Partners in Health December 2020

Our Year in Review for 2019/20

Our Year in Review brings together highlights from the past 12 months of improving health outcomes for our communities.

Brisbane NorthPHN’s digital review includes a summary of what has been achieved in 2019/20 and includes videos, photo galleries and data about our programs delivered in collaboration with our community partners.

This year, the PHN delivered practice support, commissioned a range of community services and welcomed many new areas of work—all while adapting to an unprecedented healthcare frontier dominated by COVID-19.

New headspace Strathpine centre opens according to plan

Opening ahead of schedule, headspace Strathpine is now providing free or low-cost Medicare services to young people in Strathpine and the surrounding region.

The Australian Government-funded service is a holistic mental health service for young people aged 12-25, and provides mental health, physical health (including sexual health), alcohol and other drugs or work and study support.

Strathpine local Jesse Cotter was thrilled to hear the service had opened. She had participated in the initial community consultation and tender selection panel, and is now on the headspace Strathpine Youth Reference Group.

“It was amazing to be a part of the process of seeing a headspace go from paper to reality. It will be great to have a locally relevant youth mental health services that can tackle the presenting issues in our community,” Ms Cotter said.

AGM elects first Indigenous Board Director

Mununjahli Yugambeh woman Jody Currie has become the first Indigenous Australian elected to the Brisbane North PHN Board of Directors, following the organisation’s Annual General Meeting (AGM) held on Wednesday, 11 November 2020.

Ms Currie is the Chief Executive Officer of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Community Health Service (ATSICHS) Brisbane. She has held various senior executive roles in areas of early childhood education, and health and human service delivery, and is an advocate for improving service accessibility to vulnerable communities.

Joint protocol renewed

Following a three-year term, the PHN’s joint protocol with Children’s Health Queensland was recently reviewed and a new joint protocol has been formalised, which will determine the next few years working together.

Brisbane North PHN and Children's Health Queensland (CHQ) are committed to a joint and coordinated approach to the development of strategic and operational plans that are grounded in a common understanding of the health needs of children and young people within the Brisbane North community.

Both organisations, in all of their previous forms, have a long history of working together and achieving improved healthcare outcomes for our communities.