Key VicHealth activities and publications
Health promotion
Community Indicators Victoria project
The Community Indictors Victoria (CIV) project funded by VicHealth and other partners, and hosted by the McCaughey Centre-University of Melbourne is similar to a wellness footprint being captured at community level. Community indicators were developed to provide local health information to support local level planning and policy making. A range of community indicators have been developed to measure health, wellbeing and sustainability.
More information:
www.communityindicators.net.au
ACE-Prevention
The ‘Assessing Cost-Effectiveness in Prevention’ (ACE-Prevention) project was funded by the NHMRC and was supported by VicHealth, the Public Health Association of Australia and Lowitja Institute for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Research. The final report of this project focused on the assessment of 123 illness prevention measures to identify those which will prevent the most illness and premature deaths and those that are best value for money.
The report listed the project team’s recommendations to drastically reduce the rate of serious illness and the associated pressure on the nation’s health system.
More information:
http://www.vichealth.vic.gov.au/~/media/About%20Us/Health%20promotion/ACE-Prevention_Sept2010_FINAL
Healthy Australia
VicHealth commissioned this survey of almost 3,000 Australians in October–November 2010 to assess the level of support for the kinds of prevention strategies, recommended by a range of expert bodies, to improve the health of all Australians.
The results show that Australians want governments to assist individuals to make healthy lifestyle choices, such as eating healthy food, drinking alcohol at low risk levels and doing regular exercise. Importantly, the survey results confirm that the Australian population wants government to increase its spending on prevention activities in order to make us a healthier nation.
More information:
http://www.vichealth.vic.gov.au/Publications/Research/Healthy-Australia-Public-Support-for-Prevention-Strategies.aspx
The health and economic benefits of reducing risk factors
This report estimates the ‘health status’, ‘economic’ and ‘financial’ benefits of reducing the prevalence of the six behavioural risk factors that contribute to chronic diseases affecting millions of Australians. These major risk factors are obesity, alcohol, smoking, exercise, diet and domestic violence.
More information: http://www.vichealth.vic.gov.au/Publications/Research/Health-and-economic-benefits-of-reducing-disease-risk-factors.aspx
National Charter for Health
This issues paper issued in February 2009 from VicHealth sets out the prospects, evidence and challenges for health promotion. It also details effective, alternative models to tap the potential of health promotion and proposes a framework in the form of a National Charter for Health, to guide, inform and evaluate efforts to improve the health of all Australians.
More information: http://www.vichealth.vic.gov.au/Publications/VicHealth-General-Publications/National-Charter-for-Health.aspx
National Prevention Summit 2008
The National Prevention Summit in April 2008 was hosted by the Australian Institute of Health Policy Studies and VicHealth. It brought together both the Federal and Victorian Ministers for Health and over 100 of Australia's leaders at all levels of government, health, business, academia and the non-profit sector to develop strategies for stemming the tide of chronic illness. Participants developed a platform for working together to strengthen our collective prevention initiatives. The Summit explored realistic mechanisms for achieving an integrated, efficient and cooperative approach to prevention.
National Prevention Summit Platform for Action
National Prevention Summit Executive Summary
National Prevention Summit Discussion Paper
National Prevention Summit Flyer