The National Action Plan for the Health and Wellbeing of LGBTIQA+ People 2025–2035 represents a landmark step toward achieving equity in health outcomes through sustained, preventive action. For the first time, the Australian Government has endorsed a national, 10-year roadmap that explicitly recognises the health needs of LGBTIQA+ populations as integral to public health. Its vision – to ensure that all LGBTIQA+ people can live healthy, safe and fulfilling lives – positions preventive health strategies as a national priority.

The Action Plan establishes a long-term framework for sustainable prevention through five interconnected action areas: leadership and culture, prevention and health literacy, accessible and inclusive care, workforce capability, and research and data. Together, these pillars strengthen the systems that enable early intervention, promote health literacy, and reduce preventable disease through inclusive and evidence-informed policy.

Sustaining prevention for LGBTIQA+ populations means embedding inclusion across all domains of public health, ensuring equitable access to screening, mental health promotion and chronic disease prevention programs. It requires health promotion campaigns that address modifiable risk factors, while recognising the social determinants that contribute to poorer health outcomes among LGBTIQA+ people. The Plan highlights the importance of coordinated implementation across governments, services and research sectors, with strengthened monitoring and evaluation to measure outcomes and ensure accountability.

By integrating prevention into the design of Australia’s health systems through leadership, evidence and inclusive practice, the National Action Plan for the Health and Wellbeing of LGBTIQA+ People 2025–2035 provides a model for sustainable, system-wide reform. It demonstrates how embedding equity within preventive health can achieve lasting improvements in population health and ensure that no one is left behind.

Problem: Community sporting environments have significant influence on the food choices and health behaviours of the wider community. Traditionally, food sold at community sporting kiosks and canteens has been high in fat, sugar and salt, offering little nutritional value. This contributes to the overconsumption of discretionary foods and sugary drinks, often displacing healthier options from the five food groups.

What you did: This trend has shifted through a partnership between Healthway, Netball WA and Fuel to Go & Play®. A collaborative, settings-based approach has transformed Netball WA’s headquarters into a vibrant health promoting space with a diverse menu of nourishing food and drink options that support the health and wellbeing of the netball community.
Key implementation strategies:
• Innovative nutritious food idea for facilities with limited capacity for preparation and
cooking
• Repositioning confectionary to reduce visibility
• Reviewing existing suppliers’ products to include healthier alternatives
• Placing healthier items in prominent positions within fridges and on countertops
• Promoting nutritious menu options on menu boards
• Rebranding the kiosk façade with Fuel to Go and Play® signage.

Results: Over the seven-year partnership, these small but meaningful changes have built momentum – celebrating successes, learning from challenges and achieving meaningful
change. Initially, just 19% of the menu offered healthy food and drinks. The current version sits at 45%. The collaboration culminated in Netball WA developing a Healthy Food and Drink Policy, embedding nutrition principles into standard practice and ensuring sustainability.

Lessons: This fresh approach demonstrates how strategic partnerships, incremental change and evidence-based strategies can successfully reshape food environments. The model provides a practical blueprint for other sporting organisations seeking to create supportive, healthy food environments that not only fuel players for sporting performance but foster a lasting culture of health and wellbeing across the entire sporting community.

Title
Barriers and facilitators to sustaining chronic disease prevention health promotion in Australia

Authors
Dr Louise Baldwin, Prevention Strategy Branch, Queensland Health

Background
Sustaining effective health promotion and chronic disease prevention remains a persistent challenge in Australia. While many initiatives are developed and implemented with strong initial support, fewer are maintained long term or taken to scale. This presentation addresses the gap in understanding the factors that influence the sustainability of health‐promotion programs within the Australian context and applies these learnings to real world health promotion practice.

Methods
This practice and policy based work is informed from the findings from several studies including a Delphi study with cross sector and system wide stakeholders involved in health promotion program design, implementation and sustainability across Australian jurisdictions. In that study, participants included practitioners, managers, funders and community partners engaged in chronic disease prevention initiatives. Data were analysed thematically to identify barriers and facilitators to program sustainability. This, and other studies are being used to inform real world health promotion practice.

Results
Key facilitators for sustaining health promotion practice with a chronic disease prevention focus include strong multi‐sector partnerships, embedding programs within existing service structures, staff capacity and champions, ongoing funding mechanisms and adaptive program design that responds to changing contexts. Major barriers include short‐term funding cycles, organisational turnover, lack of institutionalisation of programs, insufficient evaluation and feedback loop and competing priorities within partnering organisations. The findings emphasise the importance of systems thinking and infrastructure for sustaining health promotion efforts beyond initial implementation.

Conclusions
For health promotion programs to be sustained and to contribute meaningfully to chronic disease prevention, strategies must move beyond ‘once‐off’ implementation to consider long‐term integration, resource stability, institutional support and adaptive design. These findings have implications for policy, practice and research: funders and program managers should prioritise sustainability from the outset; health promotion organisations may benefit from building structural supports and systems capacity; researchers should further explore how sustainability can be operationalised and measured.

As Tasmania’s leading not-for-profit health and wellness organisation, we recognise that a sustainable health ecosystem must be grounded in prevention. In response to Tasmania’s increasing burden of chronic disease, an ageing population, and escalating healthcare costs, we have articulated an ambitious vision to make Tasmania the healthiest island on the planet by 2050. Achieving this requires a systemic shift toward embedding prevention within long-term investment, planning, and community engagement frameworks.

Our model advances a place-based approach centred on the establishment of regional Wellness Hubs designed to promote health through three evidence-based pillars: movement, nutrition, and social connection. These hubs serve as accessible community platforms that foster collaboration, enhance health literacy, and facilitate sustained behaviour change. They also function as incubators for innovative local initiatives, providing a conduit between community organisations, health professionals, and residents.

Each hub has been co-designed through structured community consultation to ensure local relevance, optimise participation, and align services with identified needs. Since the launch of the Hobart (2023) and Launceston (2024) hubs, more than 31,000 Tasmanians have engaged in diverse health and wellness activities facilitated by a network of over 300 community partners—constituting one of the most extensive coordinated community health programs in Tasmania.

Building on these outcomes, a third hub is scheduled to open in Devonport in 2027 in partnership with the Devonport City Council to accelerate its Living Well Strategy. Future directions include the development of virtual wellness hubs to extend reach to rural and remote populations. Collectively, these initiatives represent a scalable model of prevention-focused community health engagement with the potential to inform broader population health strategies and contribute to long-term health system sustainability.

Introduction: Government and economic institutions create and perpetuate economic norms to the detriment of planetary health equity. The wellbeing economy reimagines the purpose of the economy, and in doing so seeks to move from the focus on growth, development, and capital accumulation, to an economy that prioritises human flourishing on a safe planet. Building empirical understandings of institutional dynamics that may inform the development of a wellbeing economy can provide valuable academic and practical insights on effective governance strategies for planetary health equity needs.

Methods:
1. Policy analysis: Examination of seminal attempts to develop alternative economic frameworks in Commonwealth Treasury.
2. Semi-structured interviews: Collection of qualitative data from current and former public officials, departmental ministers and their staff in Treasury, Prime Minister and Cabinet, Health and Aged Care, Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water, Finance, the Productivity Commission and the Australian Bureau of Statistics. Collection of qualitative data via interviews with government representatives from all Wellbeing Economy Governments, academics and civil society.
3. Theory testing: Creating an institutional profile of Commonwealth Treasury to understand how a wellbeing economy would be developed and implemented.

Results: Interim results reveal -
1. There have been three examples of the development of wellbeing frameworks by Commonwealth Treasury and its agencies. Each have adopted a different model and have had different kinds of influence.
2. Commonwealth Treasury relies upon a number of forms of authority – material, relational and ideational - in order to execute its responsibilities as Australia’s chief economic advisor.

Conclusion:
Results analysis is ongoing. Initial results reveal the wellbeing economy has the potential to significantly improve climate, health and equity outcomes. The institution responsible for its development and implementation will influence how impactful it might be. This research reveals the nature of the impact of Commonwealth Treasury on the wellbeing economy.

Problem
South West Hospital and Health Service (SWHHS) delivers care to some of Queensland’s most geographically dispersed communities, with a higher proportion of First Nations peoples, rising chronic disease rates, and health inequity due to a variety of social determinants of health, compared to other regions of Queensland (State of Queensland, 2024). In response, SWHHS co-designed the Preventative Health Service (PHS) Framework to reorient health service delivery toward locally led and sustainable prevention.

What we did: Implemented a sustainable and culturally responsive, model that embeds prevention as a core function responding to expressed community need. The framework is grounded in four strategic pillars:
1. A capable, connected, place-based workforce
2. Compassionate and connected communities
3. Health equity and cultural safety
4. Prevention across all levels of care

The PHS Framework was co-designed through health needs assessment, state and national policy alignment (e.g. National Preventive Health Strategy, National Wellbeing Framework), and deep community engagement. A community-based participatory action research approach, will guide implementation, supported by Knowledge-to-Action cycle (Graham et al., 2006), and i-PARIHS frameworks (Harvey & Kitson, 2016). Realignment and reallocation of existing SWHHS, allied health and health promotion workforce, alongside external partnerships, has enabled delivery of localised screening, navigation, health coaching, and wellbeing initiatives and programs. The evaluation framework will iteratively measure system impact, outcomes and value, to inform scaling.

Outcomes and Lessons: Early impacts include strengthening governance, prevention as a priority, increased community reach and improved integration between hospital, primary care, and community services. Workforce realignment has improved rural capability and access. Evaluation design reinforces the need for long-range prevention-specific key performance indicators and culturally safe outcome measures.

Conclusions: SWHHS is demonstrating how rural health services can lead prevention reform by embedding place-based, workforce-enabled, community-informed frameworks that contribute to sustainable, upstream and integrated care reform.

References
Graham, I. D., Logan, J., Harrison, M. B., Straus, S. E., Tetroe, J., Caswell, W., & Robinson, N. (2006). Lost in knowledge translation: Time for a map? Journal of Continuing Education in the Health Professions, 26(1), 13–24.
Harvey, G., & Kitson, A. (2016). PARIHS revisited: From heuristic to integrated framework for the successful implementation of knowledge into practice. Implementation Science, 11(1), 33.
National Preventive Health Strategy 2021–2030. (2021). Department of Health and Aged Care (Commonwealth of Australia). https://www.health.gov.au/resources/publications/national-preventive-health-strategy-2021-2030
Measuring What Matters Framework (Australia’s first National Wellbeing Framework). (2023). The Treasury, Commonwealth of Australia. https://www.treasury.gov.au/policy topics
State of Queensland (South West Hospital and Health Service) Health and Service Needs Assessment: Summary of Identified Needs (2024). SWHHS Health and Service Needs Assessment - Summary of identified needs (November 2024)

Problem
Small grants provide accessible entry points for local health promotion initiatives, supporting innovation and community engagement across Western Australia. However, limited resourcing, high volunteer turnover and application and acquittal processes can limit sustainability and depth of impact. Evidence shows that sustained outcomes in health promotion depend on funding models that are proportionate, embedded in systems and supported by ongoing capacity and partnerships (Bodkin & Hakimi, 2020; Scheirer & Dearing, 2011).

What we did
Healthway reviewed data from three years of small grant investments to assess program reach, value for money and sustainability. The review analysed more than 290 grants across three funding streams and included quantitative indicators, staff assessments and qualitative insights from funded organisations.

What we found
Small grants deliver strong reach and participation relative to their size, particularly among priority groups. Projects that embedded health promotion strategies into existing systems (such as school curricula or club operations) or demonstrated community leadership and strong partnerships achieved the highest value for money and contractual performance. Isolated or one-off activities offered less strategic value and aligned with Healthway’s decision to phase out funding for stand-alone events.

Feedback from organisations and Healthway staff highlighted that application and acquittal processes can be complex relative to grant size, especially for volunteer-run groups, contributing to lower uptake of grants and lack of acquittal information.

Lessons
A sustainable small grants funding model balances flexibility and accessibility with integration of long-term capacity. Recommendations to strengthen the approach include raising the small grant cap to support depth and regional reach, simplifying processes, embedding sustainability into assessment criteria and refining models for settings-based grants through partnerships with state bodies and local governments.

Key takeaway
Well-designed grants sustain prevention by keeping action local, practical and continuous. Investing in accessible, capacity-building models helps communities embed healthy practices long after funding ends.

References
Bodkin, A., Hakimi, S. Sustainable by design: a systematic review of factors for health promotion program sustainability. BMC Public Health 20, 964 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-020-09091-9
Scheirer, M. A., & Dearing, J. W. (2011). An agenda for research on the sustainability of public health programs. American Journal of Public Health, 101(11), 2059–2067. https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2011.300193

The foundations for lifelong health are established in early childhood, yet the visibility of children and families within Queensland’s prevention system has historically been limited. In 2025, a Business Case for Change within the Department of Health created a catalyst to reposition this focus, aligning children and families within the existing Prevention Strategy Branch pregnancy program and strengthening a whole-of-life approach to prevention.

Rebuilding prevention for children and families requires learning what it takes to move from the margins to a sustained system priority. Using change management and communication design principles, the program has built momentum and shared purpose across sectors through visual storytelling, consistent language, and practical tools that generate buy-in and shared accountability. This approach builds on existing system strengths such as Queensland’s universal child health and kindy platforms, established interagency partnerships and a growing cross-sector commitment to early years wellbeing. While progress is being made, we continue to learn and adapt as we work to embed children and families more firmly within Queensland’s prevention agenda.

Although prevention funding remains largely program-based, emerging system levers are driving more collective and enduring investment. National and state initiatives including the Thriving Kids initiative, Medicare reforms, Healthy Kindy Kids and Putting Queensland Kids First are being harnessed to create alignment between policy, funding and outcomes, positioning early life prevention as a unifying driver for sustainable population health improvement.

This presentation explores the key enablers, lessons and opportunities emerging from this reform process, offering practical insights into how system alignment, design thinking and strategic communication can strengthen prevention investment. Together, these efforts demonstrate how rebuilding prevention around children and families can anchor long-term sustainability and renew a collective purpose across parallel systems.

Introduction
Unnecessary emergency department (ED) visits for non-urgent concerns strain healthcare systems, reducing capacity for critical care and increasing wait times. To support a more sustainable system, the NSW Government’s Single Front Door strategy aims to divert non-urgent cases to more appropriate care pathways. A key component is healthdirect, a free 24/7 helpline connecting people with registered nurses who provide personalised health advice and triage support. The Healthcare Anywhere campaign, led by NSW Health, aimed to build awareness and trust in the service and encourage behaviour change, prompting people to consider healthdirect before visiting an ED. It promoted healthdirect’s technology-enabled platform, which uses a triage algorithm to personalise a preventative approach, guiding users to appropriate care early and aiming to reduce ED demand.

Methods
A serial cross-sectional study design was used to evaluate the effectiveness of the 2025 winter campaign burst (channels: radio, social, SEM and print). Pre- and post-campaign surveys were conducted online, with independent and representative samples of over 2,000 NSW residents. Secondary analyses of call data and that of surveys of healthdirect callers were also conducted.

Results
Campaign recognition was associated with greater awareness and trust in the service, as well as increased comfort in using telephone services for health advice.
In support of a behaviour change effect, calls to healthdirect increased from pre-campaign (66,940) to post-campaign (68,079) and intent to call healthdirect for non-urgent health concerns was greater among campaign recognisers than non-recognisers. Post-campaign, a greater proportion of healthdirect callers agreed that if it had not been for healthdirect, they would have gone to ED (60%), than that of pre-campaign callers (56%).

Conclusion
The Healthcare Anywhere campaign was effective in encouraging uptake of healthdirect, a vital service that enhances the capacity and future readiness of the NSW health system.

Introduction
Chronic disease prevention is a complex challenge that spans policy, practice, and research, involving multiple sectors and systems. To navigate this, Australia’s prevention workforce needs strong systems thinking capability to understand interconnections, anticipate feedback, and design actions with sustainable impact.
Methods
As part of a national initiative to strengthen systems thinking capability, The Australian Prevention Partnership Centre convened a 90-minute participatory workshop at the PHAA Preventive Health Conference 2025 in Canberra. The aim was to capture critical elements for a systems thinking capability-building strategy for the Australian prevention workforce.
Fifty participants including Australian policy makers, practitioners and researchers from government, non-government and academic organisations applied systems thinking to the complex problem of strategy development for capability building. Small groups created causal loop diagrams illustrating factors important for building systems thinking capability. These were combined into a single digital map using STICKE software and participants identified potential leverage points for future actions.
Results
Six themes were identified to support capability building: workforce training, strategic partnerships, leadership support, advocacy and narrative, data and learning and system resources. Key leverage points for action included advocates and champions, supportive leadership, sustained funding, and contextual learning opportunities. The national strategy will focus on building foundational knowledge through contextual training, case studies, communities of practice and stories from advocates. It will also embed systems thinking in organisations through partnerships and professional development and enabling sector wide leadership and collaboration. The strategy will be implemented in phases with evaluation of the outcomes and system-level changes.
Conclusion
Systems thinking capability is an emergent property of the prevention system, strengthened through aligned, iterative, and collective efforts. The insights generated are informing a broader national strategy to enhance systems thinking capabilities across Australia’s chronic disease prevention workforce.The Prevention Centre will continue to champion systems approaches to support a healthier more equitable future for Australians.