HEALTHY TASMANIA FIVE YEAR STRATEGIC PLAN – COMMUNITY CONSULTATION DRAFT CITY OF HOBART FEEDBACK DOCUMENT Contents Recommended New Actions to be considered as part of the Healthy Tasmania Five Year Strategic Plan: ............................................................... 3 Response to Questions: ................................................ 6 The City of Hobart Strategic Framework ..................... 11 Recommended New Actions to be considered as part of the Healthy Tasmania Five Year Strategic Plan: General Comment The Healthy Tasmania Five Year Strategic Plan would benefit from co-investment with local governments including developing partnership opportunities to provide infrastructure, parks, playgrounds and resources that support healthy activity. Local government is positioned well to be involved in health and well being as it is the tier of government that has strong existing relationships with communities. This strategy would benefit from closer partnerships, and resourcing and funding to increase the provision of health services on the ground. New Actions As defined by the World Health Organisation, a ‘Healthy City’ is one that is continually creating and improving those physical and social environments and expanding those community resources which enable people to mutually support each other in performing all the functions of life and developing to their maximum potential. Healthy Cities are arguably the best-known and largest of the settings approaches. The programme is a long-term international development initiative that aims to place health high on the agendas of decision makers and to promote comprehensive local strategies for health protection and sustainable development. Basic features include community participation and empowerment, intersectoral partnerships, and participant equity. A Healthy City aims to: • Create a health-supportive environment; • Achieve a good quality of life; • Provide basic sanitation and hygiene needs; and • Supply access to health care. Page 3 Evaluations of Healthy Cities programmes have proven them successful in increasing understanding of health and environment linkages and in the creation of intersectoral partnerships to ensure a sustainable, widespread programme. The most successful Healthy Cities programmes maintain momentum from: • The commitment of local community members; • A clear vision; • The ownership of policies; • A wide array of stakeholders; and • A process for institutionalising the programme. The Heart Foundation Healthy by Design Paper, Tasmania, has excellent ideas and ways to ensure that the built environment is increasing community health and wellbeing. These guidelines provide design considerations for walking and cycling routes, streets, local destinations, open spaces, public transport and strategies for fostering community spirit. Healthy by Design website and Join the dots campaigns include information about hydration, energy and injury prevention; breakfast and mental health; stretching and injury prevention, provide interesting and fun ways to share information and educate. In line with these internationally successful models, it is recommended that the Tasmanian Government consider the following actions: • Increase health promotion and preventative health programs; • Include Social Determinant of Health to improve healthy outcomes; • Increase access to information and choices to move, including access to footpaths, playgrounds and cycle ways; • Commit to support local government in developing infrastructure to encourage people to be active as part of commuting to work or study by providing end of trip facilities such as secure parking, lockers and showers; • Allocate ongoing funding for the successful Ride2School program, expand and support the walking school bus program and implement other programs that discourage parents from driving their children to school; • Establish a funding stream for health initiatives to support communities to take the lead on place-based, context-appropriate solutions. • Address intergenerational cultural choices around movement and food choices; Page 4 • Allocate a percentage of the roads budget to Local Government to build separated cycle-ways and improve pedestrian amenity; • Planning scheme changes be based on best practice urban design principles encouraging non vehicular access and movement and green recreational spaces; • Students be discouraged from vehicular use to access educational facilities and be supported to use public transport and self transport with better facilities; and • Increase information on food packaging, and increased education about nutritional value of the food product, and potential outcome of over use. Any program or initiatives within the Healthy Tasmania Five Year Strategic Plan would need to be resourced to achieve the best outcomes. Partnership opportunities with existing services, for delivery of activities in local communities, would be important. Potential activities include: • Walk and ride to school / work programs; • Supported peer programs in schools - for children and families; • Nutrition awareness programs; • Healthy shopping programs; • Farm gate to plate - meet the producers programs; • Farm gate to plate - learn to use fresh local produce programs; • Community celebrations with healthy food options; • Access to information across services - including educational services, community hub; • Health promotion and civic activation for health promotion activities; • Supporting local community, sporting and active groups to showcase their activities and grow their membership; • Support local community connections • Change the way information is shared about chronic disease, hereditary disease and lifestyle conditions; • Increased infrastructure for parks and playgrounds; and • Increase option to chose to walk, ride, play. Page 5 Response to Questions: 1. Where do you think the current actions we are taking on prevention and promotion have proven effective in improving the health of Tasmanians? Work undertaken in small communities engaging with non-government agencies and community groups to share information on preventative health and health promotion are addressing many important elements of Quality of Life / Health / Happiness which are consistent with the “Wellness approach to service delivery” that is driving aged care reforms in Australia. The extension material and service information distributed by DHHS Public Health Services / Population Health have been a very useful resource. This has included: (i) Face-to-face support to service providers through the Community Nutrition Unit; (ii) Support to use the Appetite for life manual; (iii) Training and support to use the malnutrition Screening Tool with clients; (iv) Support from around Physical Activity; and (v) The Find Thirty extension material. Support and training from Health Promotion South around health literacy / writing easier-to-read material has been excellent. They have provided resources relating to writing easier-to-read material, which has changed the way programs engage with clients / customers across the organisation. 2. Where do you see that the most effective changes could be made in terms of overall population health benefit? Addressing the health benefits in all policies and focusing on health promotion and information sharing. Health prevention targeting young families with information and resources to ensure generational changes to health and an intergenerational health shift. Working with established networks, including local governments, rather than recreating a new system, to partner and work on the ground with existing community relationships, and building on these. By increasing access to public play space, and ensuring choices around walking, riding or driving, this would improve physical activity. Page 6 3. Are there any alternative governance principles, strategies or enablers that would better support the shift to a more cost-effective model for preventative health in Tasmania? The Healthy Tasmania Committee (HTC) framework and principles identify key areas of focus, and priority areas to focus on. These would be supported by the City of Hobart. (i) Concentrate on the early years; (ii) Create health where people live, learn, work and play; (iii) Target health risk factors; and (iv) Focus on the health of vulnerable groups. Maintaining supports and access in local areas, with State-wide leadership and public access to information and working in health promoting ways are all fundamental to the success in changing the state health picture. 4. What evidence supports these alternatives as helping us achieve better health outcomes? Issues that need to be considered in this area include the cost of living, food security, and access to healthy choices. 5. Do you think the targets will be effective in driving the change Tasmania needs to see in health outcomes? These targets need to be delivered over a generation or two, in partnership with local governments and local communities. 6. What targets would you like to see the Government adopt to reduce health inequities in the target areas outlined above? The City of Hobart is not in a position to comment on targets. 7. What indicators of health status provide the best picture of whether progress is being achieved and could be monitored on HealthStats? The City of Hobart is not in a position to comment on HealthStats. 8. Are there ways we can better integrate the data on HealthStats into our work and use it to support the achievements of improved