HEPReady
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HEPReady workshop in Geelong highlights the need for more learning
“If the only outcome is from participants realising ‘I can make a difference here’ then we have had a win…” Martin Forrest
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n a rather bright, but tepid day in the early bloom of summer, Hepatitis Victoria held a HEPReady® workshop in the historic port-side city of Geelong. 25 strangers were on a quest to seek knowledge and glimpse the holy grail, which rumour had it was in the old docklands quarter, tucked away in a expanse of grassland.
who have taken the time and often travelled a considerable distance to attend… it’s motivational.” Dr Amanda Wade, a liver specialist from Barwon Health presented and two HEP Speakers, Pam Wood and Mei Quy, gave moving talks about their experiences living with hepatitis C and hepatitis B, respectively. “One of the challenges with these events is that there is a huge diversity of people in the audience and their level of knowledge is likewise very disparate, so to pitch training at a meaningful level has been a bit of guess work,” said Martin.
The participants attending came from a diverse range of backgrounds and the number and quality of the attendees combined with the learnings gleaned made the event a notable success.
A recent event evaluation project with researchers from La Trobe University has provided help with the best questions to ask and has already yielded some useful insights.
“I am always surprised by the audience at our HEPReady® workshops,” said Health Promotion Program Manager, Martin Forrest. “You get people from all different walks of life, people working with at-risk communities,
“At the start of the event we go around the room to ask attendees where they are from and why they have come, but what’s important for us is to look at what the attendees knew before and what they know
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after. That way we can tell it is clear their investment in time and attention has paid off.” Martin said that suggestions from La Trobe meant Hepatitis Victoria is now in a better position to capture the ‘before and after’ learnings, but for attendees there is more to gain than just knowledge about viral hepatitis. “Apart from the learning outcomes the value is the networking opportunity as people come away from the workshops able to develop a local response and knowing where to refer people,” he said. “We are hosting 8 of these events in total as part of HEPReady® Regional campaign, and each one is better than the last because of the experience we are getting from it, and assistance from La Trobe University.” The event in Victoria’s second biggest city was timely as Geelong has one of the highest rates of hepatitis C in Western Victoria and worryingly high rates of hepatitis B, combined with low rates of treatment uptake and care.