FUND WOMEN'S HEALTH IN NSW
Women’s Health Centres are in danger of having to close their doors or significantly reduce services due to decades of under investment by the New South Wales Government.
We need your help to survive. NSW politicians must show their commitment to gender equality by committing to adequately funding Women’s Health Centres across the state.
An increase of funding 30 years in the making.
For Women’s Health Centres to deliver vital services, we need a sustainable, properly funded workforce. Funding levels have changed little over 30 years and have not kept pace with growing demand from rapidly increasing community needs.
A picture paints a thousand words...
Funding
Received
What it would look like if funding kept up with need
1986
2022
$0.4m
$1m
Australia in 1992
(30 years ago)
Australia had been on the global internet for just 3 years
Read Women's Health NSW's comprehensive business case which presents a formal proposal for increased investment to ensure the sustainability of Women’s Health Centres.
Write to your local member of Parliament
Let your local MP know that their constituents expect action on investing in Women's Health Centres across NSW by writing to them on the issue.
We've partnered with Fair Agenda to create this simple form you can use to write to your local MP:
The role of Women's Health Centres in NSW
Women’s Health NSW is the peak body for 21 non-government community-based women’s health centres in New South Wales.
Our collective mission is to ensure women’s health care is delivered in a gender appropriate, affordable and accessible way designed to meet the health needs of women, trans and gender-non forming people and children.
Women's Health NSW acknowledges that many factors - social, cultural, environmental, economic and biological - influence the health status of women and TGNC people, their need for health services and their ability to access appropriate, affordable and culturally sensitive services.
Women's Health Centres provides a broad range of services, including:
Safety and Empowerment Services
Reproductive
Healthcare
Counselling and
Mental Health Support
Therapeutic and Education Groups
Specialised
Healthcare
Court Advocacy
Services
The History of Women's Health Centres in NSW
In 1973 around the time of International Women’s Day, a forum was held that covered significant issues for women. One of the recommendations from the forum was the need to address the lack of appropriate services for women in the mainstream health system.
In 1974 the federal government granted funds and on International Women’s Day that year in Leichhardt (NSW), and the first women’s health centre in Australia was opened.
Liverpool and Newcastle centres were opened in 1975, in fact new centres were emerging throughout the state. In 1978 centres were running in Wagga Wagga, Bankstown and Gosford. Each centre delivered services according to their community and were run by volunteers. By 1981 the Women’s Health and Information Resource and Crisis Centres Association or WHIRCCA was formed with the aim to create networks and support as well as advocate for other communities trying to establish Women’s Health Centres.
By 1982 the funding was handed to the NSW State Government. By 1986, through the shared work of the association and women in the communities the opening of centres in Blacktown, Penrith and Campbelltown as well as others in rural areas such as Lismore, Bathurst, Illawarra and Katoomba was made possible. WHIRCCA became known as to Women’s Health NSW in 1995.
Women’s Health NSW now represents 21 services throughout NSW; Albury, Bankstown, Blacktown, Blue Mountains, Central Coast (Gosford), Central West (Bathurst), Coffs Harbour, Cumberland, Fairfield, Hunter, Illawarra, Leichhardt, Lismore, Liverpool, Penrith, Shoalhaven, Wagga, WILMA (Campbelltown), Full Stop Australia, Sydney Women’s Counselling Campsie and WAMINDA (South Coast Women’s Health & Welfare Aboriginal Co-op).
