October 23, 2013
Organisations across the South Burnett, Darling Downs and South West Queensland can now easily check the health of their community with the release of a new Regional Health Atlas.
The Health Atlas has been compiled by the Darling Downs South West Queensland (DDSWQ) Medicare Local using national, State and local data as a tool for anyone working across the region, especially in the areas of health, planning and community services.
DDSWQ Medicare Local’s CEO Andrew Harvey says the Atlas is a great tool for anyone who is working or planning activities in any of the 12 local government areas covered by DDSWQ Medicare Local to ensure they are tapping into the genuine needs of the area.
“Our vision is to deliver measurable improvements in the health outcomes for those living in this region through better coordinated primary health care.
“This Atlas allows us to highlight areas of need across the region and where specific health needs should be addressed,” Mr Harvey said.
“We work with health professionals and our communities to keep people healthy and well, so we believe that this tool is another step towards collaborative planning with health providers and councils in order to better respond to health needs and gaps in the area.”
The datasets in the Atlas are grouped into six sections covering characteristics of the population, social and environmental factors, access factors, health behaviours and biomedical factors.
Local information is compared across the each local government area of the South Burnett, Darling Downs and South West Queensland regions, and then to both state and national data.
While some of the latest data available is now a few years old, DDSWQ Medicare Local believe the Atlas will still allow readers to see trends, as well as assess where the area ranks compared with State and national averages.
- The Health Atlas is available online through the DDSWQ Medicare Local website
