Health policy
Chronic diseases such as cardiovascular health, dementia and diabetes have major long-term impacts on individuals, their families and their communities.
The growing burden of chronic disease in Australia threatens to overwhelm the health budget, the capacity of health services and the health workforce. More than one-third of that burden is preventable or can be reduced through effective, evidence-based changes to policy.
Our work is guided by preventive health targets and indicators developed by the Australian Health Policy Collaboration and endorsed by more than 50 of Australia’s leading health organisations.
Recent publications
Social prescribing in the Australian context: A national feasibility study
A new report released by the Australian Health Policy Collaboration at Victoria University presents the outcomes of a national feasibility study commissioned by the Australian Government Department of Health and Aged Care (now the Department of Health, Disability and Ageing) to assess the viability of implementing social prescribing in the Australian context.
National Consumer Engagement Strategy for Health & Wellbeing
Over the course of 2022—2024, the AHPC, in partnership with the Consumer Health Forum of Australia (CHF) and 89 Degrees East, led the development of the Australian Government’s National Consumer Engagement Strategy for Health and Wellbeing.
Publicly released in October 2025, the Strategy and its companion resource, the Health Engagement Learning Platform (HELP) Toolkit, aim to strengthen partnerships between policymakers and consumers at every stage of the policy cycle. Together, they provide a national framework to guide and support consistent, good practice consumer engagement in health policymaking across Australia.
Getting Australia's health on track
