Page 177 - Week 01 - Wednesday, 14 February 2018
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At the last election the Greens called for the development of a comprehensive preventative health strategy to build and expand on the work of the healthy weight initiative, and this is being progressed as a commitment under the parliamentary agreement. Initiatives like this change our focus from a perspective of treating disease to instead focusing on keeping our community healthy. This is a subtle shift, but the outcome is that we will end up reducing the incidents of potentially preventable illnesses such as heart disease, type 2 diabetes and obesity rather than having to treat them once they have already developed.
While many of the initiatives which provide prevention and early intervention services will lead to savings for our health system in the long term, they often require an upfront investment. While it may sound like a contradiction, we need to understand that sometimes you need to spend money to save it later. This investment logic also applies to the targeting of actual front-line services. By increasing funding to preventative measures today we can reduce expenditure on chronic conditions later.
The problem is that while the evidence to support this approach is clear, it is all too easy to get caught up in the immediate and very real needs of today rather than making long-term investments that will be of overall benefit to our community as well as the budget bottom line. I am pleased to see that the government’s commitment to preventative health has been backed up with investment with $4 million of new resources provided for these initiatives.
As I mentioned earlier, the investment in programs to address the social determinants of health will need to come not just from ACT Health but from across the whole of government. Housing is one example that has both direct and indirect consequences on a person’s physical and mental wellbeing. The structural features of a home and whether you have a roof over your head can have a direct impact on your physical health. At the same time, issues associated with affordability can lead to a fear of eviction and instability which can impact on a person’s mental health and can have flow-on impacts on engagement with education or employment.
Our understanding of health and wellbeing needs to be broad enough so that when we discharge people from our health services we are confident their social circumstances are not going to contribute to them coming straight back in again. Responding to the underlying causes of poor health is of benefit to the person involved and also helps improve the efficiency of our health system, reducing pressure on acute services and saving costs in the long term.
These social circumstances can also extend to issues such as social isolation and loneliness. While everyone can feel lonely from time to time, long periods of loneliness or social isolation can have a negative impact on physical and mental health. This is an issue we need to be increasingly aware of as Canberra continues to grow to ensure that everyone across our city can be connected with the community. There are many ways the government can help improve social connection, including through investing in public transport, supporting local community groups and providing access to community facilities.
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