Health Care Services in Albury-Wodonga Region

Wodonga city is located on Victorian region of Australia, 300kilometers from Melbourne city. The city has many tourist attraction sites because of its unique structure. On its outskirt is Albury’s South Wales City. Initial name of the city was Wodonga but was later named Belvoir before changing it back to Wodonga. The city is the preparation site for Army understudies located in Latchford Barracks and also the Army logistics site in Australia. In 2017 Wodonga population was estimated at 39,597 with population density of 94 persons per kilometer square. Population growth rate is estimated to be 2.2%. Out of the general population of this city, 57.1% are above 15years and are considered to be full time workers of which only 30.4% are part time workers. Unemployment rate of the city is 6.7%. Only 29.6% of city homes as possessed but 30.9% homes are acquired by credit contracts. 36.6% of total homes in this city are leased. Average income is estimated as $523 per week and middle class family wage is $931 weekly. Wodonga is the quickest growing city among its neighbors. It grows develops quicker than Geelong, Greater Bendigo and Ballarat (Population Wodonga, 2018).

Temperatures of the city range from 15°-34°C in summer and 3.5°- 14°C in winter. The average precipitation is estimated as 585MM annually. The city has hustling club and District Turf Club for those who like wagering on horse competitions. The city also has an intricate system of bicycle highway and 3 football clubs in Australia.  Wodonga is the home of the famous Fruit Fly Circus and the most known art space like The Cube Wodonga. It also has many art galleries like Art Space Wodonga and Murray Art Museum Albury (A/W, 2018).

The city has a proper health structure. This is achieved through the existence of Albury Wodonga Health (AWH) service. This is the most outstanding health care program in Wodonga. It is among the first public health services to be established in Australia and gives special health services. Its genesis was from 1^st July 2009. Its existence was as a result of agreement between Victorian and New South Wales government. Its main objective is to provide largest local health care services between Melbourne and Sydney (AWH, 2018). It serves a population of 250,000 both in the Southern parts of new Wales and Northern part of Victoria with 2100 staff and 200volunteers that gives effective services to the surrounding community. The Program ensures that care is provided to the community via Wodonga hospital, two community centers of rehabilitation, Wodonga mental Health services, Cancer foundation, and dental clinic (Wodonga City Council, 2016).

Wodonga Focuses on Creating a Healthy and Well Community

I also came across Wodonga Cancer foundation. This regional foundation was established on the 9^th of September 1986 to offer specialized cancer diagnosis services that increases the quality of life for cancer patients.  However, its main goal is to provide a wide information and knowledge base about cancer in the community and to enhance cancer services. On the contrary, it also specifies any form of support organization as well as services that are important – health wise for the community (CSS, 2014). According to my professional view, Cancer manifestation differs from patient to patient depending on individual’s immunity. Therefore, cancer journey becomes easier if patients are provided with enough information and knowledge about the cancer types. It’s also necessary to expose patients to the available cancer services regionally and internationally. On the same line, this cancer foundation welcomes all community patients for cancer diagnosis and treatment (Wodonga City Council, 2016).

According to my research 1 out of 2 males in Australia and 1 out of 3 females are prone to cancer at the age of 85years. Also about 3 to 4 patients with cancer tend to survive for at least four years. Otherwise cancer remains to be Australia’s main cause of death. This statistics suggest that most individuals are exposed to cancer information because they either become patients or have relatives that suffer from cancer. The foundation is most interested in ensuring that the community is not ill informed about cancer by providing an array of information and other sources of enlightenment. This way, individual get relevant knowledge that is of personal and family importance (Wodonga City Council, 2016).

There are a number of community welfare groups, foundations and organizations that work together to improve the health quality in Wodonga. However such depend on individual passion and leadership to come up with most comprehensive and advanced health care services in Wodonga region.  Most particularly the local government appreciated the existence and support of established institutions like Brave Hearts Inc, Rotary Club of Albury, and the Commercial Club Ltd who give financial support for some of the health programs and services.  Apart from the mentioned organizations, I also realized that there are other organizations that provide support for general health care activities (Management, 2017). They include:

• Howlong Veteran Golf Club
• Holbrook RS Club Veteran Golfers Association
• Chiltern Tourism and Development Inc.
• Rotary Club Of Lavington

HTW is a partnership between Gateway Health and Wodonga Council which strives to achieve improvisation of people’s lives, their learning processes and work. This is attained by identifying and strengthening community leadership roles in health activities that are preventive in nature. Through HTW initiative the country enjoys one of the world’s best health care systems. However, the country remains to be under pressure as a result of the rising cases of chronic diseases. For instance, there is an increase in overweight population which gives high trends of diabetes, osteoarthritis, cardiovascular disease and some cancers. The initiative has made me realize that the design of Wodonga affects people’s health behaviors in different manners. Individuals will tend to arrive at healthy choices that are easily available. Therefore, an environment that discourages or otherwise supports health behaviors is critically influential to individual health (Cuozzo, et al., 2017).

References

A/W. (2018). Albury-Wodonga Woodcrafters Inc.Retrieved August 09, 2018, from https://www.visitalburywodonga.com/see-and-do/arts-and-culture 

AWH. (2018). Quality in Health Care Sustainability. Retrieved August 08, 2018, from https://www.awh.org.au/about-us/about-awh/ 

CSS. (2014). Albury Wodonga Cancer Foundation Inc. Retrieved August 08, 2018, from https://www.canceralburywodonga.com.au 

Cuozzo, B., Dumay, J., Palmaccio, M., & Lombardi, R. (2017). Intellectual capital disclosure: A structured literature review. Journal of Intellectual Capital,18(1), 9-28. Retrieved August 08, 2018, from https://queens.ezproxy.cuny.edu:2048/login?url=https://search.proquest.com.queens.ezproxy.cuny.edu:2048/docview/1857284551?accountid=13379

Management, S. (2017).SMS | Strategic Management Society. Strategicmanagement.net. Retrieved August 08, 2018, from https://www.strategicmanagement.net/

  Population of Wodonga. (2018). Australian Population. Retrieved August 09, 2018, from https://australiapopulation2017.com/population-wodonga-2017.html

Wodonga City Council. (2016). What is Healthy Together Wodonga? Retrieved August 08, 2018, from https://www.wodonga.vic.gov.au/community-services/healthy-together-wodonga/