Champions for women’s health and equality honoured

Carolyn Frohmader doesn’t seem like someone you’d expect to be honored after her name.

“Half of my head is shaved and the other half is blue, I’m not luxurious,” he said.

“I’m actually someone who doesn’t fit the stereotypes.”

The human rights defender has worked tirelessly throughout her career to defend the rights of women and girls with disabilities.

For his work he was recognized as an Officer of the Order of Australia; This is a high honor given for distinguished service to Australia or humanity in general.

Ms Frohmader, a proud Tasmanian, said she hoped others on Apple Island knew it was possible to achieve great things.

“Often the message is that young Tasmanians should leave the country, but I feel like I’ve shown that you don’t need to live in a different state to find success in your career,” he said.

Ms Frohmader’s ongoing advocacy led to the establishment of the 2019 Royal Commission into Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation of Disabled People.

“When you’ve been advocating for a long time, you learn to measure success in different ways, and it can take decades to see change, so you have to be persistent,” he said.

“Women living with disabilities are often left stranded and if we are not at the table we are left out… there is still so much to do.”

Anne Kelso, former executive director of the National Health and Medical Research Council, was concerned that women were not receiving grants compared to their male counterparts.

He introduced a system that would ensure that the most valuable grants were awarded to equal numbers of male and female researchers.

“We wanted to change the attitudes of research institutions, increase the confidence of female researchers and change the industry to move beyond supporting individual women,” she said.

“We had to reiterate that this system does not impact the quality of grants, but rather that we are trying to address the long-term systemic disadvantages faced by women in the sector.”

Professor Kelso was named an Officer of the Order of Australia for outstanding service to health and medical research sciences and gender equality.

Contributions to women’s health are among those deemed worthy of the award this year.

Anne Buist was recognized as an Officer of the Order of Australia for her work to improve perinatal mental health, while Susan Jacobs and John Allan were honored as Members of the Order of Australia for their significant contribution to gynecology, obstetrics and maternal health.

Professor Buist nearly missed the email alerting him to the honor, mistakenly thinking it was spam before a follow-up message landed in his inbox a few weeks later.

Prof Buist, a psychiatrist specializing in women’s mental health, led the Beyondblue Postpartum Depression Programme, which screened more than 40,000 women in Australia over four years.

The project’s findings have since been implemented across Australia, allowing for early screening to ensure women have the opportunity to get help.

“The project was on such a large scale because it covered the whole of Australia and incorporating (the findings) into routine care was one of the highlights of my career,” Prof Buist told AAP.

“There are patients on an individual level that I will never forget, and watching them heal and seeing their progress is incredibly rewarding.”

Dr Allan saw the beginnings of in vitro fertilization technology in Australia and said the courage of women undergoing fertility treatment had inspired him throughout his career.

“I often tell my students that if it were left to men, the human race would have vanished long ago,” she said.

“Among all the patient groups I care for, infertility stress is something else, and many people don’t realize how devastating it is to a family until they experience it.”

According to Dr Jacobs, giving women choice in pregnancy care was crucial to better health outcomes.

Beginning her career in the early 1980s, when obstetricians and gynecologists were scarce, she welcomed the shift in gender diversity in the profession.

“To me, it’s all about communication, which is the essence of good health care, and giving people time to digest. It’s about listening to women and not making things too scary for them,” she said.

Much of her career has focused on improving health outcomes for Indigenous women, working in clinics that provide access to culturally appropriate specialist care.

“Having a dedicated medical service for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women has really increased confidence in the system,” she said.

“Pregnancy is a time when women especially want to feel safe, and for a long time that didn’t happen.”