Community
12 August, 2026
Support community engagement
TIMBOON and District Healthcare Service (TDHS) has welcomed a new director of community health and is seeking community engagement to help shape the service’s Community Engagement Framework.
Yasir Arfat recently relocated to Timboon for the role with 22 years’ experience under his belt of living and working in rural communities.
“I’ve worked in the health system across multiple states and I love connecting with people,” he said.
“This role is all about improving health outcomes for the community and working closer with the community, and that’s what I love.”
Mr Arfat was born in Pakistan and moved to the UK to study, then came to Australia in 2006 to specialise in health policy.
He said he’s worked across multiple states in Australia, including Western Australia and South Australia, supporting community healthcare in regional areas.
“What I want people to know about me is that I’m very approachable,” Mr Arfat said.
“I’m here to listen and this Community Engagement Framework is part of that.
“I want them to be involved in the planning, implementing and evaluating processes that we have and that we do very regularly in our services.
“I would like to engage different community groups within the Timboon and district catchment area and also outside the catchment as those people come here to receive services.
“I would like them to be able to share their feedback.”
TDHS is hosting an event on Thursday, August 27 in the Education Room from 1pm-2pm, with the intention of receiving feedback from health service users to better shape how TDHS works with the community.
“This event is basically just to give people the opportunity to let us know how they would like to be engaged – what their experiences are of the services and whether they have received service or not, it could be carers,” Mr Arfat said.
“What it will do is give us the information to develop some guidelines, protocols and principles to then use in the future in our engagement activities.
“This is really to hear their experience and how they would want us to involve them in the service planning in the future.
“More importantly, this opportunity is for them to let us know what’s working well and what’s not working well.”
The Community Engagement Framework will guide future decisions made by TDHS regarding health services and how they interact with the community.
“The Timboon District Health Service is an important part of this community and there is a strong connection and very strong trust between the health service and the community which is really good, and we want to strengthen that by giving people the opportunity to let us know how exactly they would like to be engaged in the future,” Mr Arfat said.
“If we don’t ask, we don’t know if we’re doing it correctly at the moment or not.
“For instance, if somebody comes into the urgent care, they are discharged and they go home then are provided support at home by community health services.
“We would want to see how their experience has been, the transition from one service into another service then at home.
“That is what we want out of this whole process.”
Mr Arfat said TDHS would remain committed to providing the best healthcare services possible for the community.
“We take pride in the services that are being delivered,” he said.
“I’ve already seen that there is commitment from staff and very strong trust with the community.
“We have a very good board and very good leadership team, and that process with the Community Engagement Framework is going to make things much better.
“It will strengthen and improve our services.”
The event will feature a team from Health Voices Victoria who will facilitate conversation and listen to input from the community about TDHS and its services.
For those unable to attend the event, feedback can still be shared online via the link below.