About Us
A focus on the health of people from inland communities
The major focus of the Centre for Inland Health (CIH), a research centre of Charles Sturt University (CSU), is the health of inland communities - communities that are situated outside major cities and more than 80km from the coast. Evidence is steadily building that, overall, people of inland communities of Australia experience poorer health than their city-based and coastal counterparts, and their death rates are significantly higher. Population dispersion, large distances between communities, sparse services related to small population sizes, occupational profiles, socio-economic factors and other, in some cases unrecognised, factors are all likely to play a role in these health differences. However, much further research is required to further elucidate these factors, to examine in detail the variations in health status across these communities, and then to determine ways in which key factors can be addressed in order to reduce the gap in health status between inland communities and coastal communities and major cities. These issues are central to the work of the CIH, which is ideally located at CSU, in close proximity to a large number of inland communities of Australia.
Grounded in principles of comprehensive primary health care & the full range of health determinants
The Centre for Inland Health employs the definition of health adopted by the World Health Organisation (WHO) in its Constitution in 1948, which has remained unchanged and states, "health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity." The CIH recognises the wide range of social, biological and environmental determinants of health described by the WHO (WHO, 2003; CSDH, 2008), and in the landmark Declaration of Alma-Ata (1978). On this basis, the CIH promotes the WHO principles of comprehensive primary health care, which incorporate community development and social approaches to building health, as well as the clinical and public health care and biomedical approaches (WHO, 1978; 2008; Kelleher, 2001). Comprehensive primary health care focuses on families and communities as well as individuals, on the social and physical contexts in which people reside, on health rather than just disease, and on building health and preventing disease and its progression. It is underpinned by sound evidence from research across a range of relevant fields, which informs the selection and design of specific approaches. These characteristics make comprehensive primary health care the optimal approach for enhancing the health of communities and individuals.
Building health through collaborative research & development
The CIH applies these principles in its collaborative efforts with communities and service providers to build the health of communities and individual members of those communities, through research and development. The principles of comprehensive primary health care underpin the priorities and key research areas of the CIH. Evidence recently compiled by the WHO (CSDH, 2008; WHO, 2008) has clearly shown these principles and the approaches they generate to be both effective and essential in improving the health status of individuals and communities, across a diverse range of contexts.
Knowledge sharing with other contexts
Importantly, this primary focus of the CIH on inland communities does not preclude research and knowledge transfer in other contexts. Knowledge gleaned from the Australian inland context also has value for inland communities of other nations. Through its international links and through research publication, the CIH seeks to extend its contexts of research and the application of the new knowledge it generates to inland communities of other nations, including China and other nations of the Asia-Pacific region. In addition, research conducted in inland contexts frequently yields knowledge and solutions of value to populations of major cities and coastal communities, and such applications are the subject of continuous consideration by CIH research teams. Conversely, research conducted in coastal and city-based populations often provides knowledge and solutions that can be directly applied or adapted to inland communities, and research will be conducted and reviewed by CIH teams across these coastal and city contexts, where this provides new knowledge of benefit to inland communities.