Underfunded and undervalued: community-based health promotion practitioners’ experiences of Western Australia’s prevention sector
Ruth Wallace, Leesa Costello, Elizabeth J Cook · 2026
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Description
Ruth Wallace, Leesa Costello, and Elizabeth Cook study health promotion workers in Western Australia. Their 2026 paper asks how funding shapes the prevention workforce. Prevention gets a small share of the health budget, and funds come in short, competitive rounds. The effects on the workers themselves are little studied.
The team held deep interviews with 19 community-based practitioners. Four themes stood out: chronic funding shortage, rivalry between agencies, short cycles with heavy paperwork, and treatment favored over prevention. Workers reported job insecurity, stress, and people leaving the field. The strain also created ethical strain for staff who promote health while their own health suffers. The authors call for funding reform.
Catalog record
| CREATOR | Ruth Wallace, Leesa Costello, Elizabeth J Cook |
|---|---|
| YEAR | 2026 |
| COLLECTION | PAPERS |
| FORMAT | TXT |
| FILE SIZE | 53 KB |
| VERSION | 1.0 |
| LICENSE | CC BY 4.0 |
| RIGHTS | CC BY |
| SOURCE | Europe PMC |