Contents
- Issue 46 December 09
- Money Well Spent
- Cannabis
- The Woolshed and After
- Peer Education
- HBVaccine
- Great Liver Food
- A Strategy for Hepatitis B
- Sharing Ideas in Beautiful Hobart
- Mascot Madness
- Vending Machine Trial
- Open Your Mind
- Love Your Liver Lunch
- eBox Update
A Strategy for Hepatitis B
Right now, a number of national strategies relevant to those living with hepatitis C in Australia are being developed. The strategy development process is being overseen by the Ministerial Advisory Committee on Blood Borne Viruses and Sexually Transmitted Infections, which is chaired by Professor Michael Kidd AM. Among the five strategies being produced are those for hepatitis C, hepatitis B, and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander sexual health and blood-borne viruses.
The strategy for hepatitis B is significant because there has never been a national hepatitis B strategy before. The hepatitis C strategy, which already exists, is being redeveloped for the period 2009-2013.
Each of the national strategies is based on a fundamental commitment to partnership between the government, non-government, community, research and medical sectors. The partnership provides a basis for nonpartisan political support and building community understanding of the often controversial measures necessary to reduce sexually transmissible infections and blood-borne viruses.
Partnership requires a spirit of engagement and a capacity among all partners to act as valued experts within their respective domains. Partnerships take time to develop and mature, and are fostered where there is continuity and a depth of corporate knowledge among partners. Partnership is based on a commitment to consultation and joint decision-making.
Australia’s responses to date have been characterised by this partnership approach, and commitment to the importance of an enabling environment and the principles of harm reduction.
The recent review of the 2005-2008 strategies found that commitment and leadership had diminished over time. The review has called for a reinvigoration of the strategic approach and reinvestment in these principles. The review found that national strategies were essential and indicated that the partnership approach was valuable but needed reinvigoration and renewal. It found that high-level strategies needed to be endorsed by state, territory and federal governments and implementation plans put into place, with a strengthened focus on performance and accountability.
The process required an intensive effort in a very short period of time to enable the drafts of the First National Hepatitis B Strategy and Third National Hepatitis C Strategy to be delivered to the Department of Health and Ageing on schedule in mid-October.
The suite of five strategies will now go through a formal approval process. It is anticipated that this will culminate in each strategy being signed off by all of the federal, state and territory health ministers. This is seen as an essential step in the process of achieving a stronger commitment to implementation of the strategies at all levels of government.
It is hoped that the strategies will be released in early 2010. We will bring you more news with each issue of the Hepatitis C Community News.
