Deakin Rural Health Information

The new Deakin Rural Health (DRH) unit was created in May 2016, having evolved from the previous Greater Green Triangle University Department of Rural Health (GGT UDRH) organisation based on cross border collaboration in Victoria and South Eastern South Australia between Flinders and Deakin Universities. DRH is now focused on building rural health workforce capacity in South Western Victoria. Our main aim is to promote the health and wellbeing of people living in South Western Victoria by contributing to the development of a sustainable workforce of multi-disciplinary health professionals through student placements, teaching and research. Our team is part of the Commonwealth Governments Rural Health Multi-disciplinary Training Programme; a national initiative to build and sustain the rural health workforce by supporting training and research programmes in rural and remote regions of Australia. The core business of DRH is to build academic infrastructure in that supports student placements, health systems research and training that contribute to the creation of a stable and sustainable rural health workforce. The DRH research, training and student support teams are involved in programmes in mental health, public health, Aboriginal health, pharmacy, medicine, nursing and allied health and our multi-disciplinary research programmes are designed to improve rural health service provision and explore the processes and outcomes of our student training and support initiatives. We respond to the health needs and research interests of communities in our area ranging from Geelong to Colac, Hamilton, Warrnambool and Portland.