whw news
&
MENTAL
wellbeing SOCIAL connectedness
Edition 2 • 2011
edition
Flanked by police officers and the pillars of parliament WHW CEO and staff stand up (in a neatly symmetrical and pleasingly colourful way) for women’s equity and justice at the equal pay rally on 8 June 2011, read more on page 10
inside: PhotO Veronica Garcia
A word from the ceo
W
elcome to the second edition of WHW News for 2011. This edition focuses on our priority area of mental wellbeing and social connectedness, with an emphasis on health and social connections, rather than ill health. Local woman in the region, Wendy, emphasises the importance of social connections to mental health when she shares her insights with us on page 5. And on page 8, health promotion worker Elly Taylor points out that our health system continues to emphasise treatment of disease in funding, health policy and practice, with a clear need to reorient the health system to focus equally on the prevention of ill health before it occurs. For too long we have patched people up in hospital, only to send them home to the circumstances that made them sick in the first place, like family violence, poverty and isolation. One of the most important methods for achieving health and wellbeing is through support for decent wages and conditions, and WHW workers have been out in force to promote the ASU pay equity campaign since Fair Work Australia endorsed the reality that work in the social and community services sector is undervalued and underpaid, that this relates to gender, and that we are entitled to be paid more. As Elizabeth Broderick, Sex Discrimination Commissioner, stated in May: The tendency to dismiss the type of work performed by the SACS sector as ‘women’s
Dr Robyn Gregory work’, and remunerate it as such, is a large part of the problem. And this has a huge flow-on effect. Fair remuneration in the community sector is vital, not just for our progress towards equality today but to ensure that those men and women who do this critical work, the most difficult and the most compassionate work in our society, do not live in poverty in their twilight years.
Our work at WHW makes it fundamentally clear that pay equity is vital not only for workers in this sector, it is vital for all women if we are to change the social and economic conditions that cause and maintain gender disparities. In short, pay equity is a key tool for the prevention of problems such as violence against women, and the death, disability, chronic disease and poor mental health outcomes that result from this. You can find out more information, including ways for you to support this case, on pages 10-11, where you will also find a series of colourful photographs taken at the pay equity rally in June. Over the last couple of months, WHW has coordinated a series of submissions with partner agencies to government inquiries into vulnerable children, health and human rights. Our joint submission on human rights is focused on the belief that a community in which the basic principles of freedom, respect, equality and dignity are culturally embedded, is a community in which all members are able to participate without fear of discrimination, violence or other forms
Continued p.2
women’s health west – equity and justice for women in the west
Equal Pay case gathers momentum p.10 Federal government commits to fair support of community sector wage rise following national day of action
Vulnerable children need more support p.7
WHW advocates for specialised services for children who experience family violence
Financial literacy p.16 Financial counselling program simplifies Aussie system and newly-arrived women reap multiple health benefits!