Research reveals health access barriers

NEW research has detailed barriers to sexual and reproductive health access for women in the Barwon South West region.

This report, the first of its kind in the region, shines a light on the challenges rural and regional women experience when using essential sexual and reproductive health services, and offers key recommendations for improving healthcare availability and equity.

The research was carried out as a collaboration between Deakin Rural Health, the Centre for Australian Research into Access and Women’s Health and Wellbeing Barwon South West.

“Women in rural and regional areas often face inequities and barriers when it comes to accessing essential sexual and reproductive healthcare,” Women’s Health and Wellbeing Barwon South West chief executive officer Jodie Hill said.

“The combination of distance, limited services and factors such as service accessibility and confidentiality concerns in small towns means can make it quite challenging for women to access the services they need.”

According to Sarah Wood, associate research fellow at Deakin Rural Health, the research is the first critical step in addressing inequities in health access.

“This project came about because of the lack of access to sexual and reproductive health services,” she said

“We gathered data on the physical location of all sexual and reproductive health services and then mapped these to every single address across the region and this enabled us to calculate the time someone would have to travel to the service,” she said.

But distance is only one part of the equation when it comes to barriers to health access, Ms Wood said.

“A key finding was the lack of publicly available data on what services are offered at clinics.

“For women needing to access these services, it’s really important that information is publicly available so that they know where they can go for the care they need.”

The report provides critical evidence to determine interventions that will address barriers and improve service access.

Ms Hill said this evidence was a powerful tool for delivering tangible change.

“This groundbreaking research is an essential first step in resolving access issues and in ensuring that all women in our region have access to the healthcare they need.”

To read the full report, head to womenshealthbsw.org.au