WOMENS HEALTH

At OAMS we recognise that women are different from men, they experience different things while growing up and as adults; biological factors can influence health and well-being outcomes; factors related to gender can affect treatment choices; health (and ill-health) can affect women’s role in society (and women’s role can affect their health); and women are the majority of carers for people who are both healthy and not so healthy.

Women’s health at OAMS is about recognising these differences

We support women to take control of their bodies through providing a full range of information and access to appropriate health care, education, collaborative decision making between women and their health care providers, and a social model of health that takes into account more than just physical, recognising health in context, e.g. the influence of social factors such as housing and employment on health and well-being.

OAMS women’s health is based on an all-encompassing view of health and has as its starting point personally-defined needs (e.g. what the woman thinks is right/wrong), rather than professionally-defined needs (e.g. what a doctor thinks is right/wrong).

OAMS women’s health covers a range of health issues including birth control, menstruation, breasts, osteoporosis, menopause, female cancers, and tests and treatments specific to women’s health

Colposcopy Clinic

In a unique model, OAMS secured a visiting Colposcopy Service in collaboration with the Rural Doctors Network and Western Local Health District. Colposcopy is the use of a microscope to look at the cells at the opening of the womb. It is for women who have had an abnormal Pap Smear result. Leonie parker, Women’s Health Nurse Practitioner with Western Local Health District and Dr Mick Campion Gynaecologist from Royal Women’s Hospital in Sydney are the clinicians providing this clinic. OAMS Aboriginal Maternal & Infant Health Care Worker provides much needed assistance before, during and after the clinic to the team and more importantly to the clients accessing the service. Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal women in the Community can access this clinic with internal or external referrals from their General Practitioner.