Member for Gorton Brendan O’Connor has welcomed the Rudd Government announcement that more than $869,000 will go to local projects in Melbourne’s West to tackle chronic disease.

Across the country, the Federal Government will provide $13.1 million for 82 projects to help people with chronic diseases.

In announcing the range of projects today, Minister for Health and Ageing and Member for Gellibrand Nicola Roxon said that, according to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, chronic diseases are estimated to be responsible for about 80 per cent of the total burden of disease in Australia.

Among the recipients, the Australian Community Centre for Diabetes at Victoria University has received a grant of $220,000. These funds will be used to develop the capacity for bilingual health educators to deliver diabetes-related prevention and management programs to groups of women from eight different immigrant and refugee communities across metropolitan Melbourne.

The Australian Community Centre for Diabetes also received a grant of $219,860 to develop the capacity of an existing workforce to deliver a diabetes-related prevention and management program and develop appropriate educational manuals for people from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds with type 2 diabetes, their families and their communities.

A grant of $209,706 will assist the university to develop an Indigenous Australian culture-centred interactive online tool for diabetes self-management.  The website will target Indigenous diabetics and health professionals working with this group. The efficacy measurement of the tool will have relevance to other areas of Indigenous Australian chronic disease such as smoking.

A further grant of $220,000 will allow the university to undertake a demonstration project that will look at ways of using information communication technologies in chronic disease management within different groups in the western suburbs of Melbourne. The project will develop a Digital Chronic Disease Self-Management Framework to use with culturally and linguistically diverse people. The project will also identify  good practice strategies in chronic disease self-management in groupings such as women, men, and different age groups.

International and Australian research indicates that patient self-management improves wellbeing and strengthens self-determination, confidence and participation in health care, while reducing health care utilisation and health care costs.

“Chronic disease presently places a tremendous cost on the Australian community in drawing on medical resources and in lost productivity,” Ms Roxon said.  “Many people suffering from chronic disease are unable to live their lives to their full potential.”

Member for Maribyrnong Bill Shorten added that the impact of the projects would be far reaching.

“This project is an important part of the Government’s commitment to fund organisations that will deliver specific chronic disease self-management and lifestyle risk modification strategies in communities and regions throughout Australia.”

“It is one of many projects that include universities, state and territory departments, local government bodies and community-based organisations,” he said.

Mr O’Connor said it was important that all members of the community, including those from disadvantaged or culturally diverse groups, had access to chronic disease management programs and services.

“Both our local community and the Australian community as a whole will reap significant benefits from this expanded assistance and services.

“These include people from culturally and linguistically diverse populations, people experiencing socio-economic disadvantage, children and adolescents and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples,” Mr O’Connor said.