Priority Areas
Healthy eating and active living
According to the Victorian Population Health Survey in 2014:
- More than 90% of survey respondents across the region did not meet the national vegetable consumption guidelines.
- More residents in Ararat Rural City (14%), Northern Grampians Shire (17.9%) and Pyrenees Shire (12.%) consumed sugar-sweetened drinks than the Victorian average (18.8%).
- A significant number of residents in Ararat Rural City (50.3%), Northern Grampians Shire (56.2%) and Pyrenees Shire (46.4%) did not engage in a sufficient amount of physical activity to maintain a healthy lifestyle.
Our healthy eating and active living objectives over the next four years are common across all health promotion agencies in the region:
- Activate new and existing places and spaces to encourage active living and healthy eating
- Create diverse healthy eating and active living opportunities
- Promote supportive environments and policy for healthy eating and active living in all settings.
Improving Mental Health
Mental health is a state of wellbeing in which an individual realises their own potential, can cope with the normal stresses of life, work productively and fruitfully and make a contribution to his or her community (Work Health Organisation 2014).
Why is improving mental health important in the Grampians Pyrenees?
- The rate of avoidable deaths from suicide and self-inflicted injuries in Ararat Rural City between 2009 and 2013 was more than twice the Victorian estimate.
- In 2014, 19% of respondents in Northern Grampians Shire had high or very high levels of psychological distress. The average for Victoria is 12.6%.
- In the same year, 33.1% of Northern Grampians Shire residents and 30.3% of Pyrenees Shire residents were diagnosed with depression or anxiety.
Our objectives for improving mental health over the next four years are common across all health promotion-funded agencies in this region.
- Create opportunities for social connection that welcome diversity.
- Develop and support opportunities for people of all ages to increase their mental wellbeing.
- Promote supportive environments and policy for mental health in all settings.
Key areas of work include coordinating mental health planning and capacity-building events across the Grampians Pyrenees region.
Latest Initiatives
Activating Local Spaces Workshops
Placemaking is a global movement, increasingly the cutting edge of practice for councils, developers, universities and others across Australia. Knowing how to deliver authentic and resilient local places in a fast-changing environment can be challenging. CoDesign Studio, delivered training workshops on locally-led placemaking training workshops across the Grampians region. The purpose of the training was to build understanding of placemaking fundamentals, share inspirational case studies and lessons learned, workshop opportunities and actions to create locally led place making interventions.
These workshops were coordinated and lead by Grampians Pyrenees Primary Care Partnership with support from Central Highland and Wimmera PCP’s to members from across the Grampians Region.
For placemaking related resources from Co-Design Studio please visit their website.