Community conversation on the future helps celebrate the past
SRH 20th Anniversary Community Conversation Dinner in Bendigo
To celebrate the School of Rural Health’s 20th Anniversary, Bendigo Regional Clinical School held its Community Conversation over dinner late in November.
The evening had been anticipated with great excitement by many of the staff, particularly amongst some of the female staff who were happy to have any excuse to buy a new outfit to celebrate the 20 year anniversary!
Invitees included Chief Executive Officers and their service staff from 10 partner organisations around the greater Bendigo area. CEOs were invited to submit a local health related issue that affects their organisation and participants were then able to discuss the issue over dinner. The results of the many and varied conversations are to be collated and distributed early in 2013.
Robust discussions were held around topics including how behaviour could be influenced to reduce obesity in Bendigo, pressure on community placements for health trainees in regional and rural general practice, working toward a community prevention model to reduce the rate of risky alcohol consumption among Greater Bendigo residents and other interesting issues that the group embraced with enthusiasm.
While we are not convinced we managed to solve all the problems that face our community, hopefully this group of respected people has come up with some amazing suggestions for how to address some of these topics.
The evening was held in the Conservatory at the All Seasons Resort in Bendigo. This venue, more familiar with holding weddings on the weekend, was decorated beautifully with amazing attention to detail by our Regional Manager Kerrie Thomsen. Her organisation and flair for style ensured that the environment was perfect and Donna Cohen managed to keep our large group to time and moving around the tables seamlessly.
The evening was well received by all that attended and we hope that this may be the first of many community conversations we will hold.
Lyndsey Brown, Educational Site Manager, Bendigo