The Long Story Short collaboration (formerly known as Storylines) began as a means to collect qualitative data about the experiences of women around sexual and reproductive healthcare in regional Victoria.
Women from communities in our regions – north-east Victoria, the Goulburn Valley and Loddon Mallee – submitted their stories online to provide a valuable lived experience perspective.
We collected stories about a broad range of topics, from Endometriosis, PCOS, libido, menopause, pregnancy care, menstruation, abortion and contraception. We heard about the unique challenges of seeking sexual and reproductive healthcare in small communities.
You can browse the Storylines library here.
Now the teams at WHGNE and WHLM have expanded and extended the project, with a focus on identifying the barriers to access and areas for improvement in sexual and reproductive healthcare in regional and rural Victoria.
In order to grow the original model, this iteration of Storylines has kicked off with the formation of a Community Advisory Group, which has engaged on issues of sexual and reproductive healthcare and identified areas for improvement and possible solutions.
The next phase of the Long Story Short project is to bring this rich lived-experience data to a diverse group of health professionals and contribute a layer of sector-specific experience, which will further inform the project.
Through the collection of stories from our communities WHLM and WHGNE can better understand women’s experiences and more effectively advocate for sexual and reproductive health services and information for our communities that is rights-based and provided to women in a way that is non-judgmental, easily understood, culturally sensitive, free from discrimination, affordable, geographically accessible, and sex positive.
The data we collect will also provide WHGNE and WHLM with the information we need to effectively develop and deliver targeted resources and education to build community knowledge about women’s sexual and reproductive rights, and grow women’s confidence to navigate the health system, describe symptoms and self-advocate when accessing services.
The feedback and expertise we gather from the survey will contribute to the design and delivery of the Long Story Short SRH Project and the future advocacy work our organisations will be undertaking to make positive changes to SRH in our regions.
Coupled with information gathered from our Community Advisory Group and a future phase of gathering stories, the health professionals consultation will add an invaluable perspective to the improvement of information provision and access to SRH in our rural and regional communities.
Long Story Short ran a consultation workshop with health professionals where we gathered some insightful data – now we are hoping to add to that rich data and get a broader range of health professional perspectives representing each region through our Health Professionals Consultation Survey.
What are the regions we represent?
Goulburn North East
Loddon Mallee
How to complete the survey
The survey will take approximately 15 minutes to complete. Questions have been categorised under the headings of Education, Stigma, Privacy, Access, Networking and Innovation. These themes have been identified by the Community Advisory Group in phase 1 of the project as key priority areas.
The survey will close on the 31st of August, COB.
What happens to my feedback?
The feedback and expertise we gather from the survey will contribute to the design and delivery of the Storylines SRH Project and the future advocacy work our organisations will be undertaking to make positive changes to SRH in our regions. The deidentified data collected in this survey will be shared with the Centre for Excellence in Rural Sexual Health (CERSH) with the aim to improve access to SRH information and services for women across the LM and GNE regions.