Tell Your Story Project – Women’s Health Grampians

Health promotion action 5 is about improving health service provision, reach and accessibility. This project draws on community experience to identify what is needed to improve sexual and reproductive healthcare in the Grampians region.  

Prior to this project, Women’s Health Grampians undertook research and evaluation focused on improving local access to contraception and abortion for rural and regional women. The Tell Your Story project builds on the recommendations of this research, aiming to understand how any shortfall of local services might impact on women and girls living in the Grampians region.  

This area of work also aligns with the Victorian Government’s Women’s Sexual and Reproductive Health Plan 2022–30 goal that all Victorian women, girls and gender-diverse people are supported to access high-quality, safe and respectful sexual and reproductive health services that are free from stigma, racism and discrimination. 

The target audience for the project is women, girls and gender-diverse people capable of potentially becoming pregnant, aged 18–45 years, living in one of the 11 Local Government Areas (LGAs) within the Grampians catchment. 

WHG have conducted five in-depth interviews and received 110 survey responses. High engagement with this project has contributed perspectives from a broad range of demographics and all LGAs. These stories provide a clear picture of what women value when seeking reproductive healthcare, how they feel about current levels of service and the changes they would like to see. For the first time, WHG can provide a strong consumer voice to inspire change in public health planning, referral pathways, workforce support and development. 

Read the report here: https://whg.org.au/wp- content/uploads/2024/06/Tell-Your-Story- Report.pdf