Introduction by Croakey: The Australian Health Promotion Association (AHPA) is hosting its 2024 national symposium today and tomorrow (9 and 10 October), with a focus on equity, innovation, collaboration, and building the capacity of the health promotion workforce.
In the article below, organising committee members Rebecca Zosel and Aimee Makeham preview the event, which will feature an update on the establishment of an Australian Centre for Disease Control and a keynote from Victoria’s inaugural Wellbeing Promotion Adviser.
It will include two strong panel discussions: on impacting change at a system level with panelists including leaders from the Health Promotion Forum of New Zealand and International Union for Health Promotion and Education (IUHPE), and another on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health and wellbeing.
Zosel, who is AHPA executive director, will tweet from the symposium via Croakey’s @WePublicHealth and using the hashtag #AHPASymposium2024.
Rebecca Zosel and Aimee Makeham write:
Health promotion professionals are gathering on Ngunnawal country in Canberra this week at a critical time for discussions about health and wellbeing, in the lead up to the 2025 federal election and amid a climate crisis, conflict and war, and growing inequality.
The National Health Promotion Symposium 2024 is hosted by the Australian Health Promotion Association (AHPA), Australia’s peak body for health promotion, and supported by the Federal Government.
AHPA President Melinda Edmunds states: “The symposium theme, Shaping the Future of Health Promotion, reflects both the urgency and the opportunity before us. Our conversations will centre on equity, innovation, collaboration, and strengthening our health promotion workforce. These are not just pillars of health promotion practice, but essential strategies for building a healthy, equitable Australia.”
Held at Old Parliament House, the two-day program provides opportunities for the health promotion sector to network, exchange ideas, build skills, and strengthen capacity to advocate for the changes our communities deserve.
Health promotion is the process of enabling people to increase control over, and to improve, their health. It not only embraces actions directed at strengthening the skills and capabilities of individuals but also actions directed towards changing social, environmental, political and economic conditions to alleviate their impact on populations and individual health.
System level change
AHPA will bring together leaders from Australia’s four health promotion agencies and colleagues ‘across the ditch’ for insightful discussions about health promotion in Australia, our region and beyond.
A health promotion agencies panel will include leaders from the Health Promotion Forum of New Zealand and International Union for Health Promotion and Education (IUHPE), Preventive Health SA, VicHealth, Healthway, and Health and Wellbeing Queensland discussing current challenges and opportunities for the health promotion workforce and impacting change at a system level.
Sione Tu’itahi, Executive Director of Health Promotion Forum of New Zealand and Global President of IUHPE, will lead a discussion exploring the need to build the capacity of the health promotion workforce across regions and countries, to address the health of the planet and the wellbeing of humanity, the most significant health challenge in the world today.
Equity and wellbeing
Core to its vision, AHPA is committed to addressing inequities experienced by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
Following the disappointing results of The Voice referendum 2023, and in line with the 2024 Reconciliation Week theme ‘Now More Than Ever’, day one of the 2024 symposium will shine the light on Aboriginal-led health promotion, with a plenary panel led by Nathan Rigney, a Ngarrindjeri man and Executive Director, Aboriginal Health and Health Equity, Preventive Health SA.
This panel will feature:
- Professor Tom Calma AO, National Coordinator, Tackling Indigenous Smoking (TIS)
- Jasmin Allende and Kobi Ingrey from Na Joomelah (TIS team), La Perouse Local Aboriginal Land Council
- Dallas Leon, Director ‑ Commercial Operations, Institute for Urban Indigenous Health
- Abe Ropitini, Executive Director Population Health, Victorian Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation.
To mark World Mental Health Day on 10 October 2024, Monica Kelly, Mental Health and Wellbeing Promotion Adviser and Executive Director at the Victorian Department of Health will deliver a special keynote reflecting on her role as Victoria’s inaugural Wellbeing Promotion Adviser and lead a session for attendees to reflect on lessons shared and how we can all play a role in influencing the future of health promotion.
Keynote speaker Jacob Madden, Assistant Secretary at the Australian Centre for Disease Control Establishment Taskforce (Strategy), will provide an update on the phased approach to establishing the Australian Centre for Disease Control (CDC).
The creation of a CDC in Australia, to address the major causes of infectious and noncommunicable diseases in Australia, represents an exciting new chapter for Australia’s health system. .
AHPA has long advocated for health promotion to be central to this response and looks forward to seeing the Australian CDC embed health promotion concepts and a suitably skilled and experienced health promotion workforce.
An article last year in the Health Promotion Journal of Australia outlined how and why health promotion is central to the establishment of an Australian CDC.
“Health promotion expertise must be embedded into its architecture to ensure that it remains at the foreground of governance and operations,” it said, noting that key CDC actions should be appropriately aligned to the National Preventive Health Strategy 2021-2030, and the National Health Literacy Strategy.
Full funding and certainty is also of course an issue, which was raised last week in a joint statement by Public Health Association of Australia, Australasian Society for Infectious Diseases, Climate and Health Alliance, and The Royal Australasian College of Physicians.
We know that Australia spends less than $140 per person per year on preventive health (1.8 percent of total health spending) and has a long way to go to achieve the National Preventive Health Strategy 2021-2030 commitment of five percent by 2030.
The Australian CDC requires adequate and sustainable funding and we look forward to hearing further details at the symposium from Jacob Madden about the Federal Government’s phased approach to establishment and associated investment.
Leadership and workforce
Caterina Giorgi, Founding Member of Women in Public Health, and CEO of Foundation for Alcohol Research and Education (FARE), will deliver a keynote address about a different type of leadership based on the unique qualities women have that are often overlooked, and how to address the systemic and structural barriers that limit leadership opportunities.
She will share her thoughts on next steps with Women In Public Health – a network that brings women together to elevate our voices, drive change and reimagine public health leadership.
The symposium program reflects the IUHPE Core Competencies and Professional Standards for Health Promotion and provides professional development opportunities for health promotion practitioners, regardless of their career stage.
A range of thought provoking and skills-based workshops will be delivered, including one by AHPA 2024 Thinker in Residence, Dr Katherine Trebeck who will facilitate a workshop on the cornerstone indicators for a healthy society.
With the wellbeing economy agenda as a background to this session, participants will explore the role of measurement through a political change lens and participate in group work to further develop their understanding of measuring health and creating benchmarks for a healthy society.
Throughout the symposium AHPA will continue to build on and refine our pre-budget and election asks.
AHPA continues to call on the Federal Government to get serious about promoting health and to commit at least five percent of the health budget to health promotion and illness prevention, in line with the National Preventive Health Strategy 2021-2030.
Investing in health promotion is a smart strategy.
It keeps people out of hospital, reduces the burden on overstretched health services and allows people to live healthier, more productive lives. Health promotion and illness prevention save lives and money and deliver the best public return on investment in health. Every dollar invested in health promotion and prevention goes on to save $14.
More information
View the symposium program online and follow #AHPASymposium2024 for news, including via @WePublicHealth.
Virtual registrations are still available (plenary sessions only).
Caption details for feature image
Pictured from left: Dr Belinda Lunnay, Associate Professor Gemma Crawford, Dr Jonathan Hallett, Melinda Edmunds, Dr Louise Baldwin, Laurianne Reinsborough, Aimee Makeham and Rebecca Zosel.