Denise Main was a pioneer for community health in Bendigo serving as the organisation’s first Community Health Nurse from the beginning in 1974 through to 1993.
She remembers a message from her family on the night of May 1974 after accepting the offer to become the first Community Health Nurse for Eaglehawk Long Gully Community Health Centre that would prove prophetic for her career in the role.
It read: “Well done, you realise that this position will become not just a job but a way of life.”
How true those words would become.
“I have lived and breathed the philosophy, principles and practice of community and public healh as a Community Health Nurse and as a lecturer at La Trobe University in the Bachelor of Public Health Program and recently as a volunteer for the Bellarine, Point Lonsdale Community Health Service.”
Denise outlined the incredible journey of community health in Bendigo during a speech to the Bendigo Community Health Services AGM on October 28, 2010.
“I can well remember the first AGM of what was then the Eaglehawk and Long Gully Community Health Centre in 1974. The staff of almost 16 had high hopes for the future of the community based centre but never could have envisaged the size, range and scope of the community health service that it now has become.
“This journey has taken 36 years with the original philosophy and policy still in place and at the heart of each stage of its development. The focus has not wavered from one that has always been one of health promotion, illness prevention and health education rather than one focused on illness and primary care. This was a unique feature a new way of thinking about community health.”
A true highlight of Denise’s time in community health was her work in researching and establishing a service to meet the needs of victims and survivors of sexual assault.
Denise was supported by the Committee of Management and peers to apply for and accept a Churchill Fellowship to study community responses to child sexual abuse in the USA and Canada in 1986.
“This fellowship, the experience and knowledge gained helped to strengthen the newly-established Sexual Assault Unit at Bendigo Base Hospital which later became the Centre Against Sexual Assault – Yarrington House named after Mrs Yarrington of Eaglehawk’s Benovolent Society for Women and Children,” Denise says.
“It also gave us a model to develop the Child Sexual Assault Treatment Program known as the CAT Program.”
Denise remembers the satisfaction that came with taking risks and challenges in innovation and creating opportunities for change in the way that individuals and families managed their health care issues.
“The aim was to help to shift the focus from dependence to managing with the support and expertise of health care practitioners. However, in most instances when we provided our researched evidence for an initiative we received the support and encouragement from the whole community health team.”
Denise retired from life as a Community Health Nurse in February 1993.
Today Denise lives in Point Lonsdale and has completed a Diploma of Visual Arts, works as a volunteer guide at Geelong Gallery and is a member of the SpringDale Artists, Queenscliff Rip Writers and Bellarine Community Health Services.
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Last updated: December 2019.