Staff and teams from across the Local Health District submitted entries leading up to the Awards, with projects focussing on ways better health results can be achieved for patients through innovation.

Cowra Community Health projects based out of the Cowra Health Service was one of the 70 projects received across the eleven project Award categories.

Cowra Community Health won the Preventive Health Category beating Bourke Health Service’s Bourke antenatal enhancement initiative with their Aqua mums program and the Enhancing the Patient Experience through The Arts Award Category with their Respect-Ed program.

Community Health Manager, Liezel Van Eeden said winning was great recognition of their work.

“It’s a great opportunity to showcase the work that we do in community health,” she said.

“A huge part of everyone’s role here is to take part in quality improvement activities and specifically activities that benefit the whole community in terms of their health and well being.

“This is a great platform where they (the winning programs) get recognised for the great work that they have done.

“It’s a great achievement to be recognised at this forum. We compete against larger hospitals like Orange, Bathurst and the like. So for a smaller community to be awarded is a great achievement,” she said.

The Cowra Aqua Mums program allows Cowra’s mums to have increased access to health professionals and social inclusion while also improving their health and fitness.

The program was inspired from the Cowra Aqua MIPS program and now has 41 mums registered.

The Respect-Ed program aims to increase health promotion and healthy relationships education in schools using the Arts.

The program consisted of an education campaign, with teachers, parents, services and health working together to create creative, visual and performing arts based activities over two terms, including a writing competition, art, music and drama culminating in the ‘Respect-Ed’ event for 2016 White Ribbon Day.