Obstetrics and Gynaecology Resident Emily Fitt has always been interested in volunteering and making a big difference.
But when she took the leap and started volunteering at The Water Well Project during medical school in 2017, she got so much more than she bargained for.
“It’s given me a much greater understanding of what some people’s base health literacy is, and it’s really helped me to clarify in my mind what the important issues are that people actually care about and want to know,” she said.
“This has been invaluable during my work as a resident at Monash Health.”
The Water Well Project is a health promotion charity that improves the health and wellbeing of communities from migrant, refugee and asylum seeker backgrounds through free interactive health education sessions run by volunteer healthcare professionals.
In traditional communities, a river, water pump, or water well, was a place where people congregated, not only to gather water, but also to share stories, knowledge and experience. The Water Well Project has adopted this notion, creating spaces for exchange and conversation between healthcare professionals and community groups to spread practical, culturally safe and accurate health information to individuals and families.
Emily, who volunteers her time to run sessions, said health literacy – which is how people understand their health, the health of those around them and how they can understand and interact with their environment to best facilitate and improve their own health – tended to be poorer in these demographics.
“These people have often come from countries with very different healthcare systems, and they may not have had access to any regular and consistent healthcare previously,” she said.
“Dietary education is a huge element because often what they used to buy at home is not available here, and they need help understanding what foods we have here and what is healthy and what’s not.”
Due to her reliability and dedication over the years, Emily was recently awarded the Save the Day Volunteer of the Year award by The Water Well Project for consistently stepping in to facilitate sessions at the last minute when needed.
“The sessions are very interactive and collaborative, and we start by asking about and understanding the groups health literacy in the particular topic we’re covering that day, including what they already know and what they would like to know about,” she said.
“We often do Australia specific sessions such as what a GP is and how to access one, how and why to call an ambulance, how to be sun smart in Australia and the higher risk of skin cancer here, as well as more generalised health sessions such as women’s health sessions – my favourite!”
Through years of volunteering her own time running health literacy sessions, Emily has been able to make a big impact in the lives of some of our most vulnerable community members.
“In the women’s health sessions particularly, women often ask me about bothersome symptoms and I’m able to tell them if something doesn’t sound normal, if they need further medical attention and how to access it,” she said.
“Otherwise, they would have just kept suffering with those symptoms.”
For those interested in making a difference just like Emily, The Water Well Project is currently seeking interest from new volunteers to run health education sessions on a range of different health topics with diverse community groups.
AHPRA-accredited healthcare professionals can register for the next induction session here.
Approved by Associate Professor, Anjali Dhulia, Chief Medical Officer and Matthew Mahon, Executive Director, Communication and Engagement