You are invited to attend the combined AHPA WA Branch AGM and Awards Night for 2020. This will be a chance to celebrate the important work that has happened in Health Promotion.
Due to COVID-19, this event will be held as a Webinar only.
AGM
This year’s theme for the 12th Annual Ray James Memorial Lecture is Climate Change and Health. We are delighted to welcome our special guest speaker Tarun Weeramanthri, independent consultant in public health and adjunct professor from the School of Population and Global Health, University of Western Australia. Tarun's presentation is entitled "How can health promotion contribute more to climate action?"
Tarun is a specialist in both internal medicine and public health and was Chief Health Officer in Western Australia (WA) from 2008 to 2018, and in the Northern Territory (NT) from 2004 to 2007. He has particular interests in policy and regulation, emergency preparedness, chronic diseases, Aboriginal health and the application of new technologies to public health.
In 2014, Tarun was awarded the Sidney Sax Medal by the Public Health Association of Australia, for his contribution to public health in Australia. In 2018, he received the Minister for Health’s Award, the highest individual excellence award given by WA Health, for an outstanding commitment to a healthier Western Australia. Tarun is currently finalising an inquiry into the Impacts of Climate Change on Health in WA, on behalf of the WA Government.
Awards
To recognise individual and organisational achievements in Health Promotion within Western Australia, the AHPA WA Branch committee presents annual awards. The awards provide an opportunity for Health Promotion professionals and agencies to be recognised by colleagues and peers for their commitment and innovation in Health Promotion practice.
In 2020, the AHPA WA Branch committee will present four awards:
1. Leadership in Health Promotion (Individual)
2. Outstanding Mentor in Health Promotion (Individual)
3. Early Career Award (Individual)
4. Excellence in Health Promotion Practice (Organisation or Team)
For more information on the awards and to nominate an individual or organisation, please refer to our nomination form. Nominations must be submitted before midday 15th April 2020.
Registration for the event will close at 5pm on 1st May 2020. Details for the Webinar will be provided at a later date.
For more information, please email: adminwa@healthpromotion.org.au
Ray James Memorial Award
Dr Ray James (14th December 1945 - 24th June 2008)
Ray James was a great and admired thinker and innovator in Health Promotion and was an experienced figure in community-based Public Health in Australia. His early work was in the USA, India, New Zealand and Latin America until he moved to WA in 1980. After a brief return to the USA he spent about five years on the North Coast of NSW. His work in the area of community-based Health Promotion interventions in NSW was well published and among Australia's earliest and best known health promotion initiatives of that time. His return to WA in the early 1990's saw him hold a number of positions including at the National Drug Research Institute at Curtin University, as a senior manager in the Health Department of WA including directing Public Health programs in the South West from Bunbury, a period at the Institute of Child Health Research, and in later years at the Centre for Behavioural Research in Cancer Control at Curtin University where he has directed the Mentally Healthy WA project.
Since the early 1990's, Ray was a member of the research team that developed and revised Health Promotion competencies for Health Promotion practitioners. The work resulting from these projects has received substantial international coverage and has been used in several other countries. Ray contributed extensively to a number of professional associations, in particular the Australian Health Promotion Association. As well as being a member of the National Management Committee, he served for many years on the WA Branch committee in various roles including terms as Branch President. Ray was also one of the founders of the Health Promotion Journal of Australia and a founding editor.
Common themes of his professional work included: innovation; willingness to risk trialing new approaches; mentoring early-career professionals; and helping others beyond the call of duty. In 2000, Ray was awarded a Life Membership of the Australian Health Promotion Association in recognition of his outstanding and distinguished service to the Association and to Health Promotion in Australia. Following his death in early 2008, the Australian Health Promotion Association endorsed the establishment of an annual award in his memory.
- The Ray James Memorial Award is presented for excellence and innovation in Health Promotion research published during the previous year in the Health Promotion Journal of Australia. The first author must be a member of AHPA.
- If no articles are considered to meet the selection criteria for the year, the Award will be held over to the following year.
- The Award will be presented at the Annual General Meeting of the Association, during the AHPA National Conference or at another suitable time as agreed by the Board.
- The Award will include $1,000 prize money. In the case of multiple authors, this money will be shared betwee the authors. The award recipient/s may be invited to write a brief article for the Australian Health Promotion Update national newsletter outlining how the prize money is intended to be used.
