Yea and District Memorial Hospital has secured a $50,000 grant from the Violet Vines Marshman Centre. This funding will support the continued delivery of the successful Yea Saleyards Healthcare Program and potentially enable the replication of the model within the local community and across regional areas.
The Yea Saleyards Healthcare Program, developed by the Yea and District Memorial Hospital (YDMH) team in October 2023, aims to bring healthcare services to the farming and broader community. Over the past nine months, attendees at the sale have had access to a range of health services including skin, hearing and eyesight checks; cardiac health assessments; diabetes education; flu vaccinations; and mental health and drug and alcohol support program. These services are provided one Friday per month at the cattle sale. The program has exceeded expectations, prompting YDMH to seek funding to expand services at the Saleyards. A member of the local farming community described the value of the program – “We think we’re bulletproof and only see a doctor if we’re really crook, but you are right here under our noses at the sale – it’s a wonderful service.”
The Violet Vines Marshman Centre for Rural Health Research is embedded within the La Trobe Rural Health School. The Centre provides grant opportunities annually to short term projects that directly improve the health or well-being of people living in rural and remote locations.
The grant will fund additional specialist and allied health services as part of the existing program. It will also support a comprehensive evaluation through YDMH’s partnership with the University of Melbourne Rural Health Academic Network (RHAN), which will help develop a transferable healthcare model. Additionally, the grant will enable two trial programs within the local area and support the expansion of the program into other communities.
“Being awarded this prestigious and highly sought after grant really validates our Saleyards Program and will enable us to evaluate it, expand it and promote it to other organisations and regions to support farmers’ health and wellbeing more broadly” – Jennifer Keast, RHAN Researcher based at YDMH.
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