The Queensland ORCHID Program:
ORCHID stands for “Our Resilient Communities: Healthy Innovative and Diverse” and has been created to make the World Health Organisation’s healthy cities and towns approach into a reality in Queensland.
We have an abundance of needs assessments that have shown that Queensland has an alarming incidence of preventable chronic diseases, less than 10% of Queenslanders consume sufficient vegetables, 11% of Queensland adults smoke daily, and only 41% of children are active every day1. We know the problems and we have the evidence on how to reduce community risk factors and improve protective factors. Now we need act on it.
What we need:
- A joined up, systems thinking approach, relevant for Queensland to:
- Build capacity for prevention
- Translate evidence into practice
- Create an integrated state-wide network
- Celebrate, share and upscale success
- Showcase Queensland as leaders in health promotion
- Robust community action indicators to complement the Queensland Chief Health Officer Report 20181– what’s working and not working in communities to reduce risk factors and improve protective factors?
The research questions ORCHID aims to address include:
- What are the enabling factors for Queensland communities to address social determinants of health and build capacity to improve local health outcomes?
- How can innovation through technology enhance Queensland communities access to and implementation of evidence based approaches around key risk factors and settings?
- How can short, medium and long term health outcomes and community capacity indicators be measured, shared and implemented to continuously improve the health outcomes of Queensland communities?
- How can a coordinated network of Queensland health communities be facilitated to connect, learn, share and improve local health outcomes?
Our Projects
1. Queensland Health. (2018). The Health of Queenslanders 2018: Report of the Chief Health Officer Queensland. Retrieved from Queensland Government Queensland Health website https://www.health.qld.gov.au/research-reports/reports/public-health/cho-report/current/full