In the second article in a Croakey series on hope, Alison Barrett asked a range of contributors about their hopes for 2024 (read the first article here, on what gave cause for hope in 2023).
Alison Barrett writes:
In one of his first speeches for 2024, the World Health Organization’s Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said:
The coming year will be a test for humanity; a test of whether we give in to division, suspicion and narrow nationalism or whether we are able to rise above our differences and seek the common good.
Despite the many challenges we face, I remain an optimist and WHO remains committed to doing everything we can to promote, provide and protect the health of the world’s people this year and every year.”
Meanwhile, Croakey supporters and contributors share wide-ranging perspectives below about their hopes for 2024.
Education matters
Dr Megan Williams, Yulang Indigenous Evaluation, Contributing Editor and Director, Croakey Health Media
What are your hopes for 2024?
More realisations of public health education Faculties and Schools at universities realising that with cultural safety in legislation relevant to health professionals, they have a responsibility to get curriculum right, lest they be named in court cases and complaints against healthcare workers.
Workers can so easily name where they got their training and what it’s quality is, or isn’t.
Peak bodies and health professional member organisations have a responsibility too – and are implicated. I’m usually more carrot, less stick but cultural safety in legislation offers a balance – a choice to do well now, or take risks later. There’s plenty of detail in Universities Australia’s strategies to guide action. Urgently!
Cultural wellbeing
Fiona Cornforth, Head of the National Centre for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Wellbeing Research at the Australian National University
What are your hopes for 2024?
A successful launch event for the National Centre of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Wellbeing Research in March to celebrate the journey so far and ahead, with our deadly network of staff, partners and supporters.
Proudly launching the first of its kind Yukaaywa Purrary study looking at strong cultural wellbeing and neurological development for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children.
Together with SNAICC, the Voice of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children, the community-led study will hear directly from thousands of young people about what cultural and neurodevelopmental factors contribute to strong wellbeing for our young people.
Better, cleaner, kinder
Dr Simon Judkins, senior emergency medicine specialist and Croakey Health Media member
What are your hopes for 2024?
Wow…in summary, I hope that humans prove that we are smart, that we care, and good people prevail; greed, capitalism and corporate profits are finally accepted as the root of human suffering and governments make moves to address tax-evasion, mega-profits and environmental destruction.
I hope there is an epiphany regarding Trump, and he is tossed out of US politics forever, ending up in prison. I hope to see Julian Assange released. I hope for a huge investment in public housing, education, health prevention and the environment.
I’ll throw in taxation. I hope we get rid of the stage three tax cuts, tax big corporations (read Exxon, Shell and the like). While I’m at it, change the tax laws for religions/churches who are stealing from the poor to make the owners rich.
I just hope that at the end of ’24, the world is a better, cleaner, kinder place than it is now.
Professionally, I would hope to see a serious focus on public health prevention measures – we spend so much on intervention and so little on prevention of disease.
Solutions to the funding and support for GPs and community care is up on the wish list, improvements in access to mental health supports (again, largely in rural areas) and, if I was to be selfish, a budget for my hospital which actually aligns with the work we do, so we don’t have to keep fretting about what services need to be cut.
And I hope my cholesterol level stays down and I can drop the statin…
Scope of practice
Scott Willis, Palawa man, National President of the Australian Physiotherapy Association
What are your hopes for 2024?
Australians deserve to have access to funded physiotherapy at the top of physiotherapists’ scope of practice. In 2024, on the 40th anniversary year of Medicare, we think it is time that they did. In strengthening Medicare, we need to fund what matters.
My hope is that Professor Cormack’s Scope of Practice Review and the Strengthening Medicare review deliver on their promise. Driving ambitious government requires action beyond the planning phase. Too often we have seen reviews and reports die a lonely death on a Minister’s shelf or a Departmental filing cabinet (or online equivalent).
Measures are needed to improve access to essential care, reduce out-of-pocket costs and, most importantly, reduce costly and inefficient treatments. The Scope of Practice review is the first step towards deeper structural reform.
One of the key issues to making this successful is for disciplines to define their scope so that patients and funders (government and private health insurers) clearly understand the skills and training of every profession. We have seen welcome and positive signs with nursing, but now (I hope) the government will understand and recognise the scope and abilities of physiotherapists, psychologists, and other highly trained and skilled health professionals.
I also hope that Urgent Care Clinics (UCCs) will better utilise physiotherapy services. If the intention of UCCs is to reduce unnecessary presentations at Emergency Departments (category 4-5, non-urgent, non-life-threatening), then physiotherapists must be engaged alongside doctors and nurses.
The APA estimates that about 15-20 percent of ED presentations are for musculoskeletal injuries that an AHPRA regulated physiotherapist is formally trained to diagnose and treat.
My hope for 2024 is that the government looks at successful models, looks at the existing evidence, looks at best practice and puts patients first by making the reforms needed.
Young peoples’ voices
Erin Fitzpatrick, Research Assistant and PhD candidate at Victoria University
What are your hopes for 2024?
My hopes for 2024 are, on the surface, simple. I hope for survival (of myself, those around me, and the world at large), for continued growth, and for the year to pace itself at a reasonable rate, thank you very much.
Many of my personal and professional hopes for 2024 are inextricably intertwined with my PhD work. Looking back, I can see how far I’ve come, but looking forward can be intimidating.
The road is so long. I’m lucky that I have a supportive circle around me. My supervisors are supportive guides through the maelstrom which is navigating, and participating in, the academy, while my friends and family have my back, come what may. With these supports it’s my hope for 2024 that I’m able to learn as much as possible, grow as a researcher AND a human, and do some good in the world.
Professionally, I hope I’m able to keep working with the aforementioned young people. Their insights are so valuable and their enthusiasm is this far unwithered. I hope to help create a situation in which it is safe for them to participate in the academy, where they can hear and be heard, and where they feel valued; valued not just for what they can bring to the table, but for who they are as people.
These young people are going through a time of transition and that can be so tough, but they are looking ahead with hope and so I will, too.
Meaningful drug policy debate
Dr Robert Stirling, CEO, Network of Alcohol and other Drugs Agencies
What are your hopes for 2024?
The NSW Government’s election commitment to hold a Drug Summit in NSW is planned for 2024. While we don’t want the Summit to rehash what people with lived experience, families, frontline workers and academics told the Special Commission in 2019, we hope that the NSW Government will consider some of the recommendations that the previous government rejected.
We were once internationally recognised for drug policy, and we hope that we can hold that title again.
Nothing should be off the table. The Summit should be an opportunity for a serious debate that considers the evidence and lived experience on everything from decriminalisation and drug checking to policing and funding models that recognise drug use as a health issue.
Community leadership
Mark Burdack, CEO of The Healthy Communities Foundation Australia
What are your hopes for 2024?
I hope that we can continue to navigate and deliver the essential shift to community-leadership of health, and from building new hospitals to strengthening integrated, people-centred health and social care.
That we can shift to making long-term, bundled, investments in evidence-based solutions that already exist in rural, remote and Aboriginal communities.
That we can shift from forcing rural and Aboriginal people to compete against each other for resources in thin markets, to a model designed to strengthening all communities through sustainable, integrated, multidisciplinary, community-led solutions.
I hope that Nurse Practitioners are funded nationally in 2024 under Medicare to their full scope of practice and that they get the respect they deserve; that we have the wisdom to establish Medicare Items for Allied Health Assistants to address the horrible state of access in disadvantaged towns and create a pathway to health careers for rural and Aboriginal people; that Care Coordinators are recognised under Medicare as a critical health service provider as part of a team in MMM5-7 regions.
Additionally, I hope that we recognise that International Medical Graduates are not a short term solution to the rural healthcare crisis in Australia, and that we begin to develop a comprehensive multilateral strategy to mutually strengthen universal healthcare in Australia and our neighbouring countries through joint and integrated healthcare initiatives so we all benefit from what we can offer to each other.
Before I go with warm wishes to everyone for a healthy and prosperous 2024, I want to thank the Deputy Rural Health Commissioner’s Office who meets with a diverse group of us from rural and Aboriginal communities every month to listen and discuss ideas (Professor Faye McMillan and Simone Champion).
I hope that this opening of the door gathers pace in 2024 and that we continue to learn that rural, remote and Aboriginal people are the solution – not the problem.
Mental health reform reset
Simon Katterl, mental health and human rights advocate
What are your hopes for 2024?
My hope for 2024 is a reset on Victoria’s mental health reforms. Speaking to anyone in the sector, we know that the cultural and transformational promises made during the Royal Commission into Victoria’s Mental Health System have faltered.
I am hoping that the Victorian Government takes proactive steps to meet its legal obligations under the Charter of Human Rights and Responsibilities Act 2006 (Vic) and the Mental Health and Wellbeing Act 20222 (Vic). This will include appointments to the Chief Psychiatrist – that is now vacant – that are grounded in human rights and support for lived experience leadership, as well as real pressure on the Mental Health and Wellbeing Commission to improve its oversight of the system.
If these are done well, we can expect better outcomes for Victorians. Speaking to Australians outside of Victoria, I know they are watching.
Prevention focus
Dr Joanne Flavel, Research Fellow at Stretton Health Equity in the Stretton Institute, University of Adelaide
What are your hopes for 2024?
More recognition of long COVID and the costs of ‘living with COVID.’ The recent Croakey article highlighted the dangers of the current approach. The high levels of school absenteeism, staff off work, and increasing number of people experiencing long COVID cannot keep on being ignored. We must focus more on prevention in addition to developing treatments for those with long COVID.
A proper increase in JobSeeker that recognises that income support that is below the poverty line is harmful and counterproductive to people finding work. The physical and mental effects of living in poverty are known, and given what we learned from the Robodebt inquiry it is past time to remember the true role of income support which is to alleviate poverty.
I hope for a productive and healthy 2024 and for research on social and health inequities in Australia from my research group, from other researchers and groups and from NGOs to translate into action on social and economic determinants of health for a more equitable Australia.
Policy priorities
Adjunct Associate Professor Lesley Russell, Croakey Health Media member and regular columnist of The Health Wrap
What are your hopes for 2024 (professionally)?
I’m hoping to see the full and responsible implementation of the Australian Centre for Disease Control and the National Preventive Health Strategy, with attention to climate change, oral health as an essential aspect of primary care, mechanisms to address the social and economic determinants of health and health disparities.
What are your hopes for 2024 (personally)?
More hiking of course! I have trips booked to Kangaroo Island, Colorado, the Kimberley, Japan and Flinders Island. There might be more to come.
Public health lens
Adjunct Professor Terry Slevin, CEO of Public Health Association of Australia
What are your hopes for 2024?
While the interim Australian Centre for Disease Control starts operation in early 2024, the heavy lifting on the legislation that frames the scope and responsibilities of the Centre will be hammered out through 2024. How will it work with states and territories, what will be its powers, capacity, resources must be determined. We are optimistic it will stick to its pre-election commitment to “work to prevent non-communicable (chronic) as well as communicable (infectious) diseases”.
In that vein, we hope that the Government will act on and adequately fund the National Preventive Health Strategy 2021-2030, alongside the National Health and Climate Strategy.
It’s past time to significantly increase investments in preventive health. We propose a Preventive Health Funding scheme at a national level that has the same structure as pharmaceuticals and medical services. It should be rigorous, ongoing, consistent, and baked into the system.
Finally, as our nation continues to paddle in the wake of the 2023 Voice referendum, we remain committed to the meaningful inclusion of First Nations’ voices within PHAA. This year, we will establish an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Collective, to actively privilege the views of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, who will lead a co-designed process that guides decision making of our Association.
Responsiveness
Michelle Murray, VicHealth Executive Manager of Health Promotion Systems
What are your hopes for 2024?
To continue to strive for positive change, our focus remains on ensuring that our initiatives are impactful and responsive to the unique needs of those we serve. We’re enthusiastic about the possibilities that lie ahead and committed to contributing to a healthier and more equitable future for all Victorians.
Workforce matters
Penelope Smith, public health academic, and PhD Candidate at University of Tasmania
What are your hopes for 2024?
Recently I had the opportunity as part of the UTAS Social Sciences HDR forum to present on my evolving PhD Learning from newly registered overseas trained health practitioners of colour experience of working in the Australian healthcare system. Despite an epic version fail at my end on the day (damn you SharePoint) the presentation showed me how far I have come in the first year of my PhD and how exciting 2024 will be for me.
I have a deep hope for my second year of my PhD that the focus of my work – elevating the experience of these important members of our health workforce – will begin in earnest. I have been strengthened and encouraged in 2023 by the conversations I have had and the interest people have in my work. We are challenged in our first year of our PhD to argue for the value of our project. I have found people have responded well and I hope this will continue.
An important part of 2023 is the investment in the work of Dr Alana Gall, First Nations academic at Southern Cross University. Alana and I have a long connection which began when we both worked at the Lowitja Institute. This year Alana became the Vice President for PHAA (Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander) and also Co-Chair for the Indigenous Working Group, World Federation of Public Health.
She and her team have also released very recently the first National survey of First Nations Traditional medicine use. This is an important time for her work and I am excited and deeply hopeful of what she and those working with her can achieve.
As a non-Indigenous woman of colour, it is my role as part of my commitment to decolonisation and First Nations sovereignty to stand behind her and do all I can to elevate and support this incredible work.
Collaboration on tackling food waste
Irene Di Lauro, PhD candidate in Sustainable Food Systems at University of Tasmania
What are your hopes for 2024?
A year spent on lutruwita/Tasmania has revealed to me the power of collaboration across disciplines and sectors of society in driving change. This experience highlights the inherent interconnectedness of the systems in which we are immersed, emphasising that we cannot examine its parts in isolation from the whole.
My hopes for 2024 reside in the possibility to bring intersectionality and systemic thinking across the activities I am involved in and further work in my local area and in Australia to challenge our understanding of value and waste. Examining what has often been relegated to the periphery of sociological investigation becomes crucial in a world grappling with ecological collapse and food insecurity. It really prompts us to re-evaluate the significance of waste, as traditional metrics of waste quantification fall short in addressing urgent questions about our environment and food access.
I am very excited to meet the passionate activists and researchers that are working in the field of food waste reduction and work together to push for a fair and just food system. Food waste should not anymore be an intrinsic part of the food system (in Australia we waste $36.6 billion per year!!!) but should be an essential ingredient for soil and communities’ regeneration!
2024 resolutions and hopes:
- Lobby local councils to build (and participate in) third places*
- Foster collaboration across different actors involved in food waste activists/scholars through the construction of a local Food Waste Network on lutruwita/Tasmania
- Learning about ways to promote and foster regeneration of soil and land that is impact by continuous colonising practices.
*Cities need “free range” third places that are beautiful and invitation that are safe and homey that don’t resolved around purchase and consumption. People need places where they can exist as people not as customers. “These are the kind of spaces that bring strangers together in a way that can boost trust and that can make a city feel like home” by Tiffany Owens Reed.
Also see: Some of the most insightful and memorable quotes from 2023 – you can read them here
