It’s all smiles at Gippsland Lakes Community Health right now, having been announced as a finalist in two significant health care awards programs.

The Premier’s Health Service of the Year Awards is Victoria’s most prestigious accolade to which a health service can aspire. This Award recognises premium leadership and excellence in the provision of publicly-funded healthcare for the Victorian community.

Within these awards, GLCH – as an organisation – has been announced as a finalist in the ‘Primary Health Service Of The Year’ category, while a joint project between GLCH and Lakes Entrance Aboriginal Health Association (LEAHA), called ‘Djinbung – To Breathe: a picture is worth a thousand words’ has been shortlisted as a finalist in the ‘Improving Aboriginal health’ award category.

This collaborative partnership has also been acknowledged as a finalist in two categories within the Gippsland Primary Health Awards, which recognises and honours individuals and teams who work together to improve health across our region. This project involved a partnership between LEAHA’s Tackling Indigenous Smoking Team Gippsland (TIS) and GLCH’s Health Promotions team, who actively addressed smoking prevention in primary school aged children, with the aim to prevent Aboriginal children from taking up smoking.

GLCH’s Chief Executive Officer, Sue Medson OAM, says, “It’s really exciting to have our team’s hard work acknowledged at this level. To have submitted four applications and been shortlisted as finalists in all four instances is a fantastic result, and a true reflection of the passion within the people at GLCH.”