Leadership

The Victorian and Tasmanian PHN Alliance provides a platform for PHNs to engage in state-wide project coordination, work cohesively across the PHN sector, and streamline communications and engagement efforts.

The Alliance offers a point of contact for stakeholders and partners on issues of a state-wide focus, and mechanism for jurisdictional coordination.

VTPHNA leadership

Mr Matt Jones, CEO, Murray PHN is the Chair of the Alliance.

The Chair is formally responsible for overseeing and leading the work of the Alliance and acts as the primary senior contact for the Alliance.

Chair responsibilities include leadership and oversight of jurisdictional efforts, including strategic engagement and development for the purposes of optimising collective levers. Key roles are formalised in the VTPHNA governance arrangements.

The PHN sector leadership role is a one year appointment, effective for a calendar year. Matt Jones has been appointed for 2020.

The Manager of the VTPHNA operates in a senior policy capacity working closely with the VTPHNA Chair. Ms Jade Hart currently holds this role.

Mr Matt Jones

Mr Matt Jones is the CEO at Murray PHN since its establishment in July 2015. Matt has a long and experienced rural health management career in primary health, acute public health and Aboriginal health settings in Victoria, Queensland, Northern Territory and Western Australia. Immediate past roles include CEO of the Loddon Mallee Murray Medicare Local and former Divisions of General Practice.

Matt holds a Masters of Public Health. He has a passion for improved health outcomes for regional areas through better and more connected healthcare. Matt is a member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.

Ms Jade Hart

Jade has experience leading health initiatives across government, academic and hospital sectors in Australia and the United States of America. Jade holds skills in project management, policy and program development, service planning and evaluation, and stakeholder consultation. Jade has managed statewide and national evaluation programs, operational reviews, and model of care development. Previous roles include Associate Director, Health, Ageing and Human Services, KPMG and Program Manager, Global and Community Health, School of Public Health, Indiana University. Jade has a Masters of Health Service Management, Bachelor of Science (Health Information Management), and is currently completing her PhD in implementation science in health systems planning.

CEO Forum

The Chief Executive Officers of the Victorian and Tasmanian PHNs convene through monthly forum. Specifically,

Ms Robin Whyte, CEO, Eastern Melbourne PHN
Ms Amanda Proposch, CEO, Gippsland PHN
Mr Matt Jones, CEO, Murray PHN
Adjunct Associate Professor Christopher Carter, CEO, North Western Melbourne PHN
Mr Phil Edmondson, CEO, Primary Health Tasmania
Dr Elizabeth Deveny, CEO, South Eastern Melbourne PHN
Adjunct Associate Professor Leanne Beagley, CEO, Western Victoria PHN.

Matt Jones, in his capacity as Chair of the Victorian and Tasmanian PHN Alliance, finalises the agenda and chairs the meetings.

LEADERSHIP

Statewide approaches is a shared priority of the six Victorian Primary Health Networks and the Victorian Government Department of Health and Human Services. As part of this collaboration several shared senior lead positions have been established to support:

Mental health integration

Alcohol and other drug integration

Strategic data management and analytics

MARIA YAP

Maria Yap built on her clinical mental health professional experience with a background as a Senior Medical Officer in Psychiatry across Victorian public health services to a career in health program management and development. Prior to commencing in the Senior Lead role, Maria held the role of Mental Health and Alcohol and Other Drug (AOD) Manager for Eastern Melbourne PHN. In this capacity, she was involved in the strategic commissioning of mental health and AOD services, including the development and implementation of the mental health stepped care model. Other previous work experience included fostering inter-sectoral and interagency collaboration as Inner East Partners in Recovery Manager, active member of Eastern Mental Health Service Coordination Alliance, and coordinator for professional local community networks.

As an RACGP accredited Education Activity Representative, she has facilitated the delivery of mental health and AOD education and professional development activities for General Practice. She is also very passionate about quality improvement and made significant contributions to both PHN Quality Committee and its MH/AOD Quality and Risk Committees. Maria also holds a Master of Health Administration and a Master of Business Administration.

JOEL ROBINS

Joel Robins is a health professional with a strong interest in the development and delivery of innovative and integrated services and brings experiences working across the mental health and alcohol and other drug sectors in both Australia and the UK. Joel has been involved in facilitating significant sector change through service development and implementation, stakeholder engagement, commissioning and project management across a diverse range of projects and program areas. Joel is an Accredited Mental Health Social Worker with a Bachelor of Social Work and has a Diploma of Community Services in Alcohol and Other Drugs.

Previously working as Mental Health and AOD Manager for EMPHN, key achievements have included the successful co-design and commissioning of new integrated youth mental health service model achieving improving pathways between primary and tertiary care, along with facilitating key stakeholder engagement resulting in increased interagency collaboration and partnerships in the youth sector. Joel was involved in developing EMPHN’s initial approach to commissioning of AOD services including identifying priority areas for commissioning with a focus on complementing the state ADO service system and improving pathways and access with primary care. Other key work has included overseeing the Eastern Melbourne Partners In Recovery Program that was well respected for its systems approach to engagement and collaboration with broader service sector, in addition to previous experience in training and capacity building for general practice and primary care providers in implementation of digital health technologies

BEN KONG

Ben Kong is public health professional specialising in strategic program implementation, project assurance and ICT capability delivery. Ben has extensive experience across mental health, patient experience, digital health and healthcare quality and safety throughout his career at Victorian Department of Health and Human Services. His roles have included contributing to the development of the national Your Experiences of Care (YES) mental health consumer experiences of care survey, managing implementation of the Mental Health Act 2014, oversight of a $200 million portfolio of health sector ICT projects and departmental quality and safety taskforces. Ben’s current role is to modernise Victoria’s public health protection functions through a program of data-driven digital transformation, operating model redesign and cultural strengthening. Prior to his roles in the department, Ben managed a state-wide corporate health practice with a team of exercise physiologists and nurse immunisers delivering government-funded worker health checks and influenza vaccination programs.

Ben is passionate about collaboration across government, working in partnership with the health sector and building trusted relationships with industry to develop solutions which address critical public health challenges. As a certified Enterprise Architect with expertise in cloud technologies and cyber security, Ben is deeply committed to empowering business units and health sector leaders with the integrated capabilities required to deliver better health and wellbeing outcomes for the community.

Communities of practice

The Alliance also supports a number of Communities of Practice which examine issues from a programmatic and functional perspective, such as alcohol and other drugs, population health and data, immunisation, cancer screening, and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health. In line with this, there are a range of joint initiatives underway. The Communities of Practice provide an avenue for stakeholder and partner engagement. This is complementary to local engagement and consultation efforts undertaken by individual PHNs. The PHNs use Basecamp and the Department of Health Sharepoint for collaborative action and information sharing.

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