Home
Welcome to the Women's Centre for Health Matters!
You can use the headings on the left hand side of the page to find out what we do, learn about our current projects, read our reports and publications and have your say about issues affecting women’s health and wellbeing! Join us in promoting women's health and wellbeing in the ACT and region. Become a member today, it's free! Click here for more information.
Link to our subsites here
Latest WCHM News
Would you like to influence mental health services and policy in the ACT to be more responsive to your needs?
The Women and Mental Health Working Group and the Women’s Centre for Health Matters invite ACT women who are living with mental health issues or caring for someone with a mental health issue to participate in a
PUBLIC CONSULTATION FORUM
For women mental health consumers and carers in the ACT
Monday 30th of April, 5pm – 7pm
Canberra City, Location to be advised
You will have the opportunity to provide feedback about what affects your mental health and wellbeing, how you access services and supports, how you think health services can better meet your needs, and if being female impacts on your experience of mental health. This information will be used for ongoing advocacy work.
Carol Benda, Coordinator of the Women’s Legal Service will speak to us about common legal issues women living with mental health issues face, services WLC can offer, and where to obtain legal advice in the ACT. Light refreshments will be provided.
If transport is difficult for you or there’s anything you require to make it easier for you to participate in the consultation, please contact WCHM to make arrangements.
Please RSVP to admin@wchm.org.au by Monday the 23rd of April. For more information contact Laura Pound on (02) 6290 2166 or l.pound@wchm.org.au.
Strong women, great city – a survey for ACT’s women with disabilities
Tell us what you think and go into the draw to win a $250 hamper from The Body Shop!
If you’re a woman with a disability, living, working or studying in the ACT or surrounds, you are invited to participate in the survey Strong women, great city – a survey for ACT’s women with disabilities.
There are more than 31 000 women with disabilities in the ACT, representing a range of lifestyles, experiences and needs. This survey has been created especially for ACT’s women with disabilities so that we can form a picture of the amazing diversity within our community.
The survey is being conducted jointly by Women with Disabilities ACT (WWDACT) and the Women's Centre for Health Matters (WCHM), and will be used to influence local policy and service delivery to meet women's needs better.
By taking 15-20 minutes to complete this survey, you will be helping us to understand and represent the needs of women with disabilities in the ACT.
When you complete the survey you will be able to go into the draw to win a beautiful hamper from The Body Shop, valued at $250. It includes lots of goodies to spoil yourself with or to share with friends!
You can complete the survey by visiting: www.surveymonkey.com/s/strongwomengreatcity. The survey is open until Friday 27th April 2012.
If you have any questions or concerns about the survey you can call Angela Carnovale at the Women's Centre for Health Matters (WCHM) on 6290 2166 or email her on a.carnovale@wchm.org.au
Your completed survey will be confidential but will add to the voice of our community.
Public forum: Exploring sexual violence and institutionalisation in the ACT
On Monday the 20th of February 2012 WCHM, with a range of partner organisations, hosted a Summer of Respect public forum on the topic of Exploring Sexual Violence and Institutionalisation in the ACT at the National Library of Australia.
The event was very well attended; guest speakers were touching, articulate and knowledgeable; and WCHM received much positive feedback about the value of listening to a variety of perspectives on such an important issue that is often hidden.
Wilma, a Forgotten Australian, Kathy from the ACT Women And Prisons Group, and Marianna, who has experienced the Psychiatric Services Unit, shared their personal stories of the relationship between sexual violence and institutionalisation. This was very powerful for the audience, who were privileged to learn about their experiences and what we can do to prevent trauma from sexual violence, and in institutions, from occurring in the future.
Guest speakers Toni Ashmore from the Women’s Health Service, Sue Salthouse from Women With Disabilities ACT and Meredith Hunter ACT Greens MLA also shared their knowledge about trauma informed care, initiatives and skills to ensure women are safe in institutions, and advocacy and legislative responses to the issue of sexual violence and institutionalisation.
WCHM hopes to record the stories told at the forum and the various evidence based, service provider, legislative and advocacy responses to the issue that were discussed. In this way, the anti-sexual violence message of the event and learnings from the lived experiences of women can continue to raise awareness about sexual violence and institutionalisation in the ACT community.
For more information please read:
Invite to Public Forum - Sexual violence and institutionalisation in the ACT (572 KB)
Invite to Public Forum - Sexual violence and institutionalisation in the ACT (7471 KB)
Exploring sexual violence and institutionalisation in the ACT - Media release (422 KB)
Exploring sexual violence and institutionalisation in the ACT - Media release (41 KB)
Sex, health and your life - information forum for women
To celebrate International Women’s Day this year, WCHM, with the Jean Hailes Foundation for Women’s Health, Sexual Health and Family Planning ACT (SHFPACT), and ACT Health, co-hosted two extremely well attended forums providing holistic information about Sex, health and your life: What women 40s+ should know.
Speakers included physiotherapist and fitness instructor for Physical Best Lisa Westlake, who explained the importance of women taking care of their pelvic floor, posture, bone density and balance, and Maureen Matthews, a sex and relationship columnist and founder of sex shop Bliss for Women aimed at meeting women’s needs in a safe, empowering and informative environment. Each session also featured a local women’s health expert, and an expo of relevant ACT service providers including the Women’s Health Service, Women’s Information and Referral Centre, Osteoarthritis ACT, Breastcreen ACT, ACT Health, the Canberra Hospital Foundation and the Heart Foundation.
While all speakers were well-received, the audience was most attentive when Maureen Matthews spoke—her message was clear. For women, no matter what age or relationship status, sexuality is a vital part of healthy living and keeping in touch with the sexual side of life can be important and fun.
While much stigma surrounds sex in older age—particularly from younger people—older women in Australia are finding new ways of re-partnering through Internet dating. However, older women are five times more likely to agree to sex without a condom with a new partner than younger women. As a result, they are the fastest growing group to contract Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs) such as chlamydia (Bateson et. al., 2011).
WCHM research shows that older women want to hear about “Great, you’re 60, start a new sex life!” rather than information about the risks and health conditions associated with older age (Carnovale, 2011). Clearly the balance needs to be right, so that women feel comfortable to explore sex at all ages and at the same time can access good quality information about issues such as the impact of menopause, the reality of STIs and how to negotiate condom use.
Forums such as Sex, health and your life contribute to this aim.
WWDACT wins award and makes a song and dance about it
On Saturday March 17 Women With Disabilities ACT (WWDACT) made ACT history when friends and supporters of the organisation gathered to perform the Strong Women, Strong Voices FlashMob!
Never heard of a flash mob? A flash mob is a group of people who assemble suddenly in a public place, perform a musical act—usually song or dance—for a brief time, and then disperse. For apparently no good reason.
But the WWDACT “spontaneous dance event”—in the words of organiser Nicole O’Callaghan—happened for a very good reason. It was created to highlight the positive contributions that all women make to our diverse community and to make the statement that the ACT needs to remain a safe and secure city for everyone. The Strong Women, Strong Voices FlashMob was part of the ACT Women’s Services Network’s Summer of Respect, an anti-sexual violence and respectful relationships campaign.
Check out the WWDACT FlashMob on Facebook!
In recognition of their continuing achievements in advocating on the needs of women with disabilities, WWDACT were awarded the ACT International Women’s Day Award in the Community Category.
Congratulations WWDACT. And thank you for the wonderful work you do.
Summer of Respect will be back for Summer 2012-13!
WCHM is proud to announce that the ACT Office for Women has awarded a grant to the ACT Women's Services Network to run and expand the Summer of Respect campaign for Summer 2012-13. Summer of Respect 2012-13 will seek to change community values in the ACT by improving community awareness of sexual assault and violence against women. The campaign will build on the lessons learned from the initial approach trialled in the ACT over the last few months and will focus on information provision, public events and community awareness initiatives.
Previous experiences of the Women’s Services Network in the ACT have shown there is a real need for effective community-driven anti-sexual violence campaigning and education strategies, and forums to discuss ways to foster respectful relationships. In a forum in August 2011, hosted by the ACT Women’s Services Network and the ANU Women's Collective about the future of anti-sexual violence campaigning in the ACT, a strong community feeling emerged that isolated anti-sexual violence events (for example, White Ribbon Day, Reclaim the Night, or SlutWalk) cannot achieve an effective and sustained whole-of-community conversation about sexual violence. Summer of Respect will address the need for a prolonged and multi-faceted anti-sexual violence campaign in the ACT community.
Respect is about listening, understanding, communicating, and valuing difference. Respectful relationships support individuals, strengthen communities, and help to keep women, children, and men safe from violence and abuse. In a world where everyone practices respectful relationships, there is no place for sexual violence. To this end, Summer of Respect is a strategy to promote respectful relationships in the ACT community.
ACT Women And Prisons (WAP) Group awarded ACT Women's Grant
The ACT Women And Prisons (WAP) Group have been awarded a grant by the ACT Office for Women to develop and deliver pilot information sessions to ACT Government agencies and community service providers about the health and wellbeing needs of women with lived experience of prison.
While women are still a minority amongst inmates, they can have very complex needs and struggle against extreme disadvantage. It is important that policy makers and service deliverers are made aware of the issues facing this group so that they can develop policies and design services that are sensitive to and directly address their needs.In the ACT, WAP has been using the unique expertise of its members to act as voice for women in prison and women with lived experience of prison through its advocacy and advisory work – for example, in Government submissions, through community consultation processes, by sitting on advisory networks and groups, and so forth. However, there is currently no detailed, generalised training package or information session about the needs of women in prison suitable for policymakers and service providers, which is also informed by the lived experience of women who have themselves been in prison. This project will fill that gap.
In addition, this project will seek to build the capacity of women with lived experience of prison from WAP to deliver awareness training to service providers and policymakers about the service and support needs of incarcerated women. WAP members with lived experience of prison have lived with the same levels of disadvantage that face other women involved in the criminal justice system. As such, this project will provide opportunities for its members with lived experience to develop their skills, confidence, and knowledge.
Breast Implant Information Line
The Department of Health and Ageing and the Therapeutic Goods Association have established a Breast Implant Information Line (1800 217 257) on Saturday 7th Jan 2011. This has been in response to concerns over implants from France. Callers can speak to a registered nurse who provide advice based on a fact sheet prepared by the Australian Chief Medical Officer and the TGA. The TGA has also set up a health alert on their web page with information for the public.
Women who have had breast implants and are concerned are advised to ring the Breast Implant Information Line on 1800 217 257 or contact their surgeon directly for clinical advice.
Recent Submissions
The Women’s Centre for Health Matters regularly prepares submissions in response to developments in women’s health and wellbeing. We welcome any views and opinions you think should be included in our submissions. Just email your input to us at admin@wchm.org.au.
Our recent submissions include:
WCHM Response to ACT Greens Public Advocate Ammendment Bill, February 2012
WCHM Response to ACT Greens Public Advocate Bill (696 KB)
WCHM Response to ACT Greens Public Advocate Bill (1786 KB)
WCHM Submission to 10 Year Roadmap for National Mental Health Reform, January 2012
WCHM Submission to 10 Year Roadmap for National Mental Health Reform (329 KB)
WCHM Submission to 10 Year Roadmap for National Mental Health Reform (2735 KB)
WCHM Submission to the Provison of Social Housing in the ACT, November 2011
WCHM Submission to the Provision of Social Housing in the ACT (741 KB)
WCHM Submission to the Provision of Social Housing in the ACT (2538 KB)
WCHM Submission to antisocial behaviour response and support in Housing ACT, November 2011
WCHM Submission to antisocial behaviour response and support in Housing ACT (275 KB)
WCHM Submission to antisocial behaviour response and support in Housing ACT (2645 KB)
WCHM Submission to AMHIU MOC, November 2011
WCHM Submission to AMHIU MOC (266 KB)
WCHM Submission to AMHIU MOC (2657 KB)
Submission to Transport for Canberra 2011-2031, November 2011
WCHM Submission to Transport for Canberra 2011-2031 (598 KB)
WCHM Submission to Transport for Canberra 2011-2031 (2524 KB)