When entrepreneur Joshua Tree started Better You Health Group two years ago he had a plan to reach as many people in Australia as possible. Not just with treatment but with preventative health messages as well.
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The former West Devils rugby league player has expanded the business to many parts of Wollongong and Sydney but wants to cater for people in remote communities as well.
Mr Tree employs a team of exercise physiologists and dieticians and loves spending as much time working in Wollongong as he can. But what he loves even more is the work he does for free. Among his biggest goals for 2017 is to coordinate a free men’s health day. He wants to hold it late in the year so men of all ages can come and get their health checked for free and hear information about improving their well being.
He has done many community talks on subjects such as diabetes education and men’s health as part of an initiative called Real Men Move. It educates men about the importance of physical activity and healthy eating to address challenges relating to men’s health such as lifestyle related cancers, heart disease, mental health and diabetes. “We do work presently with a couple of Men’s Sheds in delivering some physical activity programs to address that. We also work with ex-servicemen and women”.
Mr Tree also wants to take free preventative health messages to people in communities all over Australia via any means he can with information on everything from childhood obesity preventative programs to cancer management. He said seeing a cousin die of leukaemia when he was very young was a motivation for him now to use his exercise physiology skills to help people manage all kinds of conditions. He constantly seeks out new training opportunities for himself to develop more tailored approaches in many areas such as pediatric health and cardio-respiratory health.
Mr Tree would like to hear from anyone interested in helping him with his community service idea of running a men’s health day in Wollongong in late 2017. He said it is important to get good preventative health messages out to men whose life expectancy is still lower then women. But he is also keen to help women and children about targeted strategies to help them prevent many health problems from occurring. He regularly posts targeted information at www.betteryouhealthgroup.com and is looking for more community workshop and workplace seminar opportunities in the Illawarra.
When asked where he wanted to be in 10 years he said that was hard to answer because there are so many things he wants to do in business and in the community.
But one thing he does want to do is reach people all over Australia via many channels such as tele-health services that can engage more rural people and help address the challenges of distance and remoteness.
Mr Tree also wants to keep growing Better You Health Group.
“Our focus is really addressing chronic illness and injury rehabilitation challenges within the local community,” he said.
“We partner with around 15 sites across a number of areas. The majority of those are in Wollongong. And we are looking at progressing south..in the future. We also want to develop active lifestyle programs and create clear pathways for specialists and GPs to refer patients to those programs as outlined in the inter-generational report.”
Joshua Tree Background
Born in Camden Joshua Tree, 31, spent considerable time in Wollongong with relatives as a youth.
His mother has always been involved in the community helping many charities with fundraising and he is the same.
Westmead Childrens Hospital and Father Chris Riley’s Youth Off the Streets are among the organisations she had helped.
His father was in the floor covering industry and spent time as a TAFE teacher. He now has his own private enterprise teaching students how to be floor covering technicians.
Mr Tree is a former St Gregory’s student and has always been academically involved and interested in rugby league and personal fitness training. He played in the lower and senior grades for the West Tigers and learned much when he participated in all their development programs. He then went into coaching and spent time as a transitional coach and development officer.
“After that I went to AFL and worked for GWS before they had a team,” he said.
“I helped set up some of their earlier academy programs. I have worked for a couple of different high performances teams while I was doing my first degree in sport exercise science. Following that I started working as an exercise physiologist,” he said.
The Junior Chamber International (JCI) Illawarra chapter member later did a Masters in Clinical Exercise Physiology. As a teenager Mr Tree always wanted to work in the fitness industry as a personal trainer or become a Federal Police Officer.
“I have always had an interest in fitness and sport,” he said.
“One of the main reasons I got into what I am doing is seeing my dad go through surgeries and different treatments and not having proper exercise management following hip replacement surgery. I just saw there was a major gap between when someone goes to see a specialist and a GP in terms of exercise management. A lot of what I do in my business is I have a personal attachment to.”
Greg Ellis
Almost four decades in electronic, print and digital media. A writer, presenter, emcee, photographer and videographer with degrees in business management, marketing and human resources and tertiary qualifications in photography.
Almost four decades in electronic, print and digital media. A writer, presenter, emcee, photographer and videographer with degrees in business management, marketing and human resources and tertiary qualifications in photography.
