Victorian Program
2007-2010

In 2006, Western District Health Service (WDHS) in collaboration with the Department of Human Services (DHS) aimed to address through the implementation of seeding grants and training for health professionals the Sustainable Farm Families’ (SFF) project across Victoria’s rural regions.

Western District Health Service incorporated new and previous SFF training programs to assist health services to apply through the lead agency for funding to implement farm family projects within their own regions. Health services within the five DHS regions were offered seed funding to support the coordination, facilitation and evaluation of the SFF program within their region. This offer was made available to nurses and health services that had completed or intended to complete a SFF train the trainer program provided by the joint WDHS and DHS funding. Health services within the above regions were also encouraged to link with other health services and agricultural industry to assist in the facilitation of the program. 

The funding enabled the funding of an initial nine (9) train the trainer programs, followed by a further fully funded seven (7) SFF programs across Victoria.

In late 2007, Western District Health Service was successful in attracting further funding over two years to deliver the Sustainable Farm Families program in partnership with the Department of Primary Industries across Victoria. 

This investment of significant time and resources developed an action based response to the worsening effects of Victoria’s ongoing drought and associated burdens upon the farming family unit. Together the DPI and WDHS aim to address through the Sustainable Farm Families’ (SFF) program the health, well-being and safety of farm families across Victoria’s agricultural regions most influenced by the current climatic conditions.

The program was funded to deliver at 50 locations (1,000 farmers) from 2007 until 2009.