Using systems thinking to drive community changes for better health
This research project took a systems perspective to look at what factors shape local government’s role in place-based approaches to community health and wellbeing, and what opportunities exist or could be made to strengthen such approaches to improve community health and wellbeing.
Local governments are crucial in facilitating and driving preventive health decisions and measures to support communities in their jurisdictions. The health and wellbeing of their communities is increasingly identified as a key area of focus for local government bodies. Yet, in the Australian state of Tasmania, the sector’s role in that regard has been unclear.
Key messages
- Tasmanians fare worse than Australian mainland residents across numerous health characteristics, including having a higher prevalence of selected chronic health conditions.
- Local government’s roles have evolved from ‘roads, rates, and rubbish’ to a broader focus on supporting communities to be healthy, safe, inclusive, and socially connected.
- Local government has the potential to do more to improve health and wellbeing outcomes in Tasmania, and the greatest gains could be made by addressing spatial inequalities faced by the sector – that is, the differences in health and wellbeing outcomes or other social and economic indicators between different geographic areas.
- A shared system goal of equitable wellbeing, supported by improved access to data and shared indicators to inform decision making are key to reduce inequalities.
- This research highlights the importance of understanding context-specific factors that impact local government’s roles in community health and wellbeing and demonstrates how systems thinking methodologies can help uncover these factors at macro and micro scales.