Health Promotion

Description

Health Promotion is much more than just educating people on how to be healthy. It’s about encouraging, supporting and enabling people to do so. This is achieved through: strengthening community action, developing personal skills, creating supportive environments, and building healthy policy.

Our vision: is to work with community and partners to build the capacity of the Portland District Health catchment to be as healthy as possible, within a Social Model of Health.

Our work takes place in the ‘upstream’ end of the health and wellbeing spectrum, addressing the social determinants of health.

The Health and Wellbeing Spectrum

Our work is evidence informed and action is based on supporting the strategic direction of (but not limited to) the:

Our Priority Areas (2025-29)

  • Healthy Food Systems
  • Social and Emotional Wellbeing
  • Cancer Screening

How can our Health Promotion Practitioners help you?

 Some examples include but are not limited to:

  • Support you to create healthy change in your “setting” eg school, workplace, or sports club
  • Provide you with up-to-date resources and information
  • Assist you to develop/review policies

If you would like to know more about Health Promotion at PDH, or if you’d like support in creating health change in your setting, please contact the team at healthpromotion.pdh@swarh.vic.gov.au

Our Work:

Portland District Health – Health Promotion Plan (2025-29) and Action Plan (2025-26)

Portland District Health – Health Promotion Evaluation (2024-25)

Free Fresh Food Swap

The ‘Free Fresh food swap’ is held every Thursday morning at the Portland Library (closed public holidays). Swap and share your excess produce and help reduce food waste. Pop in between 10am and 12pm or stay for a chat and pick up some gardening tips and tricks along the way. Fruit, vegetables, herbs, seeds and seedlings, jams and chutneys, flowers, eggs, honey, and recipes are all welcome.

Glenelg Shire Food Relief Guide

The Glenelg Shire Food Relief Guide was developed by the team in consultation with local partners, in order to support community members to access food relief. This resource is updated every 12 months, or as new information becomes available.

Healthy Choices Guidelines
The Victorian Government’s Healthy Choices guidelines help make sure that healthy foods and drinks are offered and promoted in places like sports clubs, schools, and workplaces. The team can support you to implement the Healthy Choices guidelines in your setting.

Cooking with Pantry Staples
These recipes cards and videos were created to support community members accessing United Way Glenelg’s Little FREE Pantries to create quick, easy and nutritious meals from ingredients commonly found in the pantries.

Easy Eats
Following on from the ‘Cooking with Pantry Staples’ initiative, the team partnered with Western District Foodshare and South West Healthcare to develop 6 more recipes, to support those receiving emergency food relief throughout the western district.

Breastfeeding Welcome Everywhere

Did you know it is illegal in Australia to discriminate against a person either directly or indirectly on the grounds of breastfeeding? Under the Sex Discrimination Act 1984 protects a woman’s right to breastfeed recognising breastfeeding as a right, not a privilege.

The Australian Breastfeeding Association have created a program in support of this right called ‘Breastfeeding is Welcome Everywhere’ (BWE). You can register your business or club here.

Keep an eye out for the local ‘BWE’ stickers!

Smoothie Bike
Portland District Health has a Smoothie Bike available to be borrowed by community groups for events and fundraisers. If you would like to borrow the smoothie bike, please complete the request form/user agreement below and send through the team at healthpromotion.pdh@swarh.vic.gov.au

Cancer Screening Information Sessions
Looking for a guest speaker? The team can deliver a free 25-minute interactive presentation on screening for bowel, breast, cervical, lung, skin, and prostate cancers. The presentation covers eligibility, how to access, and recent changes to age limits. If your organisation, workplace, club or community group is interested in hosting a presentation, please contact us at healthpromotion.pdh@swarh.vic.gov.au

Disability Cancer Screening

Women and people with a cervix with a disability are less likely to participate in cancer screening. Kyeema Support Service and the Team have joined forces to help break down barriers in regard to the importance of cervical screening.

The team also support Breast screen pathways for women with a disability.

Live4Life Glenelg
PDH is a proud partner of Live4Life Glenelg, is the only mental health education and youth suicide prevention model explicitly designed for rural and regional communities.

Live4Life Glenelg delivers accredited Teen and Youth Mental Health First Aid training in schools and the Glenelg community, creating local partnerships to lead conversations about mental health that reduce stigma and promote young leaders as mental health ambassadors.

You can make a tax-deductible donation to Live4Life Glenelg here.

Find upcoming local Youth Mental Health First Aid Courses here.

For a list of youth help and support resources in Glenelg click here.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

SafeTALK Suicide Prevention
In partnership with the Rotary Mental Health and Suicide Prevention Committee, the Team supports the delivery of Livingworks SafeTALK Suicide Alertness Training. This four-hour training, delivered by local instructors aims to increase the confidence of participants to support others with thoughts of suicide and help connect them with supports and resources to keep them safer. By using local facilitators, these workshops are offered at a reduced price, removing cost as a potential barrier to accessing these important learnings.

Current number of community members trained throughout the Glenelg Shire = 117 (March 2026)

For a list of adult mental health and wellbeing services in Glenelg click here.

Click here to watch the Rotary Mental Health and Suicide Prevention Committee’s Shark Pitch video for this project.

Glenelg Local Drug Action Team

Portland District Health are the lead agency for The Glenelg Local Drug Action Team Program which works to develop the capacity of Glenelg to deliver evidence-informed activities that prevent and minimise alcohol and other drug-related harm at a local level.

Health Promotion Community Newsletter
The Team sends out their ‘PDH Health Promotion Community Newsletter’ every 2 months. This includes updates on what the team is up to, as well as what is going on in the community.

If you’d like to receive our newsletter, subscribe here.

Past editions:

 

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