Western Sydney Diabetes wins prestigious 2017 Pemulwuy Prize
The Western Sydney Diabetes Initiative has taken out the prestigious 2017 Pemulwuy Prize and the Western Sydney Leadership Award for Productive Partnerships.
The awards were presented at the Western Sydney Leadership Dialogue’s Out There Summit on April 28, 2017.
Western Sydney Leadership Dialogue is a nonpartisan community initiative designed to engage Australia in a productive discussion about western Sydney, drive the public policy debate, and support and promote the Western Sydney agenda through analysis and advocacy.
To become a finalist for the Pemulwuy Prize, the Western Sydney Diabetes Initiative won the Award for Productive Partnerships, beating a stacked field of Leadership Award winners in the other five categories.
Chief Executive of Western Sydney LHD, Danny O’Connor, said the award would help the initiative in its mission to raise awareness and inspire action to address the diabetes crisis.
“I’m delighted that the diabetes initiative has received this recognition, mainly for one reason which is that it continues to amplify the signal of the importance of the risk of diabetes to the population of Western Sydney,” Mr O’Connor said.
“I think it’s fabulous that we got the prize, especially at this kind of forum, because it gave us a voice that reached out to the Premier and to the key leaders in western Sydney, and this is something we’ve been wanting to have happen,” Professor Glen Maberly, Director of Western Sydney Diabetes, said.
Partnerships between community health services, general practice, hospitals, specialist practices and allied health needed to be improved so that residents with diabetes, or at risk of diabetes, have access to more integrated and comprehensive diabetes services.
“Diabetes is arguably the single biggest health challenge we face in Western Sydney,” chairman of the Western Sydney Leadership Dialogue Christopher Brown said.
“Western Sydney Local Health District chief executive Danny O’Connor, along with the partners of the Western Sydney Diabetes Initiative, should all be congratulated for bringing attention to the magnitude of this issue, and importantly, examining possible solutions.”
