Health Equity Program | St Vincent's Health Australia

All people have a fundamental right to access quality health and aged care, regardless of their situation, background or income. SVHA’s Health Equity program aims to enhance care for people who are at risk of experiencing poor health outcomes.

The program aims to reduce barriers and improve health access and outcomes for all patients, with a particular focus where the greatest inequities exist, including for:

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples;
People experiencing homelessness;
People experiencing drug and alcohol addiction;
People with a diagnosed mental illness; and
People in, or leaving the criminal justice system.

This program is funded by St Vincent’s as part of its commitment to improving the health outcomes for people who face additional barriers to good health, in line with our mission. See more about our mission, here.

How the program works

SVHA provides funding and support each year to a range of clinician-led projects that aim to improve health access and outcomes – this can be in the form of service innovation, research or advocacy activities. We do it this way because we know the best solutions come from the voices and ideas our patients, clients and staff.

View Our Projects

200+ Projects funded

More than 200 projects funded since the program began in 2015.

76 Projects in progress

We are currently working on 76 health equity projects across St Vincent's.

$25M+

Allocated so far to Inclusive Health Projects.

People experiencing mental illness

People experiencing homelessness

People experiencing alcohol and other drug addiction

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people

People in prison

Project vision and objectives

Our mission is to provide access to healthcare for individuals experiencing marginalisation, poverty or vulnerability. We do this through our three broad pillars of work: service innovation, research and advocacy. We aim to remove barriers to healthcare and meet the health and wellbeing needs of all members of our community experiencing vulneranility.

In my experience, the Inclusive Health Program does exactly what it says: it enables our clinicians to pursue innovations that can make the most dramatic difference to the lives of those who might otherwise not get the access to the health services or system that you and I expect.

Margaret Stewart Executive Director Mission St Vincent’s Hospital Melbourne

Mobile Health Clinic

People who experience homelessness have higher rates of morbidity and mortality than the rest of the population, and often face multiple barriers to accessing health care. Find out more about how St Vincent's Mobile Health Clinic is tackling this challenge, thanks to the vision of our committed staff and with the support of the Inclusive Health Program.

The SVHA Health Equity Program

What is the Health Equity Program?