About Us
First Peoples’ Health and Wellbeing is a dynamic Aboriginal community-controlled health organisation offering affordable primary healthcare services to Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander People and their families in urban Melbourne.
Our clinics offer trauma-informed care in environments that are culturally-safe, calm and healing.
First Peoples’ Health and Wellbeing was previously known as Access Services for Koories which was set up to improve primary health care access for First Peoples in the northwest of Melbourne. In 2018 the organisation expanded to set up a clinic in Thomastown – an area with unmet primary health care needs. To reflect this development, the organisation changed its name to First Peoples’ Health and Wellbeing. In 2019, we expanded again, opening the first Aboriginal health service on the Mornington Peninsula in Frankston.
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In 2024, FPHW will relocate its Frankston services to a brand new facility that will also accommodate Baluk Balert Barring – Victoria’s first Aboriginal Early Parenting Centre. Baluk Balert Barring – many strong footprints – will provide First Nations families with a culturally-safe model of early parenting care that builds on the strengths of Aboriginal families, culture and community. Read more.
First Peoples’ Health and Wellbeing understands that health is about balance between the physical, emotional, mental, cultural and spiritual and is committed to achieving health equity for Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander peoples.
Our clinics are fully bulk-billing. We offer:
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General Practice
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Family Medicine
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Aboriginal Health Checks
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Mental Health Care
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Asthma Care
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Chronic Disease Management
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Women’s Health
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Men’s Health
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Immunisations
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Pathology
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Sexual and Reproductive Health
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Weight Loss Management
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Psychology
The Frankston Clinic also offers Physiotherapy, Play Therapy and Skin Checks. The Thomastown Clinic also offers Alcohol and Other Drugs Services.
"Aboriginal health means not just the physical well-being of an individual but refers to the social, emotional and cultural well-being of the whole Community in which each individual is able to achieve their full potential as a human being thereby bringing about the total well-being of their Community. It is a whole of life view and includes the cyclical concept of life-death-life."
Our Logo and our Commitment
Australian First Peoples’ culture is the oldest continuing culture on the planet – more than 60,000 years old. To sustain our culture over this time, Australian First Peoples supported the holistic health of our people through wellbeing and medicine practices handed down through oral traditions. The brutal colonisation of Australia interrupted this practice through an attempt to remove our culture from our ancestors and consequent generations. However, we are a staunch and strong people, surviving and continually recovering from this appalling history.