The Preventative Health Journal - Australia & New Zealand

Australian psychologists have welcomed the wide-ranging recommendations contained in the Government’s three recent reports on the restructuring of health services in Australia.

‘This is a strategy for health for a new era, proposing many of the changes that health professionals have been advocating for years,’ said Professor Bob Montgomery, President of the Australian Psychological Society. ‘Most exciting is the new model of health implicit in these reports, one that sees health as much more than just the maintenance of biological functions with an imbalanced emphasis on biomedical cures for disease.’

‘The recommendations in these reports imply a model of health that encompasses total well-being and emphasises prevention of disease and promotion of health. Not only is this more cost-effective, especially in light of the ageing population, it’s simply more humane. Even for people already coping with a chronic illness, a focus on enhancing quality of life will facilitate adherence to personal health care.’

‘The proposed restructuring of primary care services to make them more focussed on meeting patients’ needs, especially through a multidisciplinary team approach, is long overdue,’ said Professor Montgomery, who is also Vice President of Allied Health Professions Australia. ’The prevention and management of serious or chronic illnesses requires inputs from many health professions and each individual needs access to a personally relevant health professional team, who are working together coherently and efficiently in this person’s interests.’

‘Disease-prevention and health-promotion are all about behaviour change, helping people to make lasting changes in health-related behaviour. Behaviour change is the core of applied psychology and health psychologists have developed many effective strategies for helping people to live healthier and happier lives. There are also established techniques for helping people to cope with illness better and still enjoy good quality of life.’

‘These applied health psychology strategies have been shown to work across the lifespan, from infancy to old age, and across life settings, at home, at work, and in the community. The Australian Psychological Society is now actively preparing constructive responses to the Government’s initiatives and we look forward to working in collaboration with them and with our colleagues in the other health professions to make the promise in these reports a reality.’