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Collectively supporting Australian health in times of emergency

Published: 24 February 2020

Health services and organisations are particularly important during times of public health and safety concern — providing a trusted source of practical information to support the community at a local, state and national level. We were heartened to see our Information Partners in action during the 2019/20 fire season and the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak.

Providing important advice during the bushfires

The bushfires impacted Australians on a national scale with 76 per cent[1] of people affected in some way and 5.4 million hectares reportedly burned just in NSW. The health implications quickly became evident with people exposed to thick smoke and poor air quality, triggering respiratory symptoms.

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Many health organisations provided prompt information and advice across their channels to help people look after their health. We were pleased to see our Information Partners publishing credible and trustworthy health content specifically about smoke and fire. These alerts, articles, checklists, and tools helped people stay safe at a time when people were seeking direction and support.

For example, Asthma Australia produced an FAQ page with a five-point checklist (Opens in new tab) and self-assessment chart to help people gauge the air quality around them. The collaborative effort from our Information Partners was extensive, and these are just a few examples of health support provided:

The healthdirect service rapidly pulled together relevant health pages to create a new bushfire and air quality (Opens in new tab) resource hub and contributed a blog post about bushfire stress (Opens in new tab). The Pregnancy, Birth and Baby service also prepared blog posts to help families (Opens in new tab) and pregnant women (Opens in new tab).

Over the holiday period, the healthdirect service saw an increase in people concerned about respiratory symptoms contact the helpline (1800 022 222) and visits of people seeking advice about breathing difficulties on the healthdirect Symptom Checker (Opens in new tab) spiked by 50 per cent.

Online health information important amid COVID-19 fears

While still dealing with the effects of the bushfires, a novel coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak became a worldwide health emergency. Once again, the public were seeking information and advice about a new health threat — how it spreads, what the symptoms are and how to reduce the risk of catching it.

Health organisations rallied to quickly disseminate resources and advice for health professionals and consumers. Our Information Partners in particular, were quick to provide accurate information, timely reminders about hygiene and reduce community fear through their websites and social media channels.

AusMed (Opens in new tab) supported the health industry by making their Continuing Professional Development (CPD) Hand Hygiene module (Opens in new tab) free for health professionals. More examples from our Information Partners include:

In partnership with the Australian Department of Health, healthdirect set up a national Coronavirus Health Information Line (1800 020 080) for people seeking up-to-date information about prevention, symptoms and the spread of COVID-19. Again, our team produced a blog (Opens in new tab) and central hub (Opens in new tab) of accurate information.

[1] Exposure and the impact on attitudes of the 2019-20 Australian Bushfires. Australian National University Centre for Social Research and Methods, 2020.

Last reviewed: February 2020