Careers in Barwon South West Public Health Unit (BSWPHU)
About the Barwon South West Public Health Unit
The Barwon South West Public Health Unit (BSW PHU) is one of nine local public health units established across the state. Led by director, Professor Eugene Athan, the BSW PHU supports the region that spans from Greater Geelong to the South Australian border and north to the Southern Grampians region.
Initially, the BSW PHU is focused on COVID-19 preparedness, response, and vaccination, then it will move into other key areas of communicable diseases, such as blood-borne viruses including viral hepatitis, HIV, STIs, and food-borne diseases.
It will be essential to build a holistic public health model in our region that tackles chronic diseases including lifestyle-related issues, such as obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, cancers, and potentially, mental health, drugs and alcohol illnesses.
Having a regional public health unit gives us the opportunity to improve the public health of an entire region, particularly those facing disadvantage.
Meet Professor Eugene Athan OAM - Director, Barwon South West Public Health Unit
Prof. Athan Director, Dept of Infectious Disease at Barwon Health since 2004 and since 2019 has lead the Barwon South West Public Health Unit as Director. He has held professorial positions at Deakin University and University of Melbourne since 2007. In 2018, he was appointed Level E tenured Prof. of Inf. Disease at Deakin School of Medicine.
His qualifications include: MBBS Hons at Monash University 1989, FRACP in Infectious Disease 1998, Masters in Public Health Majors in Epidemiology of CDC and Health Economics at London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine 2007, Doctorate in Medicine thesis “Modern Epidemiology and Infective Endocarditis” at Monash University 2015. Prof. Athan has co-authored over 180 papers with over 3,600 citations. He is a key member of many professional healthcare and ID societies, Co-Founder for the Geelong Centre for Emerging Infectious Diseases (GCEID) and Co-director of the Australian Rickettsial reference lab.
Here Professor Athan talks about the purpose and future of the BSWPHU:
The success of Barwon Health’s COVID-19 contact tracing team showed we have the capability to oversee the Barwon South West region’s long term public health needs.
The State Government has invested in nine Local Public Health Units to manage response efforts at a local level, allowing us to refocus resources around a regional approach to COVID-19, and eventually other important diseases that will lead to improved public health in Victoria.
Initially, our local Public Health Unit is focused on COVID-19 preparedness, response, and vaccination, then we will move into other key areas of communicable diseases, such as blood-borne viruses including: viral hepatitis, HIV, STIs, and food-borne diseases.
It will be essential to build a holistic public health model in our region that tackles chronic diseases including lifestyle-related, such as obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, cancers, and potentially, mental health, drugs and alcohol. We need to align with the needs of the community and across the wider Barwon South West region.
We have a rare opportunity to widely improve the public health of an entire region, particularly those facing disadvantage, and to do this, we will need to undertake genuine stakeholder engagement with local health services, local government, and communities throughout the region.
Ultimately, we’re here to serve those communities, so we need to communicate well and, network extensively to understand the local needs, with face-to-face visits and staff based across the region. Starting with the challenge of a COVID-19 vaccination will be a true test for this new Public Health Unit model, but I am confident we can work with each community in the Barwon South West region to deliver improved public health that benefits everyone.
Meet some of our team
Lauren Farnsworth, Contact Tracing officer 
"Before starting my current 12-month secondment to the Public Health Unit six months ago, I worked as a podiatrist for the past 15 years, mainly here at Barwon Health across the Corio Community Health Centre and Barwon Health North. When the opportunity came up to join the Public Health Unit, I was looking for a change - something new and exciting. I’d always had an interest in public health and I’ve done post graduate study in international health. I helped out last year on the weekends with COVID monitoring at the Barwon Health North clinic, and then when this role was advertised, I knew it was something I wanted to do. The Public Health Unit team is so great to work with and every day is different. It’s always changing and that keeps it interesting. Our work can go from zero to 100 very quickly – we’d been managing some of the red zone arrivals into the region up until last week, which was keeping us busy enough, and then we got the call early last week about the Barwon Heads outbreak and it’s just been so full on since then. There have been lots of extra hours and late nights. The team does an incredible job and everyone pulls together so cohesively under such trying circumstances. Everyone has gone above and beyond to make sure the job gets done – it’s very inspiring to be a part of a team that’s so dedicated. It’s been a big work environment change for me taking on this role because now I do a lot of data entry and phone calls, whereas I was client facing in my previous role. The biggest challenge I’ve found is the constantly unpredictable work environment – you never know what you’re going to get when you come to work each day. It can be such a mixed bag when you deal with people while contact tracing. Some can get very emotional, anxious and stressed, but everyone has been consistently helpful and supportive of what we’re trying to do. Everyone I contact understands that we have the shared goal of getting through this together."
Sara Bonnici, Communications Advisor 
Sara Bonnici recently joined the Public Health Unit as a Communications Advisor, after 13 years working within the areas of community engagement and marketing at the Barwon Health Foundation.
Her background in telling patient stories and reaching out to groups within the community has helped the Public Health Unit engage with important key messages about the vaccination rollout.
“I’m excited to be working with the community to assist in rolling out the COVID-19 vaccination and ensuring everyone has the information they need to access this vital service,” Sara said.
“In my previous roles, I’ve enjoyed meeting with consumers, patients and members of the community to tell stories that convey important health messages to the public, with the goal of improving healthcare access and quality of our services. Now I am able to do this in my new role, with a focus on informing the community and engaging them with the vaccination rollout over the coming months.”
Caroline Poynder, Immunisation Lead
Caroline Poynder joined the Barwon South West Public Health Unit as Immunisation Lead in January 2021, after working for Barwon Health for over eleven years as Immunisation Co-ordinator. 
“I've been involved in the immunisation service at Barwon Health for many years, so stepping into this role felt like a natural fit for me. However, taking on this role and leading the COVID-19 vaccine community outreach program on such a large scale has been very different to our previous vaccination programs," Caroline said.
“As part of the COVID-19 vaccination roll out, I've been involved in providing in-reach vaccinations to many different groups of people across our community."
“My teams have provided in-reach vaccinations to aged care residents and staff, meat works and food processing staff, youth groups, the homeless and many pop-up clinic across a wide range of locations."
“One of the best things about this role is knowing that some of our most vulnerable are now protected against COVID-19. We've had small outbreaks in some high-risk setting recently, however it has provided some peace of mind knowing that these people are fully vaccinated thanks to our vaccination team.”
“It has been a privilege to be a part of such a historic vaccination program. I am lucky to have met and worked with so many lovely staff who are all working towards the same goal."
Last Modified: Wednesday, 12 April 2023