Health inequalities
Why address inequalities in health?
There are marked inequalities in health between different groups of people in Victoria, including differences in rates and patterns of death and disease, life expectancy and in how people rate their own health.
Victorians who have particularly poor health include people from lower socio-economic groups, Indigenous people, people from refugee backgrounds and those with disabilities. People who live in low-income areas also have poorer health.
Many of these inequalities are preventable as they are not due to genetic or biological factors. Instead, they are related to inequalities in access to the things we all need for good health, such as income, education, and good living and working conditions. Poverty and inequality can also affect community networks and lifestyles which in turn influence health.
What is VicHealth doing?
VicHealth seeks to address the differences in health status between people by looking at ways to minimise the impact of social and economic disadvantage on their health. These are outlined in VicHealth’s Position Statement on Health Inequalities.
VicHealth has also recently funded the Victorian Council ot Social Services and the Monash University School of Public Health to establish a network that encourages partnerships between researchers, non-government policy developers and State Government representatives. This Victorian Health Inequalities Network aims to develop new policy approaches for reducing inequalities in health.
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Funding
In all of our funding schemes we deliberately skew our investments to support projects that work with people who currently have the least access, or face the greatest barriers, to participation in healthy activities. VicHealth also funds projects that are specifically designed to address social inequalities that influence health, such as our Food for All program.
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Partnerships and consultation
VicHealth establishes partnerships with others working with and representing disadvantaged groups to reduce health and social inequalities. It also takes opportunities to respond to government inquiries and consultations to identify the impact of social and economic policies on health inequalities.
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Resources and courses
VicHealth also has a role in developing resources and courses designed for communities and workers in local government and other sectors to help them understand and respond to health inequalities.
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Research projects
Many of the research projects funded by VicHealth have a focus on health inequalities. They aim to help improve understanding of the best way to address health inequalities and encourage economic and social policy changes that are likely to lower the inequalities in health status in the community. An overview of this work is outlined in VicHealth's Investments to Reduce Health Inequalities.
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Publications
In this section you will find the position and background papers on health inequalities.
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Useful links
Links to external websites.