Better prevention for a healthy South Australia
What we’ll do
A Marshall Liberal Government will invest in preventative health initiatives and work to rebalance health services funding.
We will support and implement policies that encourage and enable individuals and communities to make healthy choices and will establish a Healthy Communities Program to focus on five goals.
- Increasing physical activity by individuals and communities
- Decreasing rates of smoking
- Decreasing rates of problem alcohol consumption
- Increasing access to affordable healthy food
- Improving the knowledge of all South Australians about what it takes to be healthy
Our Healthy Communities program will be implemented at the local community level. For example, we will establish the South Australian Healthy Towns Challenge by investing $1 million over four years to fund preventive health projects in regional areas.
Other preventative measures we will invest in include:
- education, screening and vaccination
- research, monitoring and evaluation to refresh programs and strategies to maximise the impact of prevention services
- ensuring our public health regulation adequately protects you
- providing leadership and coordination by having a Chief Public Health Officer, a separate preventative health agency within SA health, and maximising partnerships with all levels of government and non-government organisations
Why we’re doing it
Preventable health conditions cost us dearly.
For example, obesity costs $120 billion a year in Australia and alcohol misuse costs $36 billion every year.
Addressing this requires an investment in prevention measures to avoid future costs to both individuals and the government, with experts estimating that for every dollar invested in health prevention, we can save five dollars in health spending.
Despite these obvious benefits, the Weatherill Government has defunded South Australia’s health promotion and prevention services, centralising primary healthcare services and failing to develop broad public health initiatives.
Communities and individuals should be supported and informed to make healthy choices so they can reach their full potential and live with dignity.
That’s why we will invest in preventative health.