for women themselves, and the health organisations working with them.
Providing accessible, respectful and culturally safe sexual health services for women at all ages and stages of life is among the strategy’s key objectives.
About 30 organisations have helped develop the strategy, along with hundreds of women from throughout the region.
Now, WHLM is seeking commitments to put the plan into action.
Women’s experiences amplified
WOMEN’S Health Loddon Mallee will today launch the region’s first sexual and reproductive health strategy.
The experiences of hundreds of women have shaped plan, which summarises a wealth of knowledge into an accessible 23 pages.
Given the opportunity to do the work, WHLM sought to engage the people they were creating the strategy to serve.
The non-government organisation created an online platform – www.hervoicematters.org – where women could contribute their stories about sexual and reproductive health.
Women also had the option of making written submissions, arranging for a facilitator to visit and guide them through the process, or sharing their stories over the phone.
“The voices of women came through very strongly,” WHLM executive officer Tricia Currie said.
She said the women’s stories had enriched the WHLM’s understanding of what people wanted from service providers and organisations, and the issues of concern to them.
Some participants elected to share their experiences on the Her Voice Matters website, while others opted not to make what they had to say publicly available.
“It doesn’t have to go on the website to be important,” Ms Currie said.
“It’s certainly qualitative data and it will be upheld.”
She said WHLM wished to keep the Her Voice Matters project open for submissions. The organisation is also seeking to maintain the rolling reference group that contributed to the strategy.
About 30 service providers and organisations were members of the reference group, Ms Currie said.
Other sources of data included consultations with organisations, best-practice evidence and data.
Developing the strategy had been a priority for WHLM for the past 12 months, Ms Currie said.
The plan will be launched in Bendigo, Mildura and Kerang this week.
Ms Currie said the plan didn’t just tell organisations they should make improving sexual and reproductive health outcomes a priority.
“It’s about how you’re going to do it,” she said.
So, what’s in Her health matters?
IMPROVING access to contraception and termination of pregnancy services is among the priorities in the region’s first sexual and reproductive health strategy.
The strategy seeks to enable communities across the Loddon Mallee region to access informed and appropriate sexual and reproductive health services, provided free of judgement and discrimination.
It also seeks to empower communities to have safe, respectful and pleasurable relationships, and a positive approach to sexuality and its expression.
Four priorities are at the plan’s core, including reproductive choices.
Improved knowledge, skills and capacity to manage fertility, pregnancy and birth; and improved access to informed services and health supports for women experiencing conditions or transitions of the reproductive system are also among the priorities.
Informed decisions
Equipping women with the information and the support to make positive choices about their health and well-being is at the heart of Women’s Health Loddon Mallee’s strategy.
“By improving people’s access to health information and their capacity to use it effectively, health literacy is critical to empowerment,” the strategy states.
It identifies sexual and reproductive health topics as key health concerns for all women.
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WHLM acknowledges both women’s and men’s health needs to be addressed to improve the sexual and reproductive health of Loddon Mallee communities.
“This strategy predominantly focuses on improving outcomes for women, as girls and women continue to experience a higher burden of sexual and reproductive ill-health,” WHLM wrote.
A time and a place
WHLM executive officer Tricia Currie identified accessibility as a key challenge for women in the Loddon Mallee region.
In doing so, she referred not just to geographical proximity to services, or the ability to get an appointment.
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Ms Currie said accessibility issues included how safe and welcoming available service providers were for women seeking advice or assistance for sexual or reproductive health issues.
One of the strategy’s priorities is ensuring women, ‘feel confident about accessing respectful and culturally safe sexual health services for testing, treatment and support, regardless of their gender identity, cultural identity, ethnicity, age, sexual orientation, disability or geographical location’.
Choices
Two of the strategy’s four priorities relate directly to childbearing – from addressing concerns about fertility to providing women with information and options to exercise control over the number, timing and spacing of their children.
“In Australia, it is estimated that almost half of all pregnancies are unplanned,” the strategy states.
“Whilst not every unplanned pregnancy is unwanted, many women will be faced with a decision about what the best option is for them and their family.
“It is important that women are provided with correct information and non-directive support, along with access to services for their three options – parenting, abortion or adoption.”
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Abortion is an option WHLM states to be limited for women in the Loddon Mallee region, ‘and referral pathways are often unclear’.
It identifies availability, travel, privacy, community and client attitudes and cost as key barriers to accessing termination services in their local area.
Beyond babies
While the strategy delves into a woman’s options in relation to childbearing, its scope is as broad-ranging as the circumstances in which women might face challenging sexual and reproductive health situations in their lifetimes.
Cervical cancer screening rates, for example, were below the Victorian average in six of the region’s 10 local government areas.
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Polycystic ovarian syndrome and endometriosis were also among the conditions WHLM identified a need to better manage.
The health organisation identified natural transitional phases such as menopause and puberty as opportunities to engage positively with women about their health and well-being.
Who is the strategy targeted at?
Women’s Health Loddon Mallee developed the strategy with service providers and health organisations in mind.
The 23-page document provides a framework for users to develop their own organisational action plans.
The first step is for organisations to recognise where they’re at when it comes to improving women’s sexual and reproductive services.
“Already, there are great efforts to build and contribute to a system and experience based on mutual respect and regard, which create safe, welcoming doors for women as an entry to the support and service systems,” Ms Currie wrote in the strategy’s foreword.
“Her Health Matters is designed to guide collaborative action across the region, learn and develop innovative models of care and understand what is working and how to continue to sustain these actions in our changing communities.”
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WHLM has identified three levels of commitment: Making a start; getting serious; and the new norm.
Once they know where they’re at, Ms Currie said WHLM could provide support to help the strategy’s users progress.
The full strategy is available from WHLM.
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