About Croakey

The Croakey blog is a forum for debate and discussion about health issues and policy. It is moderated by Melissa Sweet, a freelance journalist with a personal and professional bent towards public health perspectives. Regular contributors include members of the Crikey Health and Medical Panel (CHAMP) – more than 250 people who want to help contribute to a more informed and wide-ranging public debate about health issues.

Croakey is particularly keen to talk about public health, media coverage of health, Indigenous health, marketing by the health, medical and food industries, tobacco and alcohol-related issues, rural health, mental health, consumer participation in decision-making, evidence-based care, quality and safety of health care, equity in health, and social determinants of health.

We also want to make it easier for people to contribute to debate; to tear down some of the barriers erected by governments, bureaucracies, organisations and others with a vested interest in maintaining the timidity and dishonesty which characterises so much public discussion.

You can read more about the background to the Crikey Health and Medical Panel in this article from the Medical Journal of Australia (abstract is free; full article is not but if you want a copy, let me know). CHAMP members also contribute articles to the daily Crikey bulletin.

From mid 2007 until the end of October 2009, Crikey paid Melissa Sweet for coordinating the CHAMP. When Crikey stopped this funding, the Public Health Association of Australia (PHAA) organised a consortium of organisations to each pitch in $2,000 to continue the project. Seven organisations provided funding to sustain the project from November 2009 until the end of 2010.

These organisations were:

• The Public Health Association of Australia

• VicHealth

• The Epidemiology Unit of the Victorian Infectious Diseases Reference Laboratory

• The Brain and Mind Research Institute at the University of Sydney

• The Australian Health Promotion Association

• The UNSW Research Centre for Primary Health Care and Equity

• The Australian Healthcare Reform Alliance.

When this agreement expired, the PHAA organised another funding consortium. The following organisations each agreed to pitch in $2,000, with this arrangement expiring at the end of February, 2012.

• The Epidemiology Unit of the Victorian Infectious Diseases Reference Laboratory

• The UNSW Research Centre for Primary Health Care and Equity

• Public Health Association of Australia

• Australian Health Care Reform Alliance

• VicHealth

• Australian Health Promotion Association

• RaggAhmed.

***

Update, April 2012

In 2012, the PHAA organised another funding consortium, which is scheduled to continue until the end of February 2013. The members are:

  • Public Health Association of Australia
  • VicHealth
  • Australian Health Promotion Association (AHPA)
  • Australasian College of Health Service Management (ACHSM)
  • RaggAhmed
  • Australian Health Care Reform Alliance (AHCRA)

The Public Health Association of Australia will act as the funds pooling and management body, and Melissa Sweet invoices the PHAA each month ($1,250 plus GST). As part of a commitment to editorial independence, all members of the consortium have signed a Memorandum of Understanding stating they shall have no say over Croakey’s editorial direction or content. Further details about conflicts of interest are available here.

It should be noted that Croakey likes a healthy debate; the articles posted from contributors do not necessarily reflect the views of Melissa Sweet.

Contact: melissaATsweetcommunicationDOTcomDOTau