Australian Women's Health Network

The Australian Women's Health Network (AWHN) is the peak organisation^[1] for women's health in Australia. AWHN was formed by women who attended the inaugural Community Health Association Conference in September 1986.^[2] It was incorporated on 3 March 1994.^[3] It is a non-profit network run primarily by volunteers. AWHN is an umbrella organization for State and Territory Women's Health Networks, and other national organizations which embrace its objectives and philosophy. The AWHN National Management Committee is made up of representatives from every state and territory in Australia. They especially aim to be universally trustworthy and to help women that are at a particularly higher risk when dealing with poor health. The organization prides itself on its accountability, transparency, integrity, and respect.^[4] They are willing to hold themselves accountable for their decisions and actions, having an open arms policy to gain the trust of the people, being able to maintain that trust, and treating each individual as an equal, not prioritizing anyone's self-worth over another. It also acts as a haven and aims to be overcome society's boundaries through inclusiveness in hopes of equality. Actively participates in feminist movements, stressing the necessity and paramount of women's health. The organization outreaches to media to further shed light on the issue of women's health.

Vision and purpose[]

The vision for Australia's Women Health Network came from the Women's Health Charter which has a goal of making sure every woman in Australia is safe. The charter hopes to ensure that women are free from violence and discrimination, and among all else, have equal opportunity and freedom from discrimination. This charter is the basis for the beliefs embedded within the Australian Women's Health Network and works collectively to create better opportunities for women in Australia, offering a hub of organizations and services. Their goals also work towards implicit events that may affect women's health such as climate change and economic factors.^[5]

The Australian Women's Health Networks defines their role as being “The national voice for women’s health”.^[6]

Activity and funding[]

AWHN is a pro-choice organization.^[7] AWHN organizes the Australian Women's Health Conference, a conference on issues concerning women. The 1st conference occurred in October 1987 at the Royal Women's Hospital in Melbourne and was funded by the Department of Health.^[2] The 7th conference was held in Sydney from May 2013. Speakers at the conference included Kimberly Dark.^[8]

In 2009, AWHN received approximately $100,000 in funding from the Department of Health and Ageing.^[9]

Preparing for the 2019 federal election, AWHN were quick to voice out the need of prioritizing women's health. Being a pro-choice organisation, they sought to get abortion banned in "every state Criminal Code".^[10]

Not only do they advocate for women's health, they branched out to other concerning topics such as climate change.^[11] They believe that the economy and natural devastations are connected, believing that women will be at most risk because more resources will be used on men than women.

States and Territories[]

AWHN has many organizations across that country that includes: The Australian Capital Territory Women's Health Services, North Territory Women's Health Services, New South Wales Women's Health Services, South Australia Women's Health Services, Queensland Women's Health Services, Tasmania Women's Health Services, Victoria Women's Health Services, and Western Australia Women's Health Services.^[12]

Victorian State Government[]

To combat the broad scope that health umbrellas, AWHN's main goal is to address the issues at hand by addressing "women's specific needs" to ensure that there is no confusion.^[13] The organization wants to rid the world of "all forms of discrimination against women" through the transparency that they are giving.^[13] Transparency allows for better reliable sources to be found by women who seek health information rather than finding information that could be "inaccurate or misleading.^[14] The first the organization took is by teaming up with Victoria State's government and helping the women and girls there. They noticed that females make up more than 50% of Victoria's population yet they are more prone to chronic illnesses and "living with a disability" at a bigger difference when compared to the men.^[13] Many of the causes are due to economic, social, and cultural disadvantages, and as a result, women's health begins to suffer. As much as "one-third" of the women do not partake in physical activity and start to form eating disorders.^[13] Utilizing the United Nations' Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, AWHN and Victoria's State Government can provide an unlimited variety of health care for the women, not excluding anything from them.^[15]

Women and sexual and reproductive health[]

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Although Australia has multiple laws and practices in place, AWHN still argues that Women's health should be a priority and that the laws that are in place do not do much. The organization wants the Australian government to pinpoint the exact causes for poor women's health and address the "social determinants of sexual and reproductive ill-health".^[14] Other recommendations the organization gives is to regulate the advertisements that go against abortion and to help destigmatize abortion through law reforms "in those states where abortions still form part of the criminal code".^[14] Another major issue that AWHN wants to be tackled is for there to be strict regulations and monitoring of sterilization procedures that are being performed on girls and women living with disabilities.^[14] They stress the importance of women's health yet there is an inadequate source of funding for existing programs and a lack of new programs being created to help women. In addition to new regulations being enacted, a radical change within the education system is needed. With the right take on sexuality education, it can "better prepare young people to make safe and responsible decisions about sexual activity" which prevents further spread of STIs and promote healthy lifestyles.^[14]

Further actions the organization wants to be taken is to reform education on contraception. The most well-known forms of contraception include an oral contraceptive pill like birth control and a male condom. Despite the oral contraceptive pill and the male condom being the most well known, other forms of contraception tend to be overlooked or unknown to many.^[14] Another form of contraception is emergency contraception and even amongst the women who buy it, fail to take it properly. Though the purpose of an emergency contraception pill is to prevent pregnancy, some pharmacists refuse to sell it to the women who need it because of their religious beliefs.^[14] Also, the extent goes as far as the states and territories themselves preventing the pharmacies from selling the emergency contraception. AWHN stresses that if women are properly educated on emergency contraception, then unplanned pregnancies rates will drop and women will not have to go seek out options like abortion.^[14]

The organization proposes that there be increase access to a variety of contraceptive options that not only target women but also men. Not only do they want these options widely available, but they also want it to be extremely affordable so that women of any class can purchase it.^[14] Moving forward, another proposed action is to have a federal investigation on women under the age of 16 who are asking to get contraception.^[14] Lastly, AWHN notes that it is not only important to educate the masses but to also develop new education programs for pharmacists and other practitioners regarding emergency contraception along with a widespread awareness campaign for the "effectiveness of emergency contraception".^[14]

References[]

Notes

Bibliography

• Jamieson, Gwendolyn Gray (2012). Reaching for Health: The Australian women's health movement and public policy. ANU E Press. ISBN 978-1921862670.

External links[]

• Official website