Page 6186 - Week 14 - Thursday, 9 December 2010
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Health—programs
(Question No 1211)
Ms Bresnan asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 28 October 2010:
(1) Does the ACT Government have any preventative health grants or programs that seek to target vulnerable groups by known location disadvantage, for example, the National Centre for Social and Economic Modelling has identified the suburbs of Symonston, Oaks Estate, and Reid as having the highest levels of poverty in the ACT.
(2) If the ACT Government does fund any targeted programs, (a) what are those programs, (b) who runs the programs and (c) how much funding is provided for each program.
Ms Gallagher: The answer to the member’s question is as follows:
(1) The ACT Government does provide preventative health grants through the ACT Health Promotion Grants Program (ACTHPGP) that seek to target vulnerable groups by known location disadvantage. This is also achieved through the ACT Government’s administration of the Department of Health and Ageing, Healthy Communities initiative - Local Government Area Grants Program.
(2)(a) The ACTHPGP provides targeted preventative health grants in collaboration with the ACT Department of Education and Training (DET) and the administration of the Smarter Schools National Partnership for Low Socio-economic Status School Communities. This program has identified schools within the ACT that are of known location disadvantage however these do not include Symonston, Oaks Estate or Reid. The ACTHPGP is working closely with DET through the Healthy Schools Healthy Children Funding Round to: encourage grant applications from DET identified schools; broaden the funding round to include multi-year grants to encourage supported project development within these schools; and continue to provide detailed support if successful for funding.
The Healthy Communities Initiative administered by the ACT Government currently funds programs within the inner north suburbs of Braddon, Reid and Turner, identified through ABS data as being collection districts that fall within the bottom 5% in Australian rankings for relative social economic disadvantage. These programs include:
• Nutrition Education Program to be provided at The Boomerang Centre and The Canberra Seniors Centre.
• FoodCents. Training for service providers to improve their capacity to provide appropriate nutrition advice; and
• Heart Moves. A Physical Activity Program in the ACT designed to build the capacity of the fitness industry to provide appropriate physical activity programs for people at risk of chronic disease.
(b) The ACT Health Continuing Care Program conducts the Nutrition Education Program. Red Cross conducts the FoodCents Program and The Heart Foundation ACT conducts Heart Moves.
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