Womens Health Business Case Report

Strategic Alignment with Government Priorities The Women’s Health Programmodel and approach provides access to much needed trauma-informed mental health services outside of the acute care environment, as well as treatment, preventative health and health education services to women across their lifespan. The program is closely aligned to key priorities across the spectrum of current NSW Government health strategies and frameworks including: • improving access to community care outside hospitals • strengthening service integration and co-ordination • addressing the social determinants of ill health • preventative health: improving health education and literacy so that people stay well for longer • improving service accessibility and outcomes for priority populations

In the Women’s Health Program and Women’s Health Centres

Women’s Health Centres provide a safe, private and women-focused setting, and the assurance of being treated or supported by female staff. This is crucial to enabling access to health services for many women and is recognised in the literature as a positive contributor to women’s health outcomes. Services are trauma informed - focused on safety, trust, collaboration and empowerment - and person centred – flexible and strengths based, treating each client as an individual, rather than focusing solely on their health ‘conditions’. Key components of the Women’s Health Program model include: • Mental health and well-being services - individual and group counselling, and therapeutic resilience work, social and emotional well-being and psychosocial support • Physical health and well-being services – chronic illness prevention and management, nutrition, complementary therapies and body work, reproductive and sexual health, cancer screening • Integrated care and referral – support to address the social determinants of health and the health effects of domestic and family violence and sexual violence • Health education and health promotion – to improve health literacy, promote healthy lifestyle choices and behaviours and equip women to participate in their own health care and well-being. A 2017 report prepared for the Ministry of Health concluded 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’ and noted that the Women’s Health Program contributes to reductions in the burden of disease associated with mental health, domestic and family violence, cancer and chronic disease. This finding was supported by a survey of referrers to Women’s Health Centres - two-thirds of respondents reported that 75% or more of their clients would be unable to access the services they require if the Centres were not available. Over 40 years, Women’s Health Centres have developed extensive infrastructure in the form of local knowledge, partnerships, connections and support. These networks allow for ‘no-wrong door’ service provision, facilitate effective integrated care, and maximise the impact of available funding by integrating the full range of Government and non-government support for clients. Community infrastructure, and the capacity to offer integrated ‘no-wrong door’ servicing, is highly valued by local communities and in all Government service commissioning efforts - and is difficult to replace.

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Sustainable Investment in the NSWNGOWomen’s Health Program