IMPROVING mental health, battling substance abuse and adapting to climate change are some of the focuses of a new regional health strategy for Riverland councils.
The draft Murraylands and Riverland Regional Public Health and Wellbeing Plan, produced by the Murraylands and Riverland Local Government Association (MRLGA), is being brought before councils, with Berri Barmera Council endorsing the plan at its most recent monthly meeting.
The plan establishes public health goals for the MRLGA’s eight constituent councils, including the three Riverland councils, and identifies opportunities for increased regional collaboration.
The plan is based on five goals: build community wellbeing and resilience, increase healthy living choices, prepare for climate change and plan for emergency, sustain environmental and public health and strengthen regional public health collaboration and delivery.
MRLGA CEO Tim Smythe said he hoped to have the plan operational in the near future, following endorsement from the constituent councils.
“Under the first four priorities it’s really targeting actions that individual councils can take… so it will be really up to the individual councils to pursue those,” he said.
“Goal five talks about the role MRLGA can play in pulling those councils together and looking at a more co-ordinated response to public health across the region.
“Better public health comes if we start to work together…
“If we can coalesce the resources that sit within councils, there is a lot of expertise there and we should be able to amplify results and identify the partners we need to work with.”
Mr Smythe said councils played an important role in ensuring the health and wellbeing of local communities.
“We look at the role of local government in terms of generating public good and so it’s about how we use our open spaces, how do we use our facilities to bring people together and how do we hold events that might bring people together,” he said.
“Then on top of that there’s things like councils’ involvement in mosquito control, and the regulation and compliance of food premises.
“Quite often councils are also involved in co-ordinating vaccination programs in schools.
“Obviously climate change is starting to play more of a role and take more consideration, so some of the councils are identifying that greening projects and tree projects are things that they need to consider.
“The goal there is really about how do we build capability and capacity to respond to some of these issues.
“Some of them are much bigger than local government, so there’s going to need to be a collaborative response to some of these things, particularly when you start to look at things like mental health.”
Berri Barmera Council is developing an action implementation document based on the priorities identified in the regional health plan.