Women’s Health & Wellbeing Awareness- An Insightful Session

12345With the key focus of advancing the health and wellbeing of women, Forum for Indian Australians (FIA) organised an insightful sessionat the Werribee Indoor Sports Centre, Victoria on 7 July. The session brought together health and wellbeing experts to discuss issues that are relevant to the health and wellbeing of women, with the sole purpose of building and sharing knowledge. Various studies have indicated that there is a lack of information surrounding women health, particularly in migrant communities. Hence, this session was timely in plugging that gap. At the start of the session, Ripan Sethi, a core patron of FIAsaid that FIA’s core objective is to promote cooperation and harmony by building trust, removing constraints and empowering people to create a stronger Indian community.

An enthusiastic panel of expert medical practitioners talked about the Australian health system, highlighting issues affecting women health, preventive measures and the support available. More specifically, the medical practitioners outlined the range of services that are available to women, such as physiotherapy, counselling, mental health programs, stress management, bulk billing and gaps, antenatal programs and so forth. There are a range of allied health services for treatment of chronic or terminal medical conditions, which are rebateable under the Medicare system on referral of a General Practitioner. An insight into these services was also presented. The panel comprised of Dr Aparna Nedunuri (General Practitioner), Dr Malini Singh (Psychologist), Dr Pallavi Sharma(General Practitioner), Dr Preeti Khillan (Obstetrician & Gynaecologist) and was expertly moderated by Dr Ritesh Chugh and Sonal Sharma.

After the panel discussion with the medical practitioners, fitness expert Sherry Balihighlighted the importance of regular physical activity as a vital means to enhance wellbeing.

The session highlighted that women (and men too) need to take control of their own health and wellbeing and not shy away from the variety of services available.  The Australian Government’s National Women’s Health Policy 2010 signifies the importance of building an environment where Australian women have better health and healthcare. This session focused on providing information about the variety of services available and outlined that taking control is a step in the right direction. The audience had plenty of opportunity to interact with the invited doctors and the fitness expert. Shaifali Khattar performed a great job as the master of ceremony.

The session was supported by fifteen alliance partner organisations who saw merit in the idea and were keen to be involved in this social cause. The involvement of so many community-focussed organisations is in itself an unparalleled feat.The alliance partner organisations were: Australia-India Women Entrepreneurs Forum, Ayurved and Yoga Institute, Brothers & Sisters Foundation, Club 60 Tarneit, GOPIO Melbourne, Indian Business Women Network, Landmark Community Sports Club, Melbourne Service Club, Neighbourhood Watch Tarneit Central, No Hunger, Sahitya Sandhya West, SAPAC Australia, Stay Well, Victorian Cultural Association and Women of Wyndham. Karthik Arasu, core patron of FIA, thanked all the sponsors for their time and commitment. The panel members and the sponsor of the event (Sold Real Estate) were felicitated by Rishi Prabhakar and Amit Jaduan (both core patrons of FIA). ME TV covered the event, which will be telecast soon.

The audience took home invaluable learnings from this session, something that isn’t usually available in a holistic format.Feedback from the audience was very positive, who commented that it is very important to have similar conversations on a regular basis. The medical practitionersalso commended the session and called for more such events to be organised in the future. Photo Courtesy: Mcube Media

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