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Media Release

August 16, 2004

UniSA wins funding for northern Adelaide health and wellbeing project

The University of South Australia has been awarded $397,000 in Federal Government funding to establish ongoing health and wellbeing programs run by UniSA students that will deliver real benefits directly to the northern Adelaide community.

The funding has been provided under the Federal Government’s Sustainable Regions Program for the Northern Adelaide Health and Wellbeing Project.

The key objectives of the project are to improve and expand health and wellbeing services in the Salisbury and Playford areas, increase university access and participation, and provide role models for young people in northern Adelaide, according to Mr Mike Elliott, Director of UniSA Northern Adelaide Partnerships.

“UniSA has already initiated several student placement programs in the north. These include programs being delivered by social work students in about 11 northern Adelaide schools and a new program by human movement students starting in two primary schools and two kindergartens, involving children with delayed coordination development which, if not addressed, can lead to significant social and learning difficulties later on,” Elliott said.

“We envisage establishing ongoing programs right across the health professions – nursing, physiotherapy, occupational therapy, human movement, podiatry, medical radiations, social work and psychology - working with schools, local government, and a range of health and social agencies focusing on young families and children.

“Our programs will be quite diverse but the bottom line is that our students will be involved in delivering useful services to the community and they will be sustainable ongoing programs,” Elliott said.

What is important and unique in this project is that the placement of students will be in direct response to needs identified within and by the northern suburbs community or service agencies, according to Associate Professor Sheila Scutter, Project Director and Dean, Teaching and Learning in UniSA’s Division of Health Sciences.

“The development of the project will allow for multidisciplinary teams of students to work together, for example podiatry, occupational therapy and human movement students working together with children to develop motor control skills,” Professor Scutter said.

“There are significant gaps in the provision of health and wellbeing services in northern Adelaide, with about half the rate of health workers per 100,000 residents, when compared with South Australia overall.

”It is anticipated that this program will improve the recruitment and retention of health professionals in the northern suburbs, where there are high levels of need and low levels of service.

“We believe that this project will also deliver improved community health and wellbeing through increased access to health services in the Playford and Salisbury area. We also hope that students in the northern area exposed to a range of health and wellbeing services by university students working in their communities might consider university study in careers that they might not otherwise have contemplated. Statistics show that the northern Adelaide region has very low rates of people studying for, or possessing university qualifications, when compared with the Australian average, which is more than four times higher,” Professor Scutter said.

The project will actively build on the recently developed Memorandum of Understanding between UniSA and a range of northern Adelaide service provider agencies aimed at developing programs in response to needs identified in the community.

The Federal Member for Makin, Trish Draper, MP, will launch the University’s Northern Health and Wellbeing Project at a celebration to be held at UniSA’s Mawson Lakes campus on Tuesday, 17 August 2004.

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