To keep healthy and safe, we Victorians need to be equipped with information and tools that allow us to make good choices. These choices affect our health and help us navigate the health, wellbeing and care system to achieve the best possible individual outcomes.
Prevention and early intervention are central to this empowerment. We want Victorians to know how to stay healthy and to recognise early when they need to access healthcare.
When they do seek the support of Victoria’s health, wellbeing and care services, they will experience high-quality care that is respectful, inclusive and culturally safe. This experience will extend across the full spectrum of services from hospitals to mental health and wellbeing support to Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisations (ACCHOs) and everywhere else Victorians need the health, wellbeing and care system.
Aboriginal people who access care in the mainstream system will experience early intervention and prevention services that are culturally safe. They will have much greater access to care.
The Treaty process will help us address the social, cultural and historical determinants of health and wellbeing for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
Flowing the other way, general healthcare has much to learn from the holistic health and wellbeing principles of our First Peoples through connectedness, community and self-determination.
Our role is to continue to partner, engage and consult with communities so that Victorians have a system that gives them control over their physical and mental health. We want them to understand the effect of harmful behaviours like drug, alcohol and substance abuse so they can be part of the solution.
We want to work together so that every program, initiative and service is built by and for the communities we serve.
We’ll work with other parts of government (including social services, education and justice) to improve the cultural, spiritual, social and economic determinants of health and wellbeing. As the government plans new precincts, we’ll ensure environments are created to help Victorians live healthy lives.
We’ll use data and analytics to help identify priority issues. We’ll respond to emergencies, provide protection from hazards, and build resilience and emergency readiness in the workforce and community. And we’ll do it all in line with our regulatory and legislative responsibilities to prevent harm and deliver a safe and high-quality health, wellbeing and care system.
Key deliverables
- Collaborative early intervention and prevention programs and services including strengthening Aboriginal people’s access
- Information that empowers people to make informed choices about their health
- Legislative and regulatory safeguards, predictive analytics and protective conditions to prevent harm and deliver consistently safer and higher-quality health, wellbeing and care services
- Reduced harmful alcohol and drug use including vaping
Initiatives
- Victorian Cancer Plan 2024–2028
- Screening and early detection programs
- Extension of the culture and kinship pilot program
- Focus on women’s health
- Mpox vaccination
- Victorian Public Health and Wellbeing Plan 2023–2027
- Pandemic program
- Alcohol and other drug treatment support and harm reduction services
Outcomes
Population health:
- Health and wellbeing across the lifespan and emerging health issues.
Reviewed 31 August 2023