Greater Bendigo Health and Wellbeing Plan Emerging Themes

www.bendigo.vic.gov.au/healthandwellbeingplan

Health and wellbeing is a priority for most of us. Without good health it is difficult to live our lives to the fullest.

Health is more than being free from disease. It is a state of physical, mental and social wellbeing. It is created in our day to day lives – where and how we live, work and play. Lots of things impact on our health and wellbeing, including income, housing and education, access to nutritious food, being free from

discrimination and violence, having strong connections with family, friends and the community, and having a healthy lifestyle (eating well, being active and minimising risky activities such as smoking and excessive alcohol consumption).

Levels of good health and wellbeing are also strongly related to levels of socio-economic disadvantage.

Listed over the page are some emerging themes that have been developed following a review of local data and recent engagement with the community. This information provides a summary snapshot and is not intended to provide a comprehensive picture.

The City of Greater Bendigo would like to use these themes to start a conversation with our community.

Every four years councils across Victoria lead their communities in the development of a Municipal Public Health and Wellbeing Plan. This is designed to identify the key priorities that councils and their partners can work on to improve community health and wellbeing.

Vulnerable children

• It is internationally recognised that early years learning and development has a significant impact on future life experiences

• Children make up more than 15% of the community

• Greater Bendigo children experience abuse and exposure to family violence

• Child abuse is known to affect brain development in children, leading to poor learning and development. Research shows that this may translate in later life to higher rates of unemployment, crime and general anti-social behaviour

• Recent research indicates that children are present during at least half of all family violence incidents

• There are increasing rates of developmental vulnerability as measured by the Australian Early Childhood Development Census, with 11.8% of prep aged children vulnerable in more than one domain

Disengaged youth

• Experiences during the transition to adulthood influence future life experiences

• Young people make up 18.2% of the community

• Greater Bendigo has low levels of Year 12 or equivalent attainment and high rates of teenage pregnancy

• Young people express concerns about mental health

Ageing

• As people age the incidence of chronic conditions such as type 2 diabetes, arthritis, heart disease increases, as does the risk of stroke and cancer

• In 2011, over 15.3% of the community were aged over 65 years. This is projected to increase to 20% in 2031

• A significant and growing issue is the prevalence of dementia. In 2013 it was estimated 1,554 residents had dementia, however this figure is expected to increase by more than 250% to 5,463 in 2050

• A large percentage of residents aged over 65 years live alone (20% males / 38% females)

• In 2011, 44% of sole renters aged 65 and over were living with rental stress, meaning they are spending more than 30% of their income on rent

Health behaviours

• Poor diet is a known contributor to a wide range of health conditions including obesity, type 2 diabetes, heart disease, osteoporosis and some cancers

• Greater Bendigo has high rates of overweight (26.8%) and obese (26.6%) adults

• High levels of sugar-based soft drink consumption

• Low fruit and vegetable consumption

• Risky levels of alcohol consumption

• Regular physical activity helps prevent and manage a range of health conditions, including depression, type 2 diabetes, heart disease, stroke and arthritis

• The 2014 Active Living Census showed that the most popular forms of physical activity across Bendigo were walking, swimming, cycling or attending the gym

• 46.6% of Greater Bendigo adults exercise for 30 minutes, 4 or more times a week

• Smoking is still a leading cause of death across Victoria

• Whilst the rates of smoking are decreasing across Greater Bendigo, 13 in every 100 adults over 18 years still smoke

• Problem gambling is an issue for the Greater Bendigo community. The electronic gaming machine spend per adult each year is $576. The average problem gambler spends over $25,000 per annum leaving little to cover other daily living expenses

• The consequences of problem gambling can have flow on negative effects to family, friends and co-workers

Children make up more than 15% of

the community

Community safety

• Rates of reported family violence incidents are higher than the Victorian average

• The majority of incidents reported involve violence against women

• Violence against women may include physical, sexual or mental abuse, which impacts on their social, emotional, physical and/or economic security. It is experienced by women of all ages and often goes unreported

• More people report feeling safer on the streets alone (69.6% vs 61.2% for Victoria)

Health inequity

• Health inequities exist across the community. These are differences in health status that are socially produced, systemic in their unequal distribution, avoidable and unfair

• Across Victoria people living in rural environments experience poorer health outcomes than their urban peers

• Socio-economic outcomes are not equally distributed across the Greater Bendigo community. The 2011 ABS Census found that the Index of Relative Socio-economic Disadvantage ranged from 863.3 in some areas to 1090.2 in others with the average being 983.1. The lower the index the more disadvantaged an area is

• Across Greater Bendigo more than 40% of people have a weekly income less than $400, whilst 11.1% of families are either welfare dependent or on low income

• More than 40% of the community don’t have access to public transport

• In 2011, 10.6% of Greater Bendigo residents ran out of food in the previous 12 months and could not afford to buy more

Community resilience and environmental sustainability

• Resilience has been described as the capacity of individuals, communities, institutions, businesses and systems to survive, adapt and thrive no matter what kind of chronic stresses and acute shocks they experience

• Climate change is causing an increase in frequency of extreme weather events. Responding to these incidents requires high levels of community resilience

• Evidence shows that spending time in nature is good for both physical and mental wellbeing. It has positive effects on our ability to concentrate, learn, solve problems and be creative. It boosts our immune system and helps us relax

• The pace of societal change is growing. Inability to adapt to this level of change can lead to high levels of anxiety and depression

• A significant number of Greater Bendigo residents report high or very high levels of psychological stress as measured in the Victorian Population Health Survey

Educational attainment

• Education attainment is associated with better health throughout life. Education equips people to achieve stable employment, have a secure home, live in adequate housing, provide for families and cope with ill health by assisting them to make informed health choices

• Approximately nine children in every 100 across Greater Bendigo don’t attend kindergarten in the year preceding school

• 16.2% of young people aged 17 years are not attending education

• 81.1% of 20 – 24 years olds have completed a Year 12 or equivalent qualification compared with 86.5% for Victoria

• The proportion of couple families (with children aged 0 – 8 years) where both parents have not completed Year 12 or equivalent is 29.5%

Evidence shows that spending time in nature is good for both physical and mental wellbeing

1. Do these themes capture the key areas that need to be prioritised in the next health and wellbeing plan?

2. Reflecting on your experience or the experience of your organisation or network, are there any gaps?

Questions

Connection and inclusion

• By 2050 the City of Greater Bendigo is expected to have a population of over 200,000. Many of these new residents will have diverse cultural and socioeconomic backgrounds

• A socially inclusive community is defined as one where all people feel valued, their differences respected, and their basic needs met so they can live in dignity. Social exclusion is the process of being shut out from social, economic, political and cultural systems

• People with an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander background make up 1.7% of the population. They are acknowledged to experience poorer health outcomes than the rest of the community

• Social exclusion is related to poor mental health, particularly anxiety and depression

• Recent research found that Victorian adults who frequently experience racism are five times more likely to have poor mental health and 2.5 times more likely to have poor physical health

• Nearly three quarters of Greater Bendigo residents felt they belonged as a part of their community, whilst nearly six in every 10 residents engaged in at least one form of citizen engagement and half volunteered at least once per month

• Sadly in 2015, 17.1% of Greater Bendigo students in grades 5 and 6 experienced bullying

Affordable housing

• A good quality, secure home is a key determinant of health and wellbeing

• 10.3% of Greater Bendigo residents experience mortgage stress, whilst 27.3% experience rental stress. This means that households in the lowest 40% of incomes are spending more than 30% of their income on housing costs leaving little left for other life expenses

For more information: please contact Social Planner Lindy Wilson | 5434 6224 | l.wilson@Bendigo.vic.gov.au

By 2050 the City of Greater Bendigo

is expected to have a population

of over 200,000. Many of these new residents will have

diverse cultural and socioeconomic

backgrounds