By Laura Wakely
BRIMBANK City Council is lobbying for a meeting with Health Minister Nicola Roxon in an effort to secure funding for health promotion programs.
The council has applied for a $750,000 grant to establish a project called ‘Live Well, Eat Well, Be Well’, which aimed to increase awareness of the benefits of healthy eating and physical activity.
The project is a partnership with the Western Region Health Centre, Health West and Western Health, which would also try to address the high instances of type 2 diabetes among residents.
Diabetes Australia Victoria research has found that one in five Brimbank residents aged 55 and over had type 2 diabetes.
Ardeer has the highest prevalence of type 2 diabetes in the western suburbs, with one in seven affected.
Of these Ardeer residents, one in three aged 55 and over had the disease.
Administrator Meredith Sussex said Ms Roxon, who is the Member for Gellibrand, should be paying attention as a recent redistribution of electorate boundaries will mean Brimbank residents will decide Ms Roxon’s future at the next election.
Ms Sussex said the project was a high priority for council.
“It is absolutely incumbent on us to bring to the attention… the importance of health promotion in the community,” Ms Sussex said.
She said a snub by the State Government, which funded chronic disease prevention in 14 municipalities, was “astounding” given the number of Brimbank residents with diabetes.
The State Government chronic disease prevention project will run in neighbouring council Wyndham, as well as Central Goldfields, Bendigo, Geelong and Latrobe over the next three years.
