Helping local communities fight chronic disease

26 August 2011

Fourteen local government areas have been invited to join forces with the Victorian Government in a new preventive health initiative to tackle chronic disease.

Under the model, local government areas including Central Goldfields, Bendigo, Geelong, Latrobe, Mildura and Wyndham Councils will be provided with specific funding over the next four years.

The funding will be used to work in partnership with the Victorian Government on new chronic disease prevention activities tailored to meet the needs of each local community.

The community model is a key component of Victoria’s preventive health agenda and is the largest and most rigorously planned population health intervention at a community level in Australia.

The investments will provide the opportunity for local councils to participate in designing the local health promotion effort and to help shape the health promotion environments in schools, workplaces and communities in general.

The 14 areas have been selected on the basis of need, largely from local government areas where there is significant opportunity to tackle the risk factors of chronic disease, such as poor diet, inadequate physical activity, tobacco use and alcohol misuse.

Other investments in preventive health include Life! Taking Action on Diabetes and Cardiovascular Disease, the newly announced Victorian Healthy Eating Advisory Service, as well as VicHealth.