Global Health.

Serving our global health interests.

AMSA Global Health seeks to connect, inspire, and empower medical students to effect change towards global health equity through tangible, unified, responsible, and sustainable action.

AMSA Global Health has a vision, mission, and ambitious set of strategic objectives that direct the focus of our activities. These are formalised in our Strategic Plan 2019-2021, which is reviewed and revised every three years under the direction of the AMSA Global Health Forum.

  • Our vision: Sustainable, universal and equitable health for all.
  • Our mission: To engage, represent and empower medical students to take effective action on global health.

Our structure

AMSA Global Health Volunteers are divided into three streams; the Capacity and Engagement (C&E) Stream, Advocacy Stream, and Partnerships Stream. Each stream is overseen by a member of the Executive Team, which is elected for a year by the AMSA Global Health Forum. The Executive Team is responsible for strategic planning and vision.

The day-to-day management of AMSA Global Health is coordinated by the appointed Management Team. They oversee a variety of national projects, and campaign on issues relevant to all Australian medical students. The management team is divided into the three streams. Some management team portfolios also oversee a dedicated subcommittee.

Global Health

Global health is becoming increasingly more relevant, subsequently garnering widespread popularity and support through both the global health advocates within our the medical education space and the general public. AMSA Global Health seeks to provide a platform to inspire meaningful conversation, action change in the sphere of global health, both locally and nationally.

As a valuable platform for global health advocates, AMSA Global Health has seen increasing engagement with our initiatives including our biannual Forums, education and capacity building programs such as the AMSA Global Health Intensive, social media, and our four issue-specific advocacy projects:

Our Committees

AMSA Code Green is AMSA’s climate change & health project. We provide a platform for medical students to engage with environmental advocacy, and fight for the health of our planet and the people who depend on it. We aim to inspire, engage and educate Australian medical students on all things related to the environment and health.

Advocacy

Representing the views of Australian medical students in the climate health sphere.

Inspiration

Providing opportunities for up-skilling and collaboration to inspire med students to engage with the climate health discussion and take action.

Education

Providing information on the connections between climate change and health, and a doctor’s role in this changing climate.

The Environment and Health

A healthy environment is essential for human health and well-being. Environmental factors such as access to safe drinking water and air pollution contribute to nearly a quarter of deaths worldwide, and climate change has been described by the Lancet as the biggest global health threat of the 21st century. For these reasons, it is essential that current and future doctors advocate for the health of the planet, as well as that of its future patients.

To learn more about links between the environment and human health, visit the resources below!

What can I do?

We are all about tangible action within the space of climate health. If you have ever had a passion for change in this area, and don’t know where to start, here is a couple of steps to help you in starting your journey to a greener, more sustainable and brighter future:

  • Divesting from fossil fuels (check out this medical students’ guide to divestment for more info)!
  • Learning more about planetary health — begin with the links below!
  • Being more sustainable in your day-to-day life — the ABC series War on Waste is a great place for tips to get you started!
  • Sign up to & volunteer with your local AMSA Code Green group, or other climate health organisations like Doctors for the Environment Australia and the Climate and Health Alliance.
  • Talk to your family and friends about the links between the climate and health – this guide by the Climate and Health Alliance provides some advice and key information!

Get Involved

We’re an awesome bunch and we’d love to have you on board. There are so many ways to stay in the loop, so don’t be a stranger and get involved!

  1. Follow us on Facebook for information, events and the occasional dank meme.
  2. Get in touch with the Code Green & AMSA Global Health reps at your med school for local projects and initiatives! (If you don’t know who that is at your uni, feel free to email us or message our Facebook page).
  3. Come find us at AMSA Global Health events! The Code Green team will be lurking at all AMSA GH councils and conventions, and we’re always keen for chat — we’re friendly, we promise! 
  4. Email us! We’d love to hear your ideas, comments & suggestions. We’re at [email protected].
  5. Subscribe to the AMSA Code Green network to stay in the loop

Further Reading

Here are some of our ideas for where you can go to learn more about climate change, the environment and human health!

AMSA Crossing Borders is a national project of the AMSA Global Health Committee who aim to engage, educate and promote advocacy for the health and human rights of refugee, asylum seekers and undocumented migrants. We believe that health is a human right, and that as future medical professionals we have a responsibility to advocate for this basic human right for every person.

We are made up of a core committee with AMSA Global Health and include representatives in all medical schools throughout Australia.
AMSA Crossing Borders joins an international community of health professionals aiming to remove the stigma, incite conversation and improve the health of refugee and asylum seekers both within and outside our borders.

Our Mission

Our mission is to educate the medical community about refugee and asylum seekers. Who they are, their rights and the impact their experience and treatment has on their health. Through education we aim to unite medical students and health professionals, and utilise our powerful voice to advocate for the rights and health for refugee and asylum seekers.

Refugee and Asylum Seeker Health

We are currently experiencing the largest refugee crisis ever recorded. Over 65.5 million people globally have been forcibly displaced due to war, conflict, violence and increasing representation of “climate refugees”. So far, the overwhelming burden of supporting these people has fallen to developing nations, which lack the facilities to host and care for these people.

Every part of a migration journey, including processing and settlement can have serious adverse effects on the health of refugee and asylum seekers. From the experience of the severe trauma a person had fled, the dangerous journey they take and the poor living conditions, treatment and healthcare available at processing centre can all lead to significant adverse outcomes long-term.

Every person is a human being. As such they have a right to appropriate health care regardless of their immigration status. In the wake of the global refugee Crisis, now more than ever medical professionals must advocate for the rights of refugee and asylum seekers.  

Refugee and Asylum Seeker Health in Australia

Australia is the only country in the world to include offshore processing and mandatory detention of asylum seekers. Refugee and asylum seeker health is severely impacted both by detention and the harrowing experiences of torture and war that these people face before arriving in Australia. The impacts are manifested primarily as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, anxiety, depression including self-harm and suicidal ideation.

Australia’s offshore processing facilities have been described the United Nations “unsustainable, inhumane and contrary to its human rights obligations” and that refugee and asylum seekers should be transferred to Australia for processing immediately. It is not illegal to seek asylum. Yet Australia’s current policy sees refugees and asylum seekers treated as prisoners, detained indefinitely.

60%

of detainees are reported to have some form of mental illness – including anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), self-harm, and suicidal ideation.

95%

of children who had been detained on Nauru for between 3 – 17 months were at risk of developing PTSD

Length of Time

in detention is proportional to the severity of mental disturbances suffered.

10x Higher

Suicide rates are up to 10 times higher in detention centres than in the Australian community

Get Involved!

Educate

  • Attend a session by CB at GHC, convention or Global Health Forum

Advocate

  • Contact us at [email protected] to see how you can advocate for refugee and asylum seekers
  • Look out for Crossing Borders at Global Health events and come meet us!
  • Twitter

Engage

Act

AMSA Sexual and Reproductive Health is an AMSA Global Health initiative concerned with a wide range of sexual and reproductive health issues, including menstrual hygiene, contraception, sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and HIV/AIDS, gynaecological and obstetric care, and sexual assault and intimate partner violence.

Our Mission

Our mission is to be the primary platform for Australian-based medical students interested in a human-rights based approach to addressing sexual and reproductive health issues both locally and globally, including:

  • Comprehensive Sexual Education
  • Menstrual Hygiene
  • Contraception
  • Gynaecological and Obstetric care
  • Sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and HIV/AIDS
  • Sexual Assault and Intimate Partner Violence
  • Female Genital Mutilation (FGM)
  • Child and Forced Marriage
  • Safe and Non-judgemental Healthcare for Marginalised Populations

Why Sexual and Reproductive Health?

The ‘Cairo Programme of Action’ in 1994 was the first international policy document to define reproductive health, stating: 

“Reproductive health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity, in all matters relating to the reproductive system and its functions and processes.”

At AMSA Sexual and Reproductive Health we believe in this holistic, rights-based approach to reproductive health care and the right of every individual to have the tools necessary to have a safe sexual and reproductive health journey throughout their lives. 

What can I do?

As individuals, there are plenty of ways we can help. These include:

  • Educating yourself about reproductive health issues
  • Donating to a reproductive health charity
  • Being aware of local reproductive health services and informing those around you
  • Familiarising yourself with current reproductive health laws in your country and advocating for positive change

Get Involved

It’s simple:

  1. Make sure you’re following us on Facebook!
  2. Either contact the Reproductive Rights Rep, Red Rep or AMSA Global Health Rep at your Medical School or apply to become one! Facebook message or email ([email protected]) us if you’re not sure.
  3. Look for the purple AMSA SRH stall at your local AMSA Global Health Event! We’re always happy for a chat and interested to hear your thoughts!
  4. Keep an eye out for AMSA call-outs for policy writers, working group members, representative roles and even Project Coordinator positions.

Watch out for Sexual Health September, a month-long series of Q&A discussions, movie screenings, symposiums, quiz nights and competitions which will explore the many facets of sexual health!

Further Reading

Here are some handy links:

Abortion in Medical Curricula

Induced abortion is the most common gynaecological procedure in those with a uterus in Australia. AMSA Sexual and Reproductive Health have released a comprehensive guidebook about abortion education in the medical curriculum.

Abortion in Medical Curricula CampaignDownload

Advocate for Changing the Abortion Curriculum

Join AMSA SRH, reproductive health experts and health students around Australia in pushing for better quality abortion care in our curricula and public hospitals. Find letter templates to key stakeholders from your federal minister to your faculty dean in our bio! Once you have emailed your letters, enter the prize raffle for some amazing prizes from our sponsors.

View our letter template

From the inaccessibility of affordable healthy food, or lack of physical activity because there are inadequate sporting facilities nearby – in this day and age, our health and wellbeing is not only decided by ourselves but also by the complex social and physical environment we live and interact in. A healthy community is one that motivates YOU to take charge of YOUR health. The ultimate goal is to promote easy access to healthy food options, opportunities to incorporate daily exercise within a busy lifestyle, and an overall positive culture that supports your wellbeing.

Our Mission

Healthy Communities hopes to inform, engage and inspire change across the country towards the prevention of NCDs. We want to get YOU involved and passionate about NCDs, and their impact on our everyday lives. We envision Healthy Communities to expand into a national and international platform for global health with a strong focus on nutrition, exercise and their role in prevention of NCDs, whilst continuing to strengthen grassroot initiatives across medical schools in Australia.

Education

We aim to educate and engage Australian medical students and the wider community about the relationship between obesogenic environments and NCD. This will be done by working with medical faculties in pushing for NCD prevention to be incorporated into the curriculum as well as having online modules for education.

Advocacy

We aim to advocacy for public health in a community level through areas such as the sugar tax and a sustainable, planetary health agenda within hospitals.

Projects

We aim to run Projects nationwide such as Move Mindfully Campaign and Annual Park Run that encourage exercise and movement in our daily lives. In 2019, we envision a medical school-run community kitchen workshop to inform students about cooking healthy and nutritious meals, and bring this concept also to hospitals with our Healthy Hospitals initiative.

Rationale

“Unhealthy communities” that encourage the obesogenic lifestyle are rising rapidly in the Australian population and worldwide. 89% of deaths in Australia leading to an increasing global disease burden of NCDs such as heart disease and type II diabetes, along with many other conditions. At Healthy Communities, the newest member of AMSA, we are a group of enthusiastic students passionate about advocating for this increasingly prevalent issue within the public health arena. As a student-led organisation, we aim to motivate medical students towards healthy lifestyles, with the hope that it inspires them both in their own lives, as well as the wider community as they become future health practitioners.

Want to Learn More?

If you want to read more about the NCD landscape in Australia as well as globally, check out some of these interesting articles, including AMSA’s policies:

Publications

Journal of Global Health

The AMSA Journal of Global Health (AJGH), formerly Vector Journal, is a student-run, peer-reviewed global health journal. Each issue contains articles various topics of global health importance, including communicable and non-communicable diseases, refugee health, climate health, sexual and reproductive health, global surgery, child health, disasters and humanitarian crises and human rights. AJGH transitioned from a magazine to a peer-reviewed journal in 2015.

The aim of AJGH is to provide an accessible platform for medical students to engage with global health through academic writing and to gain experience in the publication process. By doing so, we aim to empower students to continue sharing their knowledge and opinions in global health through academic writing in the future. We believe these skills are important for all future doctors and essential for future change-makers in global health.

Global Health Blog

Updates about the organisation, and editorial pieces from the AMSA Journal of Global Health.

Global Health Chat

The Global Health Chat is a podcast produced by the AMSA Journal of Global Health. Each episode, we invite a guest on the show to dive deep into a particular issue. Available wherever you listen to your podcasts!

Global Health Event Calendar

Get Involved

Reactive Advocacy Form

Seen something in the news that makes you angry? Feel like nobody is talking about a big issue? Want to see AMSA Global Health talk more about certain topics? We want to hear from you – more than that, we want you to be involved!

Send us the details and sources for the news event or global health topic you want to see AMSA Global Health respond to by filling out this form.

Submit Form

Contact Us

Got a question or idea? Want to partner with us? Or maybe you just want to chat? Our inbox is always open! For all general inquiries, email [email protected] and we'll get back to you as soon as we can. Alternatively, use one of the email addresses listed below.

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