Two fresh faces have been inducted into the Heywood Rural Health team as Board Directors, and both bring their own skills to the table.

Portland resident Jack Rethus is employed with Keppel Prince Engineering as a production coordinator and now volunteers as one of Heywood Rural Health’s (HRH) Board Directors.

He was born in and lives in Portland but was raised in Heathmere, thus finds himself in touch with the rural community.

Jack said it was a decision made on a whim when applying for the Heywood position in late February.

“They put up a post on Facebook, which I saw, and it was a process of just following that link and going through, filling out the application,” he said.

I’m a foster carer, I’m a member of the LGBTQIA community, and I’ve had my fair share of mental health struggles in the past.

“It was more of a way of me being able to get involved, to help our community, to basically be more inclusion and offer a perspective on the consumer engagement kind of thing, and have my input and my say to help the local area.”

Jack’s ambitions are “just really to make sure that Heywood Rural Health services are more inclusive and more open and understanding to minority groups essentially.”

Vinod (Vin) Vijyan, an IT specialist from Melbourne, is the other newcomer taking a seat as Board Director.

While Jack attended his first day at HRH as a Director in person, Vin attended online because of the distance and work commitments.

Jack said they both met the CEO, Leigh Parker and spent the majority of the day with him.

“We went through Heywood Rural Health’s background, did a walk around, introduced me to the staff members, and then basically gave me a run through all of the bits and pieces, very briefly.” he said.

“First impressions were, holy moly, what have I got myself into?

“There’s a lot of information to take in… it takes a good 12 – 18 months to wrap your head around all the lingo and all the different policies, rules and regulations and get a little bit comfortable with just basically all the information that you have on hand.

“It’s a three-year term, so I’m locked in for a bit.

“It’s a challenge that I’m ready for, and I really hope to be able to make an impact on the local community.”

One particular person Jack will be working closely with is Portland divisional manager for St John Ambulance Victoria and HRH Board Chair, Tony Oxford.

Tony has been on the Board for eight years and became Board Chair in 2023.  Prior to that, for three years he was chair of HRH’s Clinical Governance Committee.

He said Jack and Vin are a great addition to the excellent Board they have.

“They bring added talent to the Board,” Tony said.

“Vin has an extensive background in IT, and we don’t have anyone of the Board that has that level of IT skill. So, it brings another lens to what we do on the Board.

“And Jack, through him being a local… brings that additional community focus and he would be someone helpful on our Consumer Advisory Committee.

“Every Board Director sits on at least one subcommittee, sometimes two or three, depending on what their interest level is.

“Vin will probably sit on the Finance, Risk & Audit Committee, Jack with his background, Consumer Advisory Committee.” Tony said.

HRH has a maximum of 10 Board Directors who meet once a month, while subcommittees will meet a different times in the year.

Photo from left: Jack Rethus and Vin Vijayan

Thank you to Charlie Sawyer from the Portland Observer for writing this excellent article.