Public Health

Assessing Rural Public Health Capacity 

Do health and other services have the capacity to address the core public health functions in rural and remote communities? That question inspired a formal assessment of such capacity in 2002. This was the first time in Australia that the national core functions were objectively assessed. The role of state public and community health units, divisions of general practice and local government were included in the study, which covered all of non-metropolitan Western Australia.

The results showed that overall there was good capacity in preventing and controlling communicable and non-communicable diseases; promoting and supporting healthy lifestyles; planning, funding, managing and evaluating health gain; ensuring safe and healthy environments; and contributing to healthy growth and development through all life stages.

Lower capacity was found for assessing health needs; developing healthy public policy and fiscal measures; strengthening communities; and, improving health for Aboriginal people and other vulnerable groups.
 

The full report was published in July 2002 can be viewed in PDF format by click on the following links

Executive Summary (168Kb)

Main Report (1.9Mb)

Appendices (1.6Mb)

An article summarising the methods and findings was published in the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health (Lower, Durham, Bow and Larson 2004).

The assessment will be repeated in 2005 for a sample of sites.

This program is jointly funded by the Commonwealth Department of Health and Ageing’s Public Health Education and Research Program (PHERP) and the Health Department of Western Australia.