A SNAPSHOT of women’s health across the West has revealed low life expectancies, high rates of family violence and an increasing teenage pregnancy rate.
Women in the City of Maribyrnong experience the poorest health in the West, according Women’s Health West, a regional women’s health service that has operated in Footscray for the past 25 years.
Women’s Health West statistics also show:
– Women in the City of Maribyrnong experience the highest burden disease rate in the western region, experiencing the highest rates of heart disease, diabetes, depression, borderline personality disorder, asthma and osteoarthritis;
– Between 2011-12 there were 1852 family violence incidents reported in the City of Brimbank, accounting for 12 per cent of all cases in the North West;
– There were 284 notifications of Chlamydia among City of Melton women in 2011, up 59.5 per cent over three years;
– Less than half (38.5 per cent) of sexually active adolescents in Hobsons Bay practice safe sex with a condom, the lowest rates in the West;
– The participation rate for pap screening among women in the City of Maribyrnong aged 20-24 years is at 28.7 per cent -substantially less than the overall state average of 60 per cent;
– The teenage fertility rate in Wyndham is 12.9 per 1000, compared to the western metropolitan region (8.9 per 1,000) and Victoria (10.6 per 1,000) for 2008; and
– Life expectancy for women living in Maribyrnong is 83.8 years, which is lower than the Victoria (84.3 years) and the western region (84.4 years) averages.
Women’s Health West CEO Robyn Gregory said it was important for the community to have access to the services that WHW provides to improve these problems.
“There’s a very clear demonstration of need in this community,” Ms Gregory said.
Ms Gregory said women’s health and family violence issues could not be solved with a one size fits all approach, due to the range of ethnicities and language barriers across the West.
