Innisfail in Qld fights chronic disease
Queensland Health has joined with Innisfail-based health groups in a partnership to help fight chronic diseases in the local community.
The Healthier Great Green Way Initiative is a partnership between the Innisfail Health Service District, the local Rural Division of General Practitioners and the local Aboriginal Medical Service.
Together, these organisations provide primary health services aimed at decreasing the incidence of chronic disease in the community. More than 1,100 people have already benefited from this service since it started in October last year.
The Qld Government is contributing $1.7 million a year towards the project.
Queensland has the highest rates of preventable deaths of any state in Australia and more than a third of Queenslanders die every year from largely preventable chronic diseases such as coronary heart disease, stroke, heart failure, some forms of cancer, Type 2 diabetes and renal disease.
The Qld Chronic Disease Strategy focuses on prevention and early detection of chronic diseases which account for 87.6% of the total burden of disease in Queensland.
The Innisfail Healthier Great Green Way team is implementing strategies in health promotion, prevention, symptom management, self-management and rehabilitation to reduce heart and lung disease, diabetes, renal disease and contributing risk factors such as smoking, nutrition, alcohol and lack of physical activity.
