Rural practice 12
Track 21
| Friday, October 27, 2023 |
| 10:35 AM - 12:30 PM |
| Meeting Room E3.3 |
Speaker
Dr Catherine Lees
Director Integrated Projects And Partnerships
Murray PHN
Advocating for change – strengthening rural health services and systems
10:35 AM - 11:30 AMSummary
Aim: To discuss and apply a framework to the development of an advocacy plan to strengthen rural health services and systems.
Contents: Health system advocacy activities relate to promoting system change, mobilising resources, addressing health inequities, influencing policy reforms and policy implementation. Advocating addresses structural determinants of health and promotes change which enables access, quality of care and sustainable service delivery. However, to be effective advocacy activity requires specific principles and planning to achieve the deliberate pursuit of changes in policy, attitudes, behaviour, and decision-making, usually in the public interest. This includes multi-level strategies which blend values, evidence, timing and context. This interactive session will discuss and present an advocacy framework and implementation plan for the purpose of strengthening rural health services and systems. Participants will select from one of three identified key priority issues to implement the advocacy framework. These priorities include 1. Describe the primary care service models that are effective in different rural contexts to inform scalability; 2. Advocating for high-quality integrated policies to support a strong rural health system, and 3. Communicating effective local solutions through exemplars and case studies. Participants will work together to set the advocacy objectives, draft key messages considering the context and other relevant issues, define the target audience and key advocacy partners and determine the most appropriate advocacy strategy to achieve the desired outcome.
Goals: The goals of the interactive session are to build a shared understanding of advocacy for rural health systems strengthening and to discuss the different types of advocacy and approaches to advocacy that can be used to address key priority areas.
Contents: Health system advocacy activities relate to promoting system change, mobilising resources, addressing health inequities, influencing policy reforms and policy implementation. Advocating addresses structural determinants of health and promotes change which enables access, quality of care and sustainable service delivery. However, to be effective advocacy activity requires specific principles and planning to achieve the deliberate pursuit of changes in policy, attitudes, behaviour, and decision-making, usually in the public interest. This includes multi-level strategies which blend values, evidence, timing and context. This interactive session will discuss and present an advocacy framework and implementation plan for the purpose of strengthening rural health services and systems. Participants will select from one of three identified key priority issues to implement the advocacy framework. These priorities include 1. Describe the primary care service models that are effective in different rural contexts to inform scalability; 2. Advocating for high-quality integrated policies to support a strong rural health system, and 3. Communicating effective local solutions through exemplars and case studies. Participants will work together to set the advocacy objectives, draft key messages considering the context and other relevant issues, define the target audience and key advocacy partners and determine the most appropriate advocacy strategy to achieve the desired outcome.
Goals: The goals of the interactive session are to build a shared understanding of advocacy for rural health systems strengthening and to discuss the different types of advocacy and approaches to advocacy that can be used to address key priority areas.
Takeaways
At the conclusion of the presentation, attendees will take away
1. A shared understanding of rural health systems advocacy that can be used for strengthening the rural health service and system
2. Ideas for implementing an advocacy plan to address identified priorities.
1. A shared understanding of rural health systems advocacy that can be used for strengthening the rural health service and system
2. Ideas for implementing an advocacy plan to address identified priorities.
Biography
Dr Catherine Lees is the Director Integrated Projects and Partnerships at Murray Primary Health Network and Adjunct Professor of Rural Health at LaTrobe University. Catherine has a PhD in cancer immunology, and recently completed a Masters Business Administration (MBA). Cath has over 20 years’ experience as a senior health service leader and is an experienced strategic planner with a strong interest in health system strengthening, workforce learning and development, collaborative leadership, communication training and workforce development.
Catherine has a particular interest in rural and regional workforce training and development and is currently leading Victoria's Australian General Practice Training Workforce Planning and Prioritisation project on behalf of the Victorian PHN consortia. She is experienced at building opportunities through collaboration and developing partnerships between the health, education and community sector to benefit rural and regional communities.
