Last Thursday afternoon, Women with Disabilities Victoria, in partnership with Women’s Health Grampians, Grampians Disability Advocacy Inc., and Stawell Neighbourhood House, ran a Wellbeing Afternoon for women and gender-diverse people with disabilities.

The event brought women and gender-diverse people with disabilities from across the region together to connect, learn, and focus on their health and wellbeing.

Participants heard from WDV’s Karleen Plunkett, Experts by Experience Advocate – Gender and Disability, on Cervical Cancer Screening. She explained why screening matters, how it is done, and the collection options available. Karleen was joined by Katie Lovett, Sexual and Reproductive Health Clinical Nurse Consultant, who spoke about the Sexual Health Clinic and demonstrated the self-collection tool and speculum.

Participants said it was helpful to see both the speculum and self-collection tools demonstrated and to know what to expect when they make an appointment at the sexual health clinic. Katie also spoke about other health issues the clinic can assist with, including pelvic pain, heavy bleeding, and contraception. One participant said hearing how clinic appointments work and seeing the demonstration helped relieve her anxiety and made her feel better about her choices.

This was followed by two of WHG’s Equality for All Advocates, Jessie and Katrina, who shared their lived experience of living with disabilities in regional Victoria and why community connection matters.

Next, two activities ran simultaneously: a gentle guided discussion on ‘who is in your safety circle’ using clay, facilitated by Katja, our Prevention Advisor and Ceramic Artist, and Deb, our Education Lead, who leads consent and RRRR training in schools.

At the same time, Sheree from This Is Wellbeing led Chair Yoga. She adapted yoga poses to suit participants’ needs, with a focus on relaxation, breathwork, and gentle stretch moves, which helped some realise they can do yoga, just differently. Participants had the opportunity to do both activities, swapping over at the end of each one.

Each participant also took home a gift bag of wellbeing goodies donated by many different businesses in the region.

Thank you to Karleen Plunkett, Experts by Experience Advocate – Gender and Disability at Women with Disabilities Victoria; Katie Lovett, Sexual and Reproductive Health Clinical Nurse Consultant at Grampians Health- Stawell Campus; Leesa Lynch, Hub Manager at The Orange Door Wimmera; Abbie Koenig, Disability Family Violence Practice Development Advisor (Western) from Berry Street; Sheree from This Is Wellbeing; Carol Starkey, Partnership and Projects Manager at Grampians disAbility Advocacy; Louise Hewitt, Coordinator at Stawell Neighbourhood House; Katja Fiedler and Deb Harris from Women’s Health Grampians.

If you’d like to know more, or are interested in partnering with us to run a similar event, please get in touch via email at admin@whg.org.au, or give us a call on 03 5322 4100.

This project was supported by Cancer Council Victoria with funding from the Victorian Government.