Archive for month: June, 2025

You are here: / / / June

Survey of Women’s Health in the ACT June 2025 update

/in /by

The Survey of Women’s Health in the ACT is the major way we learn about the health needs and experiences of women and femme-identifying people in the ACT.

Now in its second iteration, we ran the survey again between December 2024 and March 2025, collecting 1,318 responses on topics including:

  • access to health services
  • experiences of healthcare
  • mental health
  • violence and safety
  • sexual and reproductive health
  • pregnancy and birth

Analysis so far shows that our second survey is more representative of the ACT population than our first, with a larger proportion of responses coming from young women, women over 65, and women from migrant and refugee backgrounds – groups that were underrepresented in the first wave of the survey.

We plan to release our report on the survey in September this year. You can read the first survey report (2023) here.

Health in My Language update June 2025

/in /by

Whether you’re new to the ACT or have lived here your whole life, it’s important to know where to go for your health and have access to accurate health information when making decisions about your health. However, for people from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds, finding this information can be difficult, especially when English is their second language. That’s where Health in My Language (HIML) comes in. 

The program delivers information and resources about women’s sexual and reproductive health across various community locations and in a wide range of languages, including English, Cantonese, Hindi, Khmer, Mandarin, and Punjabi. Many of the women attending these sessions are migrants and refugees and benefit hugely from receiving in-language health information from our trained Bilingual Health Educators.  

So far in 2025, the Women’s Health Matters team have delivered 22 formal health education sessions across Pregnancy Options, Contraceptive Choices, Understanding Menopause and Safer Sex topics, with 277 participants attending the sessions. The HIML team worked with organisations including Navitas, Red Cross ACT, and YWCA to deliver sessions to their clients and community members. We have also worked with health organisations to include them in our sessions including BreastScreen ACT and Hepatitis ACT. 

The responses to the program have been overwhelmingly positive, with one participant stating: 

“I’m here in this session because I’m new to Australia and I want to learn for myself and not have to ask my husband or others for information about my health because it becomes his opinion not mine”. 

  • Contraceptive Choices session Participant  

Another participant shared that before the Understanding Menopause session, she didn’t understand what was happening to her body and felt too embarrassed to talk to her doctor. She said: 

“In my culture, we don’t really talk about these things, so I thought I had to deal with it alone.”

After learning about menopause in her own language, she felt more confident and said she now has the words to describe her symptoms. She also mentioned she would talk to her sister, who is going through similar changes, and plans to book a GP appointment to ask about treatments to manage menopause. 

Victim Survivor Voice pilot update June 2025

/in , /by

The Victim Survivor Voice is a peer-led pilot program open to people over the age of 18 who have lived or living experience of domestic, family, and/or sexual violence (DFSV) and live in the ACT and surrounding regions. The project’s purpose is to understand participants’ lived experiences of DFSV support services and systems in the ACT, and incorporate this knowledge into efforts to address DFSV across the Territory. 

In the ACT Government 2025-26 Budget, the pilot received an additional investment of $646,000, allowing the project to continue building a complex understanding of services and systems in place to support victim survivors and how they could be improved to achieve better outcomes. This represents a major commitment by the ACT Government to address systemic issues in how victim survivors are supported and empowered after experiences of violence. 

Since March, the Victim Survivor Voice team has facilitated in-depth discussion sessions with over 20 victim survivors to consult on developing an ACT Domestic, Family and Sexual Violence Strategy (the Strategy). We have used qualitative analysis to identify priority areas of focus and are currently seeking additional validation of these findings with Victim Survivor Voice participants before presenting our results to the ACT Government later this year. 

We are also working closely with a Victorian organisation the ACT Government have engaged to help develop the Strategy, Impact Co., to ensure that local insights we are hearing through the Victim Survivor Voice are informing their work. 

We are now working towards our next consultation phases, which will focus on improving ACT responses to coercive control, and working with Queensland based organisation WWILD to co-design DFSV training for disability support workers.  

You can find more information on the project and register your interest in joining the Victim Survivor Voice online.  

Victim Survivor Voice Pilot Project funding extended

/in , /by

Women’s Health Matters CEO, Lauren Anthes, is pleased to announce the Victim Survivor Voice pilot program has been extended thanks to further investment from the ACT Government.

Today, Dr Marisa Paterson MLA, ACT Minister for Women and for the Prevention of Family and Domestic Violence, has announced an additional $646,000 funding package to support Women’s Health Matters in extending this Territory first pilot program designed to centre lived and living experience in ACT services and systems. The first phase of the pilot program is focussed on the development of the ACT Domestic Family and Sexual Violence Strategy and government responses to domestic and sexual violence, with the goal of improving whole of system responses in the ACT.

The additional funding will support the ongoing, sustainable and meaningful engagement with victim survivors, ensuring that diverse voices of lived experience are central in all aspects of policy design and implementation.

About the Victim Survivor Voice

The Victim Survivor Voice is a peer-led pilot program open to people over the age of 18 who have lived or living experience of domestic, family, and/or sexual violence and live in the ACT and surrounding regions. This multi-modal engagement program seeks to improve ACT services and systems to better support victim survivors of domestic, family, and/or sexual violence.

Since March 2025, the pilot program has received approximately 80 expressions of interest from people with lived and living experience in the ACT. In-depth individual and small group discussions were conducted with over 20 victim survivors to inform development of the ACT Domestic, Family and Sexual Violence Strategy. Using participatory research and qualitative analysis methods, key themes and findings have been identified and will be validated through further victim survivor engagement before presentation to the ACT Government.

The second phase of the pilot will focus informing the ACT Government’s approach to improving criminal justice responses to coercive control.

Women’s Health Matters CEO, Lauren Anthes, has said the pilot program applies a unique approach in centering lived experience in policy and service reform, while allowing victim survivors a voice to advocate for themselves and others:

“This community-led approach ensures victim survivor voices are central to strengthening support services and prevention initiatives in the ACT. Combined with evidence reviews and analysis of best practices from other jurisdictions, these insights will be translated into concrete recommendations for government implementation that deliver measurable outcomes.”

Register your interest in joining the Victim Survivor Voice online.

About Women’s Heath Matters

Women’s Health Matters is the Peak Body for Women’s Health in the ACT, working to improve the health and wellbeing of all women in the ACT and surrounding region. We advocate on behalf of all ACT women, to improve outcomes and experiences across the health and social services systems.  Our work is centered on providing evidence-based, lived experience centered, social research, policy development, and advocacy services to governments, the corporate sector, policy makers, service providers and other peak bodies.

Media Contact

Women’s Health Matters

E: media@womenshealthmatters.org.au

P: 02 6290 2166

Supported by ACT Health Directorate

QUICK EXIT