The cost of poor health rarely stops at the hospital door. It follows a parent home, changes a child’s experience of school and shapes whether someone can remain in the workforce. Families absorb the worry and caring responsibilities. Businesses feel the disruption and communities carry the consequences.
For Western Australia, that makes preventive health a question of economic resilience as well as individual wellbeing. Investing earlier can help people stay well, prevent complications and reduce the need for more intensive support. Yet doing so requires a broader view of where good health begins.
Across the state’s not-for-profit sector, organisations working in maternity research, disability, children’s health, nutrition and community services share a consistent message: prevention needs to be built into the conditions of everyday life.
That includes preventing illness before it develops, detecting problems earlier and helping people with existing conditions avoid deterioration. These are different tasks, but each challenges a system to act before needs become more complex.
No Place for Poverty chief executive Alex Hughes says the relationship between financial hardship and poor health makes it impossible to separate prevention from social policy.
“That tells us something important about prevention: we cannot put all the responsibility for health on individuals. If someone is living with financial insecurity, inadequate housing, food insecurity or chronic stress, it is much harder to make healthy choices and much more difficult to stay well.”
National evidence reinforces the scale of that inequality. Australian Institute of Health and Welfare data for 2022–2024 show the death rate, adjusted for age, was 1.5 times as high in the most disadvantaged areas as in the least disadvantaged areas.
For Mr Hughes, improving access to preventive services must sit alongside investment in secure housing, healthy food and support for children and families.
“Tackling poverty is not separate from preventive health; it is one of the ways we prevent poor health from taking hold in the first place and help people to get the foundation they need to thrive.”
Foodbank WA head of nutrition education Jennifer Tartaglia sees this connection through the pressures households face putting nutritious meals on the table.
“Preventive health is about creating the conditions that support good health from the start, including access to nutritious food, practical food literacy and strong community-based supports.”
Ms Tartaglia says greater investment in nutrition education can improve health over time while supporting participation in education and employment. Her perspective also points to the limits of awareness campaigns: knowing what supports good health has less value when people cannot afford or access it.
Some of the most significant opportunities for prevention begin before birth.
Women and Infants Research Foundation chief executive Deb Portughes OAM says preterm birth demonstrates how an early health challenge can have consequences across a lifetime.
“Being born too early can have lifelong consequences for a child’s health and development, while also placing significant emotional and financial pressure on families, employers and the wider community.”
A 2020 cost analysis, cited by the University of Western Australia, estimated the annual cost of early birth to the Australian Government at $1.4 billion, including more than $350 million in education assistance. The estimate illustrates how the effects extend beyond medical treatment.
Ms Portughes says the WA Preterm Birth Prevention Initiative has demonstrated that evidence-based interventions can reduce preterm births when implemented at scale. The next challenge is to sustain that progress, embed proven approaches consistently in maternity care and invest in research to identify new ways to predict and prevent early birth.
She also points to the higher burden experienced by Aboriginal families and the importance of addressing the social and health factors influencing pregnancy outcomes.
“Prevention is not simply about avoiding illness - it is about giving every child the best possible start in life.”That principle continues through childhood, including for children already living with long-term conditions.
Perth Children’s Hospital Foundation chief executive Carrick Robinson says research, earlier diagnosis and innovative interventions can improve outcomes before conditions become more complex and costly.
The foundation supports Move to Improve, which uses physical activity to assist children with long-term conditions, and ChIPS, a peer-support program for young people with chronic illness. These initiatives recognise that managing health also involves confidence, connection and participation in everyday life.
“By investing in prevention and early intervention, we're helping children thrive, reducing the risk of more serious health challenges later in life, easing pressure on our healthcare system and helping ensure WA families can access world-class care when they need it most.”
For people with disability, acting earlier can also mean organising support before a gap between services becomes a crisis.
genU chief operating officer Brooke Draper points to the organisation’s involvement in WA’s From Hospital to Home program, supporting people who are medically ready to leave hospital but need appropriate arrangements to do so safely.
“For people with disability, preventive health also means ensuring they can access the right supports before a situation escalates or results in an unnecessarily prolonged hospital stay.”
This is a distinct part of the prevention agenda: reducing avoidable escalation and delays for people who already need care. It depends on health, disability and community services working together, with planning beginning early enough for support to be available when it is needed.
“Better integration between the health and disability systems, earlier planning and investment in appropriate community-based supports can improve outcomes for people with disability while also freeing up hospital capacity,” Ms Draper says.
Delivering such approaches consistently requires people with the skills, time and local knowledge to make them work.
Holyoake prevention services manager Jo Drayton says a sustainable prevention workforce is central to improving outcomes and reducing pressure across health and social services.
“Prioritising investment in a robust, sustainable and capable prevention workforce will not only improve long-term health and wellbeing outcomes, but also reduce pressure on our health and social service systems.”
Ms Drayton also identifies an opportunity to extend evidence-informed, locally responsive initiatives into rural and regional communities. Her emphasis on sustained capability raises an important funding question: how can prevention become routine if the people and services delivering it cannot plan for the long term?
For businesses, the implications extend beyond workplace wellness activities. Employers can examine whether working arrangements allow staff to attend appointments, seek support early and manage caring responsibilities. Philanthropic partnerships can help community organisations test and evaluate approaches, while longer-term commitments can support continuity.
These contributions should complement public investment and accessible services. The benefits of prevention are shared across employers, households and government, and responsibility for making it possible must be shared too.
Communicare and White Ribbon Australia acting chief executive Helen Mitchell says the strongest returns come from addressing the broader influences on health.
"The real return on investment in prevention comes when action extends beyond the individual and addresses the broader factors that influence health and wellbeing. Policy settings, community environments, cultural norms and service systems all play a role in making healthy choices easier and more sustainable.
While taking a patient and client-centered approach is essential to achieving the best outcomes for individuals, the greatest returns are realised through policy and systems change that creates the conditions for healthier communities at scale.
Prevention reduces demand on acute services, improves productivity, strengthens workforce participation and delivers long-term economic and social benefits. Western Australia has a strong track record of public health leadership, demonstrating what can be achieved when funding, policy and systems work together to support lasting change."
The challenge for WA is to turn agreement about prevention into sustained action: backing effective interventions, strengthening community services and addressing the barriers that leave people unable to get help early.
A child able to participate in school, a parent able to remain in work and a person with disability supported to return home each represent a return that matters. A healthier state is built through those everyday outcomes, long before they appear on a hospital balance sheet.
