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Healthy Together Victoria

In Prevention

  • Before facing funding cuts in 2015, the state-wide Healthy Together Victoria program in Victoria, Australia sponsored a number of initiatives, such as healthy lifestyle awareness campaigns and workplace wellness programs.
  • The various interventions were specifically targeted at multi-level health determinants, including individual psychology, food systems, and societal influences on health and behavior.
  • Though ultimately defunded following a change in government, this program demonstrated a unique, systems-level approach to population health that aimed to address health disparities in both urban and rural under-resourced communities.
Underlying the entire effort is the concept of a “complex systems approach” to health promotion and disease prevention—a mindset which assumes that the most impactful way to bring about change is to address the diverse and interconnected determinants of health simultaneously. Interventions thus have a mutually-supportive “multiplier” effect.
  • Summary
  • Why It Stands Out

Summary

Healthy Together Victoria was designed as a statewide program to prevent chronic disease for some 6 million people and 79 municipal districts in Victoria, Australia. Underlying the entire effort is the concept of a “complex systems approach” to health promotion and disease prevention—a mindset which assumes that the most impactful way to bring about change is to address the diverse and interconnected determinants of health simultaneously. Interventions thus have a mutually-supportive “multiplier” effect.[1] Healthy Together Victoria’s interventions range from state-level marketing and awareness campaigns to healthy lifestyle programs for individual workplaces. The various levels of intervention were designed to address health determinants such as individual psychology, food systems, and the many more societal influences on health and behavior.[2]Unfortunately, the Healthy Together Victoria’s funding was cut following a change in governance in 2015, while the program was still in its early years, so there was never a chance to see what sort of long-term changes it could have.[3] In this sense, Healthy Together Victoria also demonstrates one of the major drawbacks of relying on government funding: uncertainty of sustainability.​

Why It Stands Out

Although funding troubles cut short the effort’s lifespan, Healthy Together Victoria is well worth recognition as an example of how a national government can coordinate a complex population health initiative a degree greater than can be accomplished at a municipal level. The initiative’s systems-level approach to population health for the entire state of Victoria sought to address health disparities that exist between, and not just within, communities (e.g., plans to address the challenges facing both rural and urban areas). Such comprehensive disease prevention efforts can be quite challenging, if not impossible, in municipalities whose resources do not extend nearly as far.

  1. Shelley Bowen, “Taking a Systems Approach to Preventive Health,” n.d.
  2. Ibid.
  3. Paul Zimmet, Personal Correspondence, Skype, December 2, 2016.

More Programs in Prevention

Mass in Motion

Mass in Motion is a comprehensive health promotion program that encourages physical activity and healthy eating throughout Massachusetts. The initiative’s multi-setting approach includes schools, childcare centers, businesses, municipalities/communities, and more. Mass in Motion’s extensive public-private partnerships allow for state-sponsored engagement of community partners and stakeholders. Efforts target people at locations where they are easily reached, …

Jamie’s Food Revolution

Spearheaded by British celebrity chef Jamie Oliver, Jamie’s Food Revolution has spurred national, coordinated nutrition movements in the UK, Canada, and Australia. The revolution’s six-point plan focuses on wide-sweeping changes for governments, schools, and individuals. The initiative includes a number of programs, including: Jamie’s Ministry of Food, which provides classes on cooking healthy meals; a …

Canary Health

As a digital platform for healthy living, Canary Health provides online support and tracking tools to promote lifestyle change and chronic disease prevention. Employers and healthcare organizations partner with Canary primarily to enroll their at-risk employees in Canary’s online CDC-recognized Diabetes Prevention Program. Canary focuses on holistic health and “Whole Person Healthcare,” providing programs that …

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Victoria, Australia

https://diatribe.org/foundation/

State Government of Victoria, Australian Government, and the Victoria Department of Health

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Insights

Prevention presents a massive opportunity to save both lives and money. In the United States, the direct costs of diabetes, not counting lost productivity and early death or disability, is nearing $200 billion per year, and growing fast.
  1. Stratify risk, but don’t forget whole parts of the population.
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  2. Traditional applications of data and research may not be ideal for studying and refining prevention efforts
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  3. Each community is different. Communities need the chance to express their own needs when designing interventions
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