Media release from Catholic Health   

The head of Australia's largest network of non-government health services will this week call on the Pacific Islands Forum to follow the lead of the European Commission and work on an international basis to address the major factors that contribute to people's prospects of a healthy life.

Martin Laverty, the chief executive of Catholic Health Australia, which has 75 hospitals and 550 aged care service providers in its network, will make the call on Friday at the New Zealand Bioethics Conference hosted by the University of Otago.

In 2008, the World Health Organisation (WHO) invited governments around the world to develop action plans on social determinants of health such as education, welfare and housing policies, Mr Laverty said. Governments have largely been silent on the issue, though some progress has been made.

"The European Commission has been something of a pioneer in responding to the WHO report, so it seems appropriate that the Commission's equivalent in this part of the world, the Pacific Islands Forum, picks up the ball and runs with it," Mr Laverty said.

While people often associate height, weight, blood pressure, cholesterol level and other such measures as the factors that will determine how long someone will live and how healthy they will be, there are wider issues at play, Mr Laverty explained.

"To look at the context I come from, Australians in the lowest socioeconomic group die on average three years earlier than people in the highest group. Those in this lowest socioeconomic group have twice the rate of chronic illness of those in the highest. Education, employment and housing play key roles in these health outcomes," he said.

"Keeping people healthy and out of hospital requires action on social determinants. Actions can include better assistance for at-risk mothers during pregnancy, expanded early childhood development in disadvantaged areas and assistance to help at-risk kids complete their schooling.

"It also includes helping people gain and hold employment, providing adequate housing, supporting people in times of personal crisis and making sure mental health services are readily accessible. These areas mostly sit outside health policy thinking," he said.

Mr Laverty is one of the editors of a book released last year that outlines how the recommendations of the WHO Commission on Social Determinants of Health should be adopted in Australia. Determining the Future: A Fair Go & Health for All, which draws on 40 leaders from the areas of health, public policy and academia, would be equally applicable to the New Zealand health and government landscape, he said.

"The fact, for example, that a person's access to income is more important to their chances of dying from a heart attack than their blood pressure, cholesterol or smoking habits won't discriminate on national lines," Mr Laverty said. "The issues raised in our book are the same issues faced by governments in New Zealand and throughout the Pacific. How much longer are people here in the farthest corner of the world going to have to wait before those with the ability to effect change actually make a commitment to do so?"

About the book
Determining the Future: A Fair Go & Health for All was published by Connor Court Publishing. Its contributors include Professor Frank Brennan SJ AO, Martin Laverty, Dr Tom Calma, Mick Gooda, Dr Steve Hambleton, Professor Patrick McGorry, Dr Rhonda Galbally AO, Professor Mike Daube, Dr John Falzon, Professor Fran Baum, Dr Matt Fisher, Colin Wood, Hon Michael Board, Salli Hickford, Taanya Widdicombe, Professor Laurie Brown, Dr Binod Nepal, Dr David Cooper, Ben Harris-Roxas, Michelle Maxwell, Mark Thornell, Sharon Peters, Patrick Harris, Dr Jenny May, Colleen Koh, Professor Leonie Segal, James Doidge, Dr Jackie Amos, Peter Sainsbury, Dr Elizabeth Harris, Marilyn Wise, Melissa Sweet, Helen Wiseman, Gloria Larman, Dr Tim Woodruff, Rachel Yates, Leanne Wells, Scott Brown, David Butt, and Liz Callaghan. The authors are donating any profits from the book to a social determinants charity.

Quotes from the book
• "Income levels, as a measure of socioeconomic status, are a better predictor of cardiovascular death than cholesterol levels, blood pressure and smoking combined." Martin Laverty, CEO Catholic Health Australia
• "It is now well understood that the foundations of adult health are laid before birth and in early childhood.... Generally, those with the lowest health status also have low educational and literacy levels." Steve Hambleton, Australian Medical Association President
• "Health is not a commodity to be bought and sold. It is a complex of social relations." John Falzon, CEO St Vincent de Paul Society
• "(We need) to stop thinking of health as something we get at the doctor's office but instead as something that starts in our families, in our schools and workplaces, in our playgrounds and parks, and in the air we breathe and the water we drink." Melissa Sweet, health journalist and author
• "Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples have long asserted that their health is linked to their collective ability to control their lives and cultures and the recognition of their rights." Tom Calma and Mick Gooda, Close the Gap campaign
• "If all of us play our parts in this reform agenda, together we have every chance of creating the 21st century system of care that we so desperately need." Prof Patrick McGorry
• "While ever health policy remains focused on biomedical and behavioural factors, it will not achieve best health outcomes, and will burden future taxpayers with ever escalating health costs." Martin Laverty, CEO Catholic Health Australia