Foundation joins National Rural Health Alliance
November 20, 2009The Rural Health Education Foundation has joined the National Rural Health Alliance, a national body which promotes good health and wellbeing in rural and remote Australia.
The Foundation is now one of 29 member bodies in the ACT-based Alliance, which has the specific goal of equal health for all Australians by 2020. “We’re delighted to become a member of the National Rural Health Alliance,” said Foundation chair Dr Brian Bowring. “The Foundation and the Alliance have fundamental goals in common, and our activities are entirely complementary.”
“The Foundation already has a working relationship with some of the Alliance members, and our participation in the Alliance will enable us to strengthen those ties and to make new connections with other member bodies,” Dr Bowring said. “Membership in the Alliance should also help us to plan our educational service provision more effectively, and improve the Foundation’s networks in rural and remote Australia.”
Dr Jenny May, the Chairperson of the Alliance, welcomed the Foundation as the Alliance’s latest member body.
“I’m confident that the Foundation’s education, training and media capabilities will help the Alliance achieve its vision of good health and wellbeing in rural and remote Australia,” Dr May said. “The Foundation’s skills in telecommunications, instructional video and IT are welcome additions to the Alliance’s pool of expertise.”
About the National Rural Health Alliance
The National Rural Health Alliance, headquartered in Deakin, ACT, comprises 29 member bodies, each a national body in its own right, representing health professionals, service providers, consumers, educators and researchers.
The Alliance’s core values include a belief that the gap between rural and metropolitan health can be closed with national commitment and the allocation of a ‘30 per cent fair share’ of resources and attention to the 30 per cent who live in rural and remote areas.
Since 1991 the Alliance has staged the National Rural Health Conference, an annual event which was most recently held in May 2009 in Cairns, Queensland.
Members of the Alliance include the Australian College of Rural and Remote Medicine, the Australian Nursing Federation, the Country Women’s Association of Australia, the National Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation, the Rural Faculty of the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners, and many other national health and medical professional organisations.