Invest in self-care to help enhance Australia’s health and economic recovery

Consumer Healthcare Products (CHP) Australia has called for structural support and investment in self-care, emphasising its potential to help improve individuals’ health outcomes and enhance Australia’s health and economic recovery.

In their 2021-22 Pre-Budget Submission, CHP Australia outlines several evidence-based policies to support greater self-care and the medicines supply chain:

• embed self-care in national health policy and practice and enhance preventive health action,
• improve Australia’s health and medicines literacy, and
• facilitate the consistent availability of appropriate air freight capacity, separate from variable capacity provided by international passenger arrivals, to minimise disruptions in the pandemic supply chain.

As demonstrated in the Mitchell Institute’s Self-care for health: a national policy blueprint, self-care is a comprehensive, cost-effective, and logical approach that can contribute to improving individuals’ health outcomes, reducing Australia’s disease burden, and fostering a more cost-effective healthcare system.

Self-care can also contribute to Australia’s economic recovery.

Effectively containing infections and ensuring wide-spread vaccine uptake is essential to enabling economic activity and prosperity across all sectors. Self-care can help facilitate these conditions and optimise vaccine uptake by engaging individuals in preventive health action, supporting health literacy, and countering health misinformation.

CHP Australia’s Chief Executive Officer, Dr. Deon Schoombie, explains

“More needs to be done to address the barriers limiting individuals’ capacity to practice greater self-care. – raising health literacy is key.”

“If properly supported, self-care can be a game changer for public health, with benefits being shared by individuals and government.”

“There is good evidence that responsible self-care improves individual health outcomes and contributes towards creating a sustainable healthcare system.”

Consumer Healthcare Products Australia’s 2021-22 Pre-Budget Submission is available HERE.