Landmark report on our region’s health and wellbeing released

Published on 28 May 2018

Mildura Rural City Council has just released the most complete snapshot of our region’s health and wellbeing ever produced – the State of Mildura Rural City Report 2018.

Councillor for Community Wellbeing and Services Min Poole said the report is the result of more than 12 months’ work, resulting in a comprehensive list of 400 measures reflecting our population’s state of health and wellbeing.

Encompassing everything from levels of physical activity, drug and alcohol use and education through to solar energy take-up, rates of volunteering and economic data, the report contains a staggering amount of information, which is compared against the rest of Victoria.

“This is a landmark piece of work that will be invaluable in planning and prioritising Council’s future infrastructure, services and programs,” Cr Poole said.

“It’s also a powerful tool, providing influential data and clear evidence of our community’s needs as we lobby State and Federal Governments for funding, particularly for pivotal initiatives such as Mildura Future Ready, which is designed to address many of the key issues highlighted by this report.”

The State of Mildura Rural City Report 2018 is the product of a collaborative effort by key stakeholders including Council, the Northern Mallee Community Partnership – Hands Up Mallee collective, Sunraysia Community Health Services and report researcher Rachael Williams from specialist consultants Local Logic Place.

Cr Poole said the report essentially replaces two well-respected and important documents that have historically informed Council – the 2012 Social Indicators Report and the 2014 State of Mildura Rural City’s Children and Young Person’s Report, with the latest available data.

“Our teams initially set out to establish a ‘state of health’ report to support our latest Community Health and Wellbeing Plan, which is basically our organisation’s overarching document that guides everything we do,” she said.

“Around the same time, our Social Indicators Report and State of Mildura Rural City’s Children and Young Peron’s Report were due for renewal, so the decision was made to combine all three into a ‘master’ report.

“As a result, we now have a single document that can serve as the foundation for long-term strategic planning and decision-making for our region to address the disturbing social indicators that rank our region as one of the most disadvantaged in Victoria.”

Cr Poole stressed the importance of Sunraysia’s key agencies utilising the document.

“This is a valuable tool that should be used by a whole range of organisations in our region,” she said.

“Everyone from service providers and businesses to community groups can use this report to gain a better understanding of our community’s wellbeing, helping them identify where to focus their attention to achieve better outcomes for our community.”

Councillors this month endorsed the report which is now available to the community by visiting www.mildura.vic.gov.au and navigating to the Plans and Strategies section of our website.

For more information contact Council’s Manager Community Care Services Cheree Jukes on (03) 5018 8100.

Media enquiries 
Ben Piscioneri
p) (03) 5018 8689 
e) ben.piscioneri@mildura.vic.gov.au