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RDN congratulates ‘Stronger Together: Improving Access to ADHD Care across NSW’ for being announced as the winner of the 2026 Health Equity Award at last Thursday’s NSW Health Awards held at the ICC Sydney. The Health Equity Award acknowledges a significant contribution to health equity and recognises programs and projects that overcome barriers to achieve better health in a defined group or population.
"At heart, these reforms are about health equity – bringing ADHD care closer to communities and enabling the skills of GPs who already know their patients and who are very ready to do this work," said NSW Ministry of Health Medical Advisor Dr Sarah Khanlari on behalf of the team, before thanking Dr Kerry Chant for her leadership, as well as RACGP, the Australasian ADHD Professionals Association and Rural Doctors Network for bringing their "experience, their challenge and their partnership" to the project.
The recognition of the Stronger Together team comes in the context of the rollout of reforms in NSW to strengthen the role of GPs in managing people with ADHD. RDN has been supporting the rollout across its enterprises, providing complementary education and helping support the uptake in continuation subscribers.
“RDN congratulates the ‘Stronger Together’ team on this well-earned recognition,” said RDN COO Mike Edwards, Acting General Manager of RDN’s Australian Centre for Health Access, which has supported the ADHD reforms through designing and implementing a data-driven framework to prioritise and allocate general practitioner endorsed prescriber training places in areas that need it most.
“This program has responded to a need in the community and coordinated successfully with partners to support access to ADHD diagnosis and treatment. RDN is proud to have played a role in assisting NSW Health in addressing these important issues.”
ACHA's work supporting NSW Health was aimed at ensuring that GPs in areas of higher need were supported and that there was geographical disbursement to enable access, along with appropriate prioritisation for Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Services (ACCHSs).
Under the banner of RDN Health and Rural Doctors Network, RDN also provided ADHD masterclasses for GPs in metropolitan and regional areas of NSW, complementing the formal training being provided through the reforms. In parallel, RDN Health built a tailored fund gateway to enable support payments to GPs completing the training, while Rural Health Pro provided regular updates on the reforms to health professionals across Australia.
“This work aligns with RDN's commitment to improving health access for under-resourced communities and supporting health professionals to work to their full scope of practice,” said RDN Business Development Manager - Knowledge Mobilisation, Carly Stats. “Congratulations to all finalists and to the ‘Stronger Together: Improving Access to ADHD Care across NSW’ team for receiving this recognition at the Awards ceremony last week."
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