How one small health promoter used the achievement program to support one big health network to make healthy changes… and along the way discovered their own potential for health and wellbeing.
Wellington Primary Care Partnership (PCP) is a health promotion agency based in the Wellington Shire in eastern Victoria. It has just five staff, however it is responsible for health promotion and supporting delivery of the Achievement Program to the Central Gippsland Health Network (CGH) which has over 1100 employees across multiple sites including hospitals, home support services and aged care.
As health promoters Wellington PCP has been working with CGH since 2015 to implement Achievement Program initiatives including reviewing food menus and participating in Active April. For a big workplace like CGH, implementing health initiatives can be challenging as each site has its own unique requirements and culture.
Health Promoter Linde Coggin has been with the program from the start and supports several workplaces in the region. From her perspective the key elements to successfully promoting health in a big diverse network like CGH include:
- Establishing a dedicated health and wellbeing committee
- An actively supportive CEO (at CGH the CEO sits on the health and wellbeing committee)
- Working to be consistent with your health initiatives to gain the trust of your staff.
[The Achievement Program] is much more valued now than it was three years ago” Linde says “It took a long time to gain the trust of the staff that this wasn’t a one-off novelty to try and score brownie points.
Linde and the staff at Wellington PCP also decided to practice what they preach and join the AP as a workplace member themselves. Working through each health priority area helped them live out their values as a health promotion agency on a day to day basis. They have found that several of their health initiatives have become part of their work life, such as standing weekly team meetings, and umbrellas provided to support active travel.