Womens Health Business Case Report

2.6.2 Women’s Health Program Outcomes The 2017 Urbis report, commissioned by the NSW Ministry of Health found that Women’s Health Centres are ‘providing a multitude of primary health and well-being services to a group of women who may have otherwise only received care and support via the acute system’ 41 . In particular, this report noted that Women’s Health Centres and the Women’s Health Program contribute to the following State and Commonwealth health priorities: • reducing mental health related burden of disease • reducing domestic and family violence related burden of disease The unique, holistic Women’s Health Programmodel allows Centres to provide services to women presenting with a broad range of health issues, many of which fall at the intersection of health outcomes and social outcomes identified as Government policy priorities. For example, women – particularly from lower socio-economic backgrounds – who present with trauma and mental health issues from domestic and family violence, are often facing economic challenges and also have immediate needs for support with safety, housing, food security and child welfare. The complex, cross-sectional nature of these issues means that outcomes inevitably sit across the policy remits of multiple Government departments and funding streams and Women’s Health Centres leverage established local knowledge and connections to provide women with access to the full range of available supports. However, effective intervention, support, education and prevention activities provided through the Women’s Health Program to address key presenting health issues is the foundation for achieving the sustained, desired improvements in both health and social outcomes. Sustainable funding levels for the Women’s Health Program proposed in this business case, would ensure Women’s Health Centres are able to, at a minimum: • continue meeting current KPIs set by Local Health Districts (Scenario 1) • sustain the strong performance demonstrated over the last three years (Scenario 2) Based on identified benefit proxies for interventions targeting the top presenting health issues - Emotional/ Mental Health, Physical/Medical Health, Violence/ Abuse, and Relationships (which account for 75% of all presentations) - we estimate that the Women’s Health Program currently delivers a minimum of $33.9 million per annum in avoided costs for the NSW Government. • reducing cancer-related burden of disease • preventing or delaying chronic disease

Across the sector, Women’s Health Centres also anticipate that the proposed investment, providing sustainable funding to support staff, servicing and infrastructure, will further increase both their capacity and effectiveness to deliver health outcomes. This will be achieved through: • improved ability to attract, support, develop and retain a full cohort of professional staff; • reduced risk of staff burnout from working long hours and the need to cover multiple roles; • greater ability to leverage other sources of funding from a stable base and deliver more integrated health services to clients; • improved economies of scale, with greater capacity to partner with other agencies including NSW Health, Department of Communities and Justice and PHNs to manage short-term project priorities and single worker programs; • improved capacity to collect, report and analyse data on client outcomes and adapt to emerging needs.

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Sustainable Investment in the NSWNGOWomen’s Health Program