Almost one in five Victorian women and girls live with disability.
Ensuring the Women’s provides accessible and inclusive healthcare and a safe and supportive work environment for our staff with a disability is an important organisational priority and ensures that our patients are at the heart of everything we do.
We know that women with disability experience poorer health outcomes when compared to the general community due to inequities associated with gender and disability.
Women with disability experience barriers to health services, a lack of accessible health information, and discrimination and exclusion from decisions that affect their care and treatment. People with disability experience barriers to employment and discrimination within health services.
Disability Action Plan 2019-2022
The Women’s Disability Action Plan (DAP) provides a framework for how we will respond to this need and how we will increase access and inclusion for people with disability.
The Women’s DAP strengthens our commitment to enhance the health and wellbeing of women and newborns with disability and provides a framework for how we will increase access and inclusion to appropriate health care and employment for people with disability.
An Easy English version of the Disability Action Plan can also be downloaded from this page.
Disability Action Plan Advisory Committee
Former and current patients, carers and staff with lived experience of disability are members of our Disability Action Plan Advisory Committee. The committee is responsible for oversight of the development and implementation of the Women’s Disability Action Plans.
The Committee supports the Women’s to review current practices and identify barriers and opportunities to improve outcomes for women and staff with a disability with a focus on: access to services, programs and facilitates; employment; inclusion and participation; and changes in attitudes and behaviours.
Members
- Sherri Huckstep, Chief People Experience Officer – Chair
- Mija Gwyn, Consumer Representative
- Maryan Raffaello, Consumer Representative
- Elizabeth Jeroboam, Consumer Representative
- Laurie Gibens, Consumer Representative
- Chrissy Thompson, Consumer Representative
- Mariana Voggenreiter, Consumer Representative
- Emelia Young, Consumer Representative
- Janet Curtain, Consumer Representative
- Olivia Penna, Consumer Representative
- Deena Morgan, Consumer Representative
- Natalie Grodzki, Staff Representative
- Charlie Smithson, Staff Representative
- Cherise Smith, Staff Representative
- Sally Stephens, Staff Representative
- Stella Kyriakou, Staff Representative
- Julia Newmark, Staff Representative
- Julie Canals, Staff Representative
- Kate Romaniotis, Staff Representative