Southgate Institute has been successful in attracting over $1 million from the NHMRC project grant scheme to study regional primary health care organisations (Medicare Locals) across Australia. The project will look at regional population health planning processes for primary health care and the extent to what they incorporate equity, community participation and social determinants of health in these plans and subsequent programs and initiatives, with a special emphasis on three disadvantaged groups: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, new migrants/refugees, and people with mental illness.Prof Fran Baum is the lead investigator and the project manager will be Dr Sara Javanparast. This is Sara’s first success as a Chief Investigator with an NHMRC grant so many congratulations to her. It is also the first time Dr Toby Freeman has been a CI on an NHMRC grant. The other chief investigators are Professor Jeff Fuller (School of Nursing and Midwifery), Dr Angela Lawless (Southgate), Dr Anna Ziersch (Southgate), Professor Richard Reed (General Practice) and Dr Tamara MacKean (Poche Centre for Indigenous Health and Wellbeing) at Flinders University. The team will collaborate with people from the Australian Medicare Local Alliance, Medicare Locals in Brisbane and Melbourne, Univeristy of Ottawa, and University of Western Cape as research partners.

Details of the project’s implementation will be available on the Southgate website in early 2014.