Bulletin

Issue: January/February 2008

News

Award for health promotion

Exiled nuns and drought-affected families are among those to benefit from the work of La Trobe University's award-winning health promotion student, Julie Priest.

Ms Priest, a registered nurse who is completing a Masters of Health Science at La Trobe's Bendigo campus, has been awarded the Australian Health Promotion Association 2007 Victorian Health Promotion Student of the Year Award.

Ms Priest was recognised for her work in providing health kits to Tibetan nuns, helping create a community network to support families in Central Victoria, and for her role in planning a Community Expo in Bendigo to showcase community care options for older or disabled people who want to stay in their own homes.

While it may seem that there are few similarities between the work she did in Nepal and her work in Central Victoria, Ms Priest says the values and concepts underpinning health promotion remain the same — social justice, equity, meaningful participation, inclusive partnership and appropriate access.

It was Ms Priest's long-standing interest in Buddhism that led her to undertake a month-long meditation retreat in Kathmandu in 1999, and the idea to work with the nuns in the exiled Tibetan community at Kopan soon followed.

'The nuns don't have much at all,' Ms Priest says. 'I wanted to do something tangible.' On her return to Australia she partnered with Women's Health Loddon Mallee and local women to create health promotion kits to distribute to the 400-strong nunnery.

'The kits included items we take for granted here in the west: toothbrushes, toothpaste, soap, antiseptic, bandages and first aid items, articles the nuns could use on a daily basis to promote health.'

Ms Priest is also proud of her involvement in the development of the Mount Alexander Community Children's Network, to promote better health for children and their families. She says the drought has made the network even more vital.

'It affects the way parents parent and the way communities come together and help each other. When you have stress in families there is also an increased risk of anxiety and depression impacting on the ability of families to function effectively.

'The network is looking at ways to better support families in the shire, perhaps with something as simple as establishing a playgroup in an affected area.'

Ms Priest says the award will help her to steer her career towards international health promotion work at both grass roots and policy development levels.

She says health promotion is gaining an increased profile with greater community awareness of issues such as obesity, physical activity, smoking, diabetes, hypertension and social isolation.

She says her studies have helped in her health promotion and community development role at Castlemaine District Community Health Centre.