Network members come together to drive progress in women’s health and advance women’s research careers.
WHRTN held its third face- to- face meeting in Melbourne on 14 August which was attended by members, and the national Steering Committee. The Emerging Leaders Fellowship program ran in parallel with the meeting with all participants coming together beforehand for mentoring and networking.
“It was great to have everyone in the same place, and to be able to reflect together on our learnings, hear about the impact of WHRTN programs and how it is supporting our funded researchers to improve the health of Australian women. It was also a fantastic opportunity for our Emerging Leader Fellows to meet and learn from WHRTN’s senior leaders and academics in the days prior. “ said Chair of the Steering Committee, Prof Deb Turnbull.
The WHRTN network meeting opened with personal reflections by consumer representatives Shona Kennedy and Joanne Khan about gathering of Indigenous women and the importance of honouring women’s lineage. Updates were given about governance and operations, the publication plan, consumer and community activities such as the production of consumer recruitment guidelines, and workforce development including capacity building for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women researchers.
A panel discussion was convened with discussants from three of the commissioned grants focussing on consumer co-designed women’s health research. The showcased grants addressed topics such as perinatal mental health, loneliness among mid-life women and chronic disease management. Key learnings were discussed such as the importance of flexibility and shared decision making as well as clarity of roles and responsibilities.
Sandra Creamer, the Chief Executive Officer of the Australian Women’s Health Alliance, a partner of WHRTN spoke about the work of the Alliance and participants discussed opportunities for collaboration such as making joint representation to Government.
An overview of the evaluation was provided as an update to the briefing at the November 2024 meeting where the first phase of the work was presented in score card format of outcomes between 2021and 2024.
Professor Helena Teede is WHRTN’s Lead Investigator and leads the REsearch program which includes the co production grants.
“We are looking forward to reporting the final evaluation report at the end of this year, and seeing the impact of the consumer voice and involvement in our projects. Thank you to all our consumers for their invaluable input and contributions,” she said.
The meeting closed with a discussion about future potential models for aligning WHRTN activities to government policy and organisations such as the Australian Health Research Alliance.
Find out more about WHRTN’s Research, Consumer and Community Involvement (CCI), Indigenous and Workforce Development Programs here.
