Inquiry into Women's Pain

The recently released Listening to Women’s Voices report told us a staggering 40% of surveyed women live with chronic pain that affects their health and wellbeing.

To help address the significant challenges faced when seeking care for pain, the Victorian Government launched the Inquiry into Women’s Pain in January 2024. The Inquiry will report on Victorian girls and women from 12 years of age with lived and living experience of pain and consider opportunities to improve access to treatment and care.

We are hosting a Community Forum to hear about women’s experiences of pain and the care, service or treatment they have received.

Community Forum details

Who: women with lived or living experience of pain conditions, including family members, carers and supporters.

Where: Bendigo Regional Tennis Centre, 21-26 Nolan St, Bendigo VIC 3550.

When: 10.00am – 12.30pm, Friday 23 August 2024.

Please arrive at 9.45am for registration. Tea and coffee will be available on arrival.

Spaces are limited, registrations will close once capacity is met or on Friday 16 August 2024.

Further information, including venue access, will be shared by email prior to the forum.

If you have any questions please email the Inquiry into Women’s Pain team, Safer Care Victoria at paininquiry@safercare.vic.gov.au

Collection Notice for the Inquiry into Women’s Pain Community Forums

The Department of Health (the Department) and Safer Care Victoria (SCV) is committed to protecting your privacy and is conducting this community forum for the purposes of informing the Women’s Health Pain Inquiry in Victoria. The inquiry will provide an opportunity for the experiences of girls and women to be heard and acknowledged, report on these experiences and inform the inquiry’s understanding of systemic issues and solutions that will form the basis for recommendations to improve patient care.

Identifying information such as contact details and name will be collected by the Department for the purpose of registrations and attendance records. This information will not be used further in the Inquiry or the final report. It will be removed from notes and transcripts prior to being sent to a third party contractor for analysis.

The information collected in this community forum will be used to inform summaries of key findings and the inquiry report and recommendations. The discussions from the forum will be recorded via scribes at each table. Once collected, these notes will be checked by SCV and will be de-identified by removing any identifying information inadvertently provided. All information collected will be aggregated. Aggregated and de-identified data will be provided to a third party service provider for analysis. The Department will not attempt to link any unit-level data collected from this community forum with any other unit-level data.

Responses and quotes or excerpts of information you provide may be used in the inquiry public report and other materials used by the Department of Health and other departments and agencies in the Victorian Government to support the Women’s Health and Wellbeing Program - https://www.health.vic.gov.au/public-health/womens-health-wellbeing-program The Department will take all reasonable steps to ensure that quotes or excerpts used are de-identified.

There may be photos taken during the community forum to be published in the public Inquiry report and other materials used by the Department of Health and SCV to support the Women’s Health and Wellbeing Program. If you do not wish to have your photo taken, please inform the staff through the registration form, on the day you will be given a sticker to indicate that you do not wish to be photographed.

If you have any questions, you can contact the Department by emailing publichealth.pmo@health.vic.gov.au or you can write directly to the Women’s Pain Inquiry team at paininquiry@safercare.vic.gov.au.

For more information on the Department’s privacy practices, please refer to the Department’s privacy policy at https://www.health.vic.gov.au/department-of-health-privacy-policy.

You may contact the Department to request access to any personal information that the Department holds about you. However, please note that the community forum information maintained by the Department will not include your name or directly identifying information and therefore the Department will not be able to provide you with access to individual information you share during the community forum.