A first-of-its kind community wellness centre in southern Queensland opened its doors on Wednesday.
The official opening of the St George Community Wellbeing Centre is a major milestone and promises to be a gamechanger for local First Nations people, providing them more than 40 health and wellbeing programs.
Situated in the Shire of Balonne, a rural town is home to approximately 700 Indigenous people among the general population of more than 3,000, the centre is managed by Goondir Health Services, with a $2m investment from the Indigenous Land and Sea Corporation helping it provide 43 health and wellbeing programs and activities.
These include cultural development, youth engagement, female empowerment and fitness classes, as well as education on nutrition and healthy lifestyle living, while multiple community health issues will also be addressed there, such as high rates of smoking, obesity, alcohol intake and chronic diseases.
The new centre was previously a RSL club and purchased and refurbished after Goondir's existing clinic did not have capacity to expand.
It will also be a hub for training and research, investigating the improvement of health and social determinants through evidence-based findings, and social enterprise activities, helping projects of this nature become financially viable and sustainable.
Also co-funded by Commonwealth departments, the centre will employ 12 new people and provide 270 training outcomes, with the facility also including a food distribution and storage area, commercial kitchen, community garden, yarning circle, gym, conference and training rooms, art and culture spaces, hairdressing services, play areas and quiet areas.
Goondir Health Services clinical services executive, Vlad Matic said the centre's focus on addressing the health and social determinants of healthcare would make his job as a GP much easier, a sentiment echoed by his CEO Floyd Leedie.
"A holistic approach to delivering health care services avoid the ill-fated silo approach to remedying our Mob's issues," Mr Leedie said.
"And that's what this centre is all about – making it easier for those seeking health care services, and making it easier for those delivering the health care services."
ILSC group CEO, Joe Morrison reflected on Goondir's significant achievement and said the corporation's $2m investment demonstrated its ongoing commitment to Goondir.
"This is an acknowledgement of the importance of health care services for First Nations peoples, no matter their geographical location," he said.
"I look forward to seeing the many positive health and wellbeing outcomes the St George Community Wellbeing Centre will deliver for the local Indigenous communities."
Goondir Health Services delivers holistic health care services to Indigenous communities from Oakey to St George in the South-West Queensland, an area covering approximately 72,000km2, servicing more than 4,000 clients for 30 years.
Its medical clinics are in the towns of Dalby, Oakey and St George, with a mobile clinic providing outreach services to Chinchilla, Tara, Miles, Jandowae, Surat, Dirranbandi, Thallon and Bollon.