Information for healthcare professionals

As a health professional, you’ll know the importance of raising awareness of heart disease and its risk factors to allow early detection and prevention. You’ll also know that many Australian women think heart disease and its clinical risk factors are mainly male health issues, making them dangerously unaware of their risks.

The Go Red for Women campaign aims to raise awareness of heart disease as the    No. 1 killer of Australian women. You play an important role in educating your patients and clients about taking heart disease seriously and in understanding how to live a heart healthy life. 

In 2012, we’re encouraging women over 45 years to visit their GP during June to get a heart health check and find out more information about their personal risks of heart disease. 

Here are some ways you and your organisation can enable women to reduce their risks of heart disease:

• Encourage your patients or clients to have a regular heart health check
• Encourage your patients or clients to sign up for the 2012 Healthy Heart Challenge
• Order Go Red campaign resources – posters and brochures - to display in lunch rooms, waiting rooms and reception areas
• Organise a Go Red event in your workplace during Go Red for Women month in June
• Include an article about the Go Red campaign and Healthy Heart Challenge in your organisation's member newsletter or practice newsletter
• Download important facts on Women and Heart Disease
• Sign up to the free Go Red enewsletter for campaign news and offers
• Use one of two powerpoint presentations available: (1) Women and Heart Disease presentation to share with your health colleagues or professional networks, (2) Go Red for Women 2012 campaign presentation  to speak about women’s heart disease with patients or the community 
• Include a Go Red web tile on your website with a link to the Heart Foundation - email us at gored@heartfoundation.org.au with your request
• Connect with us on Facebook and/or Twitter
• Organise a red afternoon tea for local women’s groups with a guest speaker to discuss the effect heart disease has had on them and their families
• Make a donation to the Heart Foundation to support the research and education work the organisation undertakes

Please see our reports section for recent research and reports on women and heart disease, including:

• Women and Heart Disease Forum Report
• Women and heart disease: Cardiovascular profile of women in Australia

To find out more about supporting the campaign, please contact the Go Red for Women team.