NACCHO Affiliate and ACCHO Members Deadly Good News Stories : National watch Pat Turner #QANDA #NSW GWAMS @ahmrc #VIC @VACCHO_org #QLD @Apunipima @DeadlyChoices #WA Wirraka Maya #SA #NT @MiwatjHealth #ACT @WinnungaACCHO #TAS

1.1 National : Did you miss our CEO Pat Turner on Q and A this week ? Watch HERE

1.2 National :  Keynote speakers announced for NACCHO Ochre Day Men’s Health Conference 2019 in Melbourne next week Has your ACCHO Registered ?

1.3 National : ACCHO’s invited to attend Health Data Portal Co-design Workshops: September – October 2019

1.4 National iSISTAQUIT “implement Supporting Indigenous Smokers To Assist Quitting” program is starting now, and we need your help and ideas – so here is how you can help us.

2.I NSW : The ANFPP team at Greater Western Aboriginal Health Service hosted morning tea with the Aunties from Baabayn

2.2 NSW : AH&MRC launches new website 

3.VIC : VACCHO and the Aboriginal breast screening project in partnership with BreastScreen Victoria.

4.1 QLD : Apunipima ACCHO Cape York Baby One Program health worker training

4.2 QLD : AFL Brisbane Lions superstar leads Deadly Choices campaign to increase 715 Health Checks 

5. SA : The Commissioner for Aboriginal Engagement, Dr Roger Thomas, is commencing State-wide consultation to seek the views of Aboriginal communities to improve relations between government and Aboriginal people.

6.WA : Meet Alfred Barker. He’s a Traditional Owner and the Chairperson of Wirraka Maya, where he works to educate and support men about the role they can play in preventing FASD

7. NT : Check out what the awesome Miwatj Health AMS TIS team in Gapuwiyak have been up to over the recent school holiday break.

8. ACT : Ms Julie Tongs, CEO of Winnunga Nimmityjah Aboriginal Health and Community Service has calls on Ms Rosie Batty AO to assist with advocacy

9. TAS : Heather Sculthorpe NAIDOC Speech 2019

How to submit in 2019 a NACCHO Affiliate  or Members Good News Story ?

Email to Colin Cowell NACCHO Media 

Mobile 0401 331 251 

Wednesday by 4.30 pm for publication Thursday /Friday

1.1 National : Did you miss our CEO Pat Turner on Q and A this week ? Watch here

WATCH HERE

Panellists: Linda Burney, Shadow Minister for Indigenous Australians; Julian Leeser, Co-Chair of Joint Select Committee on Constitutional Recognition; Jacinta Price, Director of Indigenous Program, CIS; Patricia Turner, CEO of National Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation; and Sally Scales, Uluru Statement Delegate. (who replaced Noel Pearson at the last moment )

 From transcript panellist Pat Turner, a legendary figure in Indigenous affairs:

“We survived here for 60,000 years before the last 200 and we’ve been devastated more in the last 200-plus than the 60,000 years before that … we want to have the right to share the power and to make the decisions about the future of our people in our own country.”

Jacinta Price thought the debate “distracts us from what’s really going on” – issues such as violence and suicide in Indigenous communities.

Pat Turner shot back.

A distraction?

“It hasn’t distracted me because we’re working very hard to close the gap. And to ensure that Aboriginal voices are at the table in negotiations with government as equals.”

She concluded: “We’re waiting for no one. We’re getting on with the job.”

1.2 National :  Keynote speakers announced for NACCHO Ochre Day Men’s Health Conference 2019 in Melbourne next week Has your ACCHO Registered ?

We are very fortunate this year to have an illustrious line-up of speakers and are expecting to host around 200 male delegates from across the country.

 The conference aims to increase access for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander males to primary health care services, and participation in healthy lifestyle activities within the community.”

Mr John Paterson, CEO of Aboriginal Medical Services Alliance Northern Territory (AMSANT) and spokesperson for OCHRE DAY

The National Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation (NACCHO) will hold its seventh annual Ochre Day Men’s Health Conference on 29-30 August at Pullman On the Park, Melbourne.

This year’s conference will focus on three aspirational topics around Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander men being: in-control, innovative and influential.

The NACCHO Ochre Day Conference is an important event that draws attention to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander male health issues and their impact on their social and emotional health in a holistic way.  The enduring theme for the conference is – Men’s Health, Our Way. Let’s Own It!

The NACCHO Ochre Day Conference was established in 2012 to provide a strategic focus on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander male health issues in a holistic way

Read or Download  full press release here

For further information on the conference and to register online, click here.

1.3 National : ACCHO’s invited to attend Health Data Portal Co-design Workshops: September – October 2019

A series of co-design workshops will be conducted around Australia during September and October 2019. The co-design workshops will allow health service representatives to:

  • Gather input for future nKPI, OSR, HCP and QLIK Interactive Report enhancements based on your July-August 2019 reporting experience; and
  • Discuss Stage 2 OSR requirements and how to effectively gather the required data.

Co-design workshop locations, dates and venue details are set out here :

How to register for a co-design workshop

An Eventbrite invitation was sent to all health services on 26 July 2019. If you would like an invitation sent to you please send us your name and email address to indigenousreporting@health.gov.au. Seats are strictly limited and fill up quickly so please register ASAP.

Cost:

Like all previous Portal co-design workshops conducted in 2017, 2018 and February-March 2019, travel, accommodation and expenses to attend a co-design workshop is at your health services’ expense.

Do you have other colleagues who want to attend?

This email invitation can only be used by you. If you want a colleague to attend, please email us their name and email address to indigenousreporting@health.gov.au

Please note that due to a high level of interest we request that no more than two people from your health service attend, where possible. This will ensure we have a wide representation from the sector attending the co-design workshops.

Not able to attend?

Consultation is an important part of developing the Portal. If you are unable to attend a co-design workshop, you can still contribute. Details of how to do this will be communicated to you soon.

More Information:

If would like more information about the co-design workshops, please contact us at indigenousreporting@health.gov.au

1.4 National iSISTAQUIT “implement Supporting Indigenous Smokers To Assist Quitting” program is starting now, and we need your help and ideas – so here is how you can help us.

Our focus is to improve health providers’ (HP) provision of smoking cessation care for pregnant Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women.

Download the full poster

Poster-iSISTAQUIT call for resources

We are currently developing our training materials into an on-line format, making social media resources, and exploring effective ways of recruiting services.

Register your interest: We invite Aboriginal Health Services, Tackling Indigenous Smoking Sites, and Mainstream Health Services to be Partner Services of the iSISTAQUIT team in implementing iSISTAQUIT, to take the iSISTAQUIT_survey or email iSISTAQUIT@newcastle.edu.au and we will arrange a call or zoom meeting

Become an Advisor: We are looking for Advisors to support us developing:

  1. a) The online training format for Health Professionals and /or
  2. b) The social media campaign.

Send us your resources: To develop the media campaign, we are looking for resources that are provided to pregnant women to support smoking cessation (print, digital, video or social media).

If you have developed resources or have examples that you give to pregnant women or ideas for messages for quitting in pregnancy, please contact us and/or send your resources iSISTAQUIT@newcastle.edu.au

2. I NSW : The ANFPP team at Greater Western Aboriginal Health Service AHS hosted morning tea with the Aunties from Baabayn

The Australian Nurse-Family Partnership Program (ANFPP) is a nurse-led home visiting program that supports women pregnant with an Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander child to help them become the best mum possible.

ANFPP mums are offered support and guidance during early pregnancy and on into their baby’s infancy and toddlerhood. The ANFPP is an important early investment in the future of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children in local communities.

We are part of the Australian Government’s commitment to improve the health of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people

It was a great morning yarning about the program and showing them around our new office.

2.2 NSW : AH&MRC launches new website 

The AH&MRC Board of Directors and staff are delighted to announce the launch of our new website. The website is the next phase of the AH&MRC rebrand, with the logo being announced in September 2018.

VIEW new website HERE

“We have gone through a transition period and we now have a clear direction of our organisation, with a website as the representation.” says Scott Monaghan, Chairperson of the Board of AH&MRC

The AH&MRC website has been created to promote success stories from the sector, job openings and local events, professional learning opportunities, accredited courses, research development and more.

“We want members and the community to use the website to keep up to date.” concluded Mr Monaghan.

The August Edition of Message Stick is out now!

Read about the new AH&MRC website, the Closing the Gap on Indigenous Health Conference, the PHN and ACCHS Roundtable and opportunities to work with AH&MRC and our members.

Read more here >> http://bit.ly/33QDlw8

3.1 VIC : VACCHO and the Aboriginal breast screening project in partnership with BreastScreen Victoria.

Our COO Helen Kennedy and Susan Forrester are with Gina Bundle from The Womens at our ICAP Forum modeling one of the many breastscreening shawls currently being designed by so many of our incredible women around Victoria. this Aboriginal breastscreening project is done in partnership with BreastScreen Victoria.

Gunditj Corp staff members Charmaine Clarke and Sherry Johnstone with our Susan Forrester showing off the incredible artworks created by local Gunditjmara women that will be used in our Aboriginal breastscreening shawl project with BreastScreen Victoria

These beautiful shawls will be used to keep our women culturally safe and strong during screening sessions.

If you want to know more about this project contact us on 03 9411 9411.

4.1 QLD : Apunipima ACCHO Cape York Baby One Program health worker training

In a recent edition of Apunipima ACCHO Cape Capers there was mention of the training taking place at the Cairns office, with the Nutritionist Team providing workshops based around increasing knowledge on nutrition in the communities for pregnant women, mums and infants.

The Baby One Program and Bump 2 Bubba teams took on meaningful discussions, cooking sessions, team building exercises and workshops around ways to improve resources and processes in getting the ‘better health’ message across.

It was clear that the group provided valuable ideas for the future and gained more insights into what will be key messages for the Cape’s future health.

4.2 QLD : AFL Brisbane Lions superstar leads Deadly Choices campaign to increase 715 Health Checks 

5. SA : The Commissioner for Aboriginal Engagement, Dr Roger Thomas, is commencing State-wide consultation to seek the views of Aboriginal communities to improve relations between government and Aboriginal people.  

Dr Thomas has already undertaken some targeted consultation with Aboriginal stakeholders.

This has developed an engagement reform proposal for his State-wide consultation.

Premier Steven Marshall committed in his Aboriginal Affairs Action Plan released in December 2018 to develop a model to facilitate and enable better engagement between the Government and Aboriginal communities and for Aboriginal views to be more represented in government decision-making.

The Premier said it was critical that the views of Aboriginal peoples were heard across all levels of government.

“I am committed to ensuring Aboriginal South Australians are adequately represented in the decisions that affect them,” said the Premier.

Dr Thomas urged Aboriginal South Australians to get involved in the consultation process.

“I encourage all Aboriginal people, communities and organisations to share their views, by attending a consultation session, or to provide written feedback on the recommended model,” Dr Thomas said.

The Commissioner has developed eleven draft guiding principles as a reference point for the discussion and development of potential models of Aboriginal engagement:

Once the Commissioner has consulted with Aboriginal communities over the coming three months, a report will be presented to the Premier for Cabinet to consider.

Aboriginal South Australians are encouraged to have their say during the consultation process, and can do so via a number of channels:

1. Attend a consultation:

The Commissioner for Aboriginal Engagement will visit many sites across South Australia, and lead the consultation with Aboriginal people, organisations and representatives, over the next three months. To find out more information about the Commissioner’s visits across South Australia, arrange a meeting, or to request more information, contact the Office of the Commissioner for Aboriginal Engagement (OCAE) or visit dpc.sa.gov.au/aboriginal-engagement

2. Provide written feedback:

Feedback Forms will be provided at all the consultation meetings. Alternatively, you may submit your feedback online. Detailed written submissions are also welcome and can be emailed to the Office of the Commissioner for Aboriginal Engagement at AboriginalEngagement@sa.gov.au

3.Call

Office of the Commissioner for Aboriginal Engagement:

Free call: 1800 931 733

6.1 WA : Meet Alfred Barker. He’s a Traditional Owner and the Chairperson of Wirraka Maya, where he works to educate and support men about the role they can play in preventing FASD

Recently it was Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder Awareness Day, and we’re sharing the last story in our series profiling inspirational people leading the charge to make FASD history in the Pilbara in collaboration with Telethon Kids, BHP Western Australia and Wirraka Maya Health Service Aboriginal Corporation.

Meet Alfred Barker. He’s a Traditional Owner and the Chairperson of Wirraka Maya, where he works to educate and support men about the role they can play in preventing FASD, through supporting their partners not to drink during pregnancy.

After watching, please SHARE this video with your networks to help raise awareness of the role that men can play in the prevention of #FASD.

7.1 NT : Check out what the awesome Miwatj Health AMS TIS team in Gapuwiyak have been up to over the recent school holiday break.

Listen up! Come check out what our awesome TIS team in Gapuwiyak have been up to over the school holiday break. It’s great to see djamarrkuli have fun and learn about ngarali (tobacco) and healthy lifestyles.

And sports

Miwatj AMS TIS worker Thomas Guyula from Gapuwiyak, is passionate about educating and helping people understand the dangers of smoking!

8. ACT : Ms Julie Tongs, CEO of Winnunga Nimmityjah Aboriginal Health and Community Service has calls on Ms Rosie Batty AO to assist with advocacy

Ms Julie Tongs, CEO of Winnunga Nimmityjah Aboriginal Health and Community Service has called  on Ms Rosie Batty AO, to use her address at the annual EMILY’s List Oration to be held in Canberra on Wednesday 21 August to urge the ACT Government to reverse its decision to defund the ACT Legal Aid Commission’s specialist family violence service.

Julie Tongs noted that Aboriginal women are vastly over-represented as victims of crime including as victims of domestic violence. She said:

“The most recent data reveals an Aboriginal woman is 35 times more likely to be hospitalised due to domestic violence related assault than a non-Aboriginal woman.”

Julie Tongs further noted the Legal Aid Commission has assisted hundreds of women a year, including many Aboriginal women, who have been subjected to violence and abuse.

Download the full Press Release HERE

WNAHCS Media Release 2019 – Rosie Batty

9. TAS : Heather Sculthorpe NAIDOC Speech 2019

The national theme for NAIDOC this year is Voice, Treaty, Truth. This is a summary of the Aboriginal community demands in the Statement From The Heart developed at Uluru 2 years ago.

Achieving these goals, based on the recognition of Aboriginal people in the Australian Constitution, is regarded by some as the basis for reconciliation – as enabling Aborigines and non-Aborigines to move forward together towards a better future.

The proposal for a ‘Voice to Parliament’ is the most controversial of these demands. The former Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull immediately dismissed the idea calling it a third chamber of the federal Parliament: the Senate, the House of Representatives, and the Aboriginal Voice. In fact it would have only the power to advise and so would be less a decision making body than the former Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission which did have some power to determine policy and make financial decisions.

Instead of the risky business of trying to get changes agreed to the Australian Constitution, many are now advocating State level treaty making as a means of changing the power imbalance between Aboriginal people and the State. That would have to go very much further than the simple wording changes to State Constitutions made by the Tasmanian Parliament and others which simply state the obvious fact that Aborigines were the first people of this country.

A treaty would need to cover matters like the return of lands, a guaranteed income through a share of the gross domestic product of the country or a similar formula, and protections for Aboriginal language and culture. The benefits of a treaty were summed up by Michael Mansell in his book about treaty and statehood as follows:

Aboriginal communities need essential and fundamental tools to replicate what once was – an ordered, civilised, united Aboriginal society that took care of its own and managed its affairs – and restore it in a modern world. The fundamental tools needed include land ownership, empowerment, financial guarantees, cultural integrity and self-determination. The longer Aboriginals are denied these essential assets the longer we will see despair and frustration, and the more we will have to revisit the consequences of disadvantage.

We would expect these fundamental requirements to be additional to basic services provided to everyone in Australia like health, housing and education. These service areas are still failing Aboriginal people, starting from the significant gap in life expectancy.

How do we reach equivalent life outcomes for our people without becoming just like white people, without becoming assimilated into the values and lifestyle of those who invaded our lands and nearly destroyed our people?

We start by the truth-telling referred to in the Uluru Statement. We’ve seen the beginning of that process in the massacre mapping of the continent by Dr Lyndall Ryan and others, decades after the first version of Lyndall’s book on Aboriginal Tasmania was published. We see it increasingly in the story telling of Aboriginal writers, play wrights and song writers like puralia meenamatta/Jim Everett, Cheryl Mundy, Nathan Maynard, and Dewayne Everett-Smith. And in the art works and photographs of Ricky Maynard, Janice Ross Lowery Maynard, Rodney Gardner and many others. And now in the curriculum materials in Tasmanian schools through the highly praised ORB multi-media package.

Truth telling must start with being clear that this country and this State were not settled peacefully but through violence and treachery. In our case, the treachery occurred when our Old People were persuaded to give up their guerrilla war against the invaders and board the boats bound for Flinders Island. They were persuaded that this was the only way to prevent the rest of their people being slaughtered and that they would soon return to their home lands. Instead most of them died on Flinders Island.

This is how Walter George Arthur described the treachery in 1846, writing from Wybalena on Flinders to Queen Victoria in London, England:

The humble petition of the free Aborigines Inhabitants of Van Diemen’s Land now living upon Flinders Island …That we are your free children that we were not taken prisoners but freely gave up our country to Colonel Arthur then the Governor after defending ourselves, Your petitioners humbly state to your Majesty that Mr Robinson [George Augustus] made for us and with Colonel Arthur an agreement that we have not lost from our minds since and we have made our part of it good. Your petitioners humbly tell Your Majesty that when we left our own place we were plenty of people, we are now but a little one.

In any normal human understanding, this must surely be an undertaking to make a peaceful settlement with a treaty. Lutruwita/Tasmania is well over due to make good on this promise. And not just any promise: an undertaking between equal sovereigns.

What the Education Department’s ORB lacks is Aboriginal decision making and control, things that the national Coalition of Peak Close the Gap organisations has stressed to be every bit as important as targets and indicators. As recognised by the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody nearly 3 decades ago, it is the lack of Aboriginal control and decision making that has resulted in the disparities in life outcomes so prevalent today. Let’s keep in mind that this is the main area that needs to improve if we are to get anywhere near reconciliation in this country.

We are very pleased that so many people keeping coming back year after year to help us mark the start of NAIDOC week. In the future we may be able to use this occasion to celebrate together but for now at least we must use the occasion as a reminder that we still have a long way to go.

Nayri nina-tu.

Heather Sculthorpe

 

 

NACCHO Aboriginal Health and #ChronicDisease #Prevention News : @ACDPAlliance Health groups welcome action on added sugars labelling and further consider 10 recommendations to improve the Health Star Rating system

 

“Industry spends vast amounts of money advertising unhealthy foods, so it is essential that nutrition information is readily available to help people understand what they are eating and drinking.

Two in three Australian adults are overweight or obese and unhealthy foods, including those high in added sugars, contribute greatly to excess energy intake and unhealthy weight gain”

Chair of the Australian Chronic Disease Prevention Alliance Sharon McGowan said food labelling is an important part of understanding more about the products we consume every day

Read previous 70 NACCHO Aboriginal Health and Nutrition Healthy foods articles

The five year review of the HSR system (the Review) has now been completed. See Part 2 Below

Five Year Review of the Health Star Rating System – PDF 3211 KB

The Australian Chronic Disease Prevention Alliance welcomes the recent decisions to improve food labelling and provide clear and simple health information on food and drinks.

The Australia and New Zealand Ministerial Forum on Food Regulation announced yesterday it would progress added sugars labelling and further consider 10 recommendations to improve the Health Star Rating system.

Decisions were also made to provide a nationally consistent approach to energy labelling on fast food menu boards and consider the contribution of alcohol to daily energy intake.

Current Health Star Rating system.

Ms McGowan said overweight and obesity is a key risk factor for many chronic diseases.

“We welcome improvements to existing labelling systems to increase consumer understanding and provide an incentive for industry to create healthier products.”

The Ministerial Forum also released the independent review of the Health Star Rating system with 10 recommendations for strengthening the system, including changes to how the ratings are calculated, and setting targets and timeframes for industry uptake.

The Australian Chronic Disease Prevention Alliance has been advocating to improve the Health Star Rating system for years. While the Alliance supports stronger changes to the ratings calculator, Ms McGowan said it was promising to see recommendations enhancing consistency of labels and proposing a mandatory response if voluntary targets are not met.

“Under the current voluntary system, only around 30 percent of eligible products display the health star rating on the label and some manufacturers are applying ratings to the highest scoring products only,” Ms McGowan said.

SMH Editorial The epidemic of childhood obesity and chronic health conditions linked to bad diet has turned supermarket aisles into the front line of one of the hardest debates in politics.

“To truly achieve its purpose and help people compare products, the rating needs to be visible and consistently applied to all foods and drinks.”

The recommendations to improve the Health Star Rating system will be considered by Ministers later this year.

Ms McGowan added “We know that unhealthy food and drinks are a major contributor to overweight and obesity, and that food labelling should be part of an overall approach to creating healthier food environments.”

Read the Health Star Rating report here and the Ministerial Forum communique here.

The five year review of the HSR system (the Review) has now been completed.

Five Year Review of the Health Star Rating System – PDF 3211 KB
Five Year Review of the Health Star Rating System – Word 16257 KB

The five year review of the HSR system considered if and how well the objectives of the system have been met and has identified several options for improvements to the system, including communication, monitoring, governance and system/calculator enhancements.

The Review found that the HSR system has been performing well. Whilst there is a broad range of stakeholders with diverse opinions, there is also strong support for the system to continue.

The recommendations contained in the Review Report are designed to address some of the key criticisms of the current system. The key recommendations from the report are that:

  • the HSR system continue as a voluntary system with the addition of some specific industry uptake targets and that the Australian, state and territory and New Zealand governments support the system with funding for a further four years;
  • that changes are made to the way the HSR is calculated to better align with Dietary Guidelines, and including fruit and vegetables into the system; and
  • that some minor changes are made to the governance of the system, including transfer of the HSR calculator to Food Standards Australia New Zealand.

The next steps will be for members of the Australia and New Zealand Ministerial Forum on Food Regulation to respond to the Review Report, and the recommendations contained within. It is anticipated that Forum will respond before the end of 2019.
Five Year Review – Draft Report

A draft of the review report was made available for public comment on the Australian Department of Health’s Consultation Hub from Monday 25 February 2019 until midnight Monday 25 March 2019. Following consideration of comments received, the report will be finalised and provided to the Australia and New Zealand Ministerial Forum on Food Regulation (through the HSRAC and the Food Regulation Standing Committee) in mid-2019. mpconsulting sought targeted feedback on the draft recommendations – in particular, any comments on inaccuracies, factual errors and additional considerations or evidence that hadn’t previously been identified.

Draft Five Year Review Report – PDF 2928 KB
Draft Five Year Review Report – Word 21107 KB

A list of submissions for which confidentiality was not requested is below; submissions are available on request from the Front-of-Pack Labelling Secretariat via frontofpack@health.gov.au.

List of submissions: draft five year review report – PDF 110 KB
List of submissions: draft five year review report – Excel 13 KB
Five Year Review – Consultation

Detail on previous opportunities to provide feedback during and on the review are available on the Stakeholder Consultation page.

public submission process for the five year review was conducted between June and August 2017. mpconsulting prepared a report on these submissions and proposed a future consultation strategy. A list of submissions made is also available.

Submissions to the five year review of the HSR system – PDF 446 KB
Submissions to the five year review of the HSR system – Excel 23 KB

Report on Submissions to the Five Year Review of the Health Star Rating System – PDF 736 KB
Report on Submissions to the Five Year Review of the Health Star Rating System – Word 217 KB

5 Year Review of the Health Star Rating system – Future Consultation Opportunities – PDF 477 KB
5 Year Review of the Health Star Rating system – Future Consultation Opportunities – Word 28 KB

mpconsulting also prepared a Navigation Paper to guide Stage 2 (Wider Consultations Feb-Apr 2018) of their consultation strategy.

Navigation Paper – PDF 355 KB
Navigation Paper – Word 252 KB

Drawing on the early submissions and public workshops conducted across Australia and New Zealand in February- April 2018, mpconsulting identified 10 key issues relating to the products on which the HSR appears and the way that stars are calculated. A range of options for addressing identified issues were identified and, where possible, mpconsulting specified its preferred option. These issues are described in the Five Year Review of the Health Star Rating System – Consultation Paper: Options for System Enhancement.

Five Year Review of the Health Star Rating System – Consultation Paper: Options for System Enhancement – PDF 944 KB
Five Year Review of the Health Star Rating System – Consultation Paper: Options for System Enhancement – Word 430 KB

This Consultation Paper is informed by the TAG’s in-depth review of the technical components of the system. The TAG developed a range of technical papers on various issues identified by stakeholders, available on the mpconsulting website.

From October to December 2018, mpconsulting sought stakeholder views on the issues and the options, input on the impacts of the various options, and any suggestions for alternative options to address the identified issues. Written submissions could be made via the Australian Department of Health’s Consultation Hub.

mpconsulting held three further stakeholder workshops in Melbourne, Auckland and Sydney in November 2018 to enable stakeholders to continue to provide input on key issues for the review, including on options for system enhancements.
Five Year Review – Process

In April 2016, the Health Star Rating (HSR) Advisory Committee (HSRAC) commenced planning for the five year review of the HSR system.

Terms of Reference for the five year review follow:
Terms of Reference for the five year review of the Health Star Rating system – PDF 23 KB
Terms of Reference for the five year review of the Health Star Rating system – Word 29 KB

In September 2016, the HSRAC established a Technical Advisory Group (TAG) to analyse the performance of the HSR Calculator and respond to technical issues and related matters referred to it by the HSRAC.

HSRAC Members agreed that, in order to achieve a degree of independence, consultant(s) should be engaged to complete the review. In July 2017, following an Approach to Market process, Matthews Pegg Consulting (mpconsulting) was engaged as the independent reviewer.

The timeline for the five year review.
Five year review timeline – PDF 371 KB
Five year review timeline – Excel 14 KB

NACCHO Aboriginal Men’s Health #OCHREDay Aug 29-30 : Registrations still open : Ernie Dingo @BushTV keynote #Closing  the gap in remote men’s health by empowering them to improve their physical, emotional, and social wellbeing.

“We’re going back on country with the men to strengthen their mentality towards their culture, their law, their language, but more so for medical benefits.

We have a team of medical officers who come out, male of course, who do checks on them so they can talk freely about their health, sitting around campfires.

We talk about needs in their community and just talk about things as a men’s group that we won’t be able to talk about in town or around family and stuff.”

Lomas Amini and Ernie Dingo will present Camping on Country at OCHRE Day Summit in Melbourne 29 -30 August

OCHRE DAY Web Page for all program info etc 

This year’s NACCHO Ochre Day men’s health conference is only a week away so be sure to register now

Register HERE

TV personality Ernie Dingo is hoping to close the gap in remote men’s health by empowering them to improve their physical, emotional, and social wellbeing.

Originally Published ABC NEWS 

Key points:

  • Ernie Dingo is working with BushTV to run camps for Indigenous men around Australia
  • The men have yarning circles, cultural activities and health checks
  • The program aims to empower men to improve their own health by strengthening culture, law and language

The Yamatji man from Western Australia is the chairman of Indigenous media organisation BushTV, which is running a program called Camping On Country.

“We’re going back on country with the men to strengthen their mentality towards their culture, their law, their language, but more so for medical benefits,” Dingo said.

“We have a team of medical officers who come out, male of course, who do checks on them so they can talk freely about their health, sitting around campfires.

“We talk about needs in their community and just talk about things as a men’s group that we won’t be able to talk about in town or around family and stuff.”

Men sitting around a camp fire in the outback.

The program has received $1 million from the Federal Government to run 20 camps over two years.

They have so far been held across northern Australia in places including Kununurra, Borroloola, Tennant Creek, and Kowanyama.

Strategies to close the gap had so far not worked well, Dingo said.

“The elders don’t want non-Indigenous people telling them what to,” he said.

“So this is Aboriginal men talking to Aboriginal men, rather than government coming out and they have to put up with the dry heat.

“We video interviews with [the men] about what they need and use that as a message stick to take to the minister for Aboriginal affairs.”

BushTV has also partnered with Sydney-based medical research organisation The George Institute, which will conduct longitudinal research using data collected from the camps.

‘Something special will happen’

Dingo said it was a privilege to take a young man with disabilities to a recent camp near Kowanyama.

“He’s a Kowanyama boy who was taken away at the age of two because of his disabilities; he needs care 24/7 and he’s in Cairns,” he said.

“He has never been to his country [since], and to be blessed on his tribal ground, that was very special to see.

“People moved heaven and earth to get him there.

“He was feeling the earth around him, a bit of a paddle in the creek and it was a real blessing to see.

“We have great moments like that at every camp — something special will happen.”

Ernie Dingo laughs while posing for a photo with another Indigenous man in front of BushTV truck

‘Don’t leave it too long’

Dingo, 63, has also struggled with depression and said it had been good for him to share his experiences with other men.

“You just suffer, and when you knock-off work and go home, that’s when it hurts the most,” he said.

If you or someone you know needs help contact your ACCHO , call:

“So I get to talk about a lot of stuff like that with a lot of people in similar situations and it’s making me stronger.

“It’s a good thing for me as well to be able to listen to people going through the same stuff that I’m going through and realise, not so much just zip it up and keep working, but actually spending time talking to people and making yourself feel better.”

He urged men struggling with problems to seek help.

“Don’t leave it too long, you can’t let things fester — it’s better to carry the scar than carry the the wound ”

 

NACCHO Aboriginal Health and #SuicidePrevention @pat_dudgeon @TTanja23 : Download New @CBPATSISP guidelines to improve assessments for our mob presenting to hospital with self-harm and suicidal thoughts

There is now growing evidence that the legacy of colonisation has contributed to the disproportionate rat.   es of suicide and suicidal behaviours and other disadvantages experienced by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

The effects of colonisation are evident in the structural barriers and lack of access to culturally responsive hospitals and family support services that underscore the urgent need for these guidelines as part of a broader suicide prevention strategy.”

Professor Pat Dudgeon, Director of the Centre for Best Practice in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Suicide Prevention  ( CBPATSISP )

“Assessing risk of suicide is a complex task in any setting, but particularly in the hospital setting, as it can be a very discomforting time for people. There is a pressing need to respond adequately and carefully during this time.”

Aboriginal clinical psychologist, Tanja Hirvonen

Read over 150 Aboriginal Health and Suicide Prevention articles published by NACCHO over past 7 years 

The Menzies School of Health Research (Menzies), commissioned by CBPATSISP have developed evidenced-based the Guidelines for best practice psychosocial assessment of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people presenting to hospital with self-harm and suicidal thoughts (the Guidelines) to improve the quality of care and outcomes for people presenting with suicidal thoughts and behaviours.

Download 30 Page PDF Copy 

CBPATSISP best practice_guidelines_FINAL

A history of self-harm is one of the strongest known risk factors for suicide and represents an important opportunity to engage with people in a preventive intervention.

The Guidelines contain 227 evidence-based recommendations that have been endorsed by an expert panel of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and non-Indigenous professionals and those with lived experience using the Delphi method for establishing an expert consensus on best practice.

The Guidelines provide the principled basis for culturally appropriate health care. To better achieve cultural responsiveness in practice and improve the quality of care for Aboriginal and Torres Islander people presenting to hospital with self-harm and suicidal thoughts, the guidelines contains recommendations for appropriately and effectively interacting with and engaging Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in ways that are empowering and de-stigmatising.

Tanja Hirvonen states,

“It was highlighted that the type of assessment tool that is used is significant, but just as critical is to ensure that the right information is gathered, and people are appropriately supported during a very critical time in their lives, within a culturally safe model of practice and care.”

Recommendations in the guidelines for evaluating risks, strengths and needs of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have a strong grounding in the concept of social and emotional wellbeing to ensure that assessments inform the most appropriate and effective options for care in the hospital and recovery in the community.

A number of recommendations have also been included to help clinicians respond in developmentally and culturally appropriate ways to self-harm and suicidal thoughts amongst young Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

Professor Pat Dudgeon concluded:

“These new Guidelines have potential to make a genuine difference for Aboriginal people at risk of suicide or self-harm who present at emergency departments. CBPATSISP is committed to disseminating these guidelines widely and we will advocate to ensure that relevant agencies, such as the Australian Indigenous Psychology Association, are supported to develop cultural competence training and engage hospitals in embedding these guidelines into practice at a national level.”

The guidelines can be also be found online from CBPATSISP and Menzies websites

If you or someone you know needs help contact your nearest ACCHO or call:

 

NACCHO Aboriginal Health Save a date Conferences and Events : This week feature : Register for next weeks #OCHREDay and next months @QAIHC Youth Summit This week #BeMedicinewise Week 2019: Why every Australian should record the medicines they are taking

This weeks featured NACCHO SAVE A DATE events

This week features 

19 -25 August Be Medicinewise Week

Next week

29th  – 30th  August 2019 NACCHO #OCHREDAY

2- 5 September 2019 SNAICC Conference

12 September 2019 QAIHC YOUTH HEALTH SUMMIT

15-19 September 50 year of PHAA Annual Conference Adelaide 17 – 19 September #AustPH2019

23 -25 September IAHA Conference Darwin

24 -26 September 2019 CATSINaM National Professional Development Conference

2- 4 October  AIDA Conference 2019

9-10 October 2019 NATSIHWA 10 Year Anniversary Conference

16 October Melbourne Uni: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health and Wellbeing Conference

4 November NACCHO Youth Conference -Darwin NT

5 – 7 November NACCHO Conference and AGM  -Darwin NT

5-8 November The Lime Network Conference New Zealand

19 -25 August Be Medicinewise Week

This week is the annual Be Medicinewise Week campaign This is a great reminder that asking the right questions about medicines is the key to getting the most out of them, safely.

Keep a complete list of your medicines

According to the new survey, only about one in three (31%) Australians who regularly take two or more medicines actually keep a list of all their prescription, over-the-counter and complementary medicines.

A further 26% of people who take regular medicines only keep a list of their prescription medicines, while the remaining 43% only record some, or none, of their medicines.

NPS MedicineWise Chief Executive Officer and pharmacist, Adj A/Prof Steve Morris says keeping an updated and complete list of all your medicines, including prescription, over-the-counter and complementary medicines, is an important part of being medicinewise.

“Keeping track of all your medicines can help reduce the risk of medicine interactions and double-ups, and can help you get the most out of your medicines, safely,” said Mr Morris.

“A medicines list needs to include medicines that have been prescribed by a health professional, as well as anything else you take for your health. This includes vitamins and herbal supplements as these are also considered medicines. The information in a medicines list can help to reduce the risk of medicine interactions when starting a new medicine and can help your healthcare provider when they review your medicines.

“Using an NPS MedicineWise Medicines List or our free MedicineWise app are easy ways to keep this record of everything you are taking,” he said

If you have any questions about your medicines please come in and see your Aboriginal Health Worker, Nurse, Doctor or Pharmacist. For example Galambila ACCHO in Coffs Harbour has a Deadly Pharmacist as part of their team – Chris is happy to answer any of your medicine questions.

29th  – 30th  Aug 2019 NACCHO OCHRE DAY Only a few places left  so register NOW

 

This year’s NACCHO Ochre Day men’s health conference is only a week away so be sure to register now and book your accommodation at the Pullman On The Park, Melbourne to take advantage of the special delegate rate.

Register HERE

Download the exciting 2 day program 

This year’s conference is being held on Thursday 29 and Friday 30 August and has some exciting keynote speakers that include National Camping on Country Ambassador Ernie Dingo and Coordinator Lomas Amini, Preston Campbell from The Preston Campbell Foundation and Associate Professor Ray Lovett from the Australian National University.

See full list of speakers HERE

Sponsored by Aboriginal Health TV

Website 

Nominations are also open for the Jaydon Adams Memorial Award. The Award is designed to recognise a dedicated young Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander male employed in the Aboriginal health sector.

For more information about the Conference , the Award and to nominate click here.

Full report on 2018 OCHRE DAY in Hobart with 15 NACCHOTV Interviews

2- 5 September 2019 SNAICC Conference

Preliminary program and registration information available to download now!

Less than 3 weeks until our discounted early bird offer closes.

Visit  for more information.

15-19 September 50 year of PHAA Annual Conference Adelaide 17 – 19 September 

The Australian Public Health Conference (formally the PHAA Annual Conference) is a national conference held by the Public Health Association of Australia (PHAA) which presents a national and multi-disciplinary perspective on public health issues. PHAA members and non-members are encouraged to contribute to discussions on the broad range of public health issues and challenges, and exchange ideas, knowledge and information on the latest developments in public health.

Through development of public health policies, advocacy, research and training, PHAA seeks better health outcomes for Australian’s and the Conference acts as a pathway for public health professionals to connect and share new and innovative ideas that can be applied to local settings and systems to help create and improve health systems for local communities.

In 2019 the Conference theme will be ‘Celebrating 50 years, poised to meet the challenges of the next 50’. The theme has been established to acknowledge and reflect on the many challenges and success that public health has faced over the last 50 years, as well as acknowledging and celebrating 50 years of PHAA, with the first official gathering of PHAA being held in Adelaide in 1969.

Conference Website 

12 September 2019 QAIHC YOUTH HEALTH SUMMIT

Expressions of interest closing soon!

Calm minds, Strong bodies, Resilient spirit

Are you an Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander aged between 18 and 25 who is passionate about improving the health of your community?

Join us at the 2019 QAIHC Youth Health Summit in Brisbane on 12 September 2019. We want to hear from you about what is needed to help Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young people in your community thrive.

The Summit will be a powerful day of sharing and learning, and will cover a range of topics including:

  • Exercise
  • Healthy relationships
  • Support networks
  • Mental health
  • Nutrition
  • Sexual health
  • LGBTQI needs
  • Chronic disease.

All sessions will be facilitated in an environment of cultural safety to promote honest and free discussions between everyone in attendance.

This Summit will help us shape QAIHC’s Youth Health Strategy 2019-2022 which will support Queensland’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Community Controlled Health Organisations.

Website 

ATTEND

Express an interest in attending the Youth Health Summit

23 -25 September IAHA Conference Darwin

24 September

A night of celebrating excellence and action – the Gala Dinner is the premier national networking event in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander allied health.

The purpose of the IAHA National Indigenous Allied Health Awards is to recognise the contribution of IAHA members to their profession and/or improving the health and wellbeing of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

The IAHA National Indigenous Allied Health Awards showcase the outstanding achievements in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander allied health and provides identifiable allied health role models to inspire all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to consider and pursue a career in allied health.

The awards this year will be known as “10 for 10” to honour the 10 Year Anniversary of IAHA. We will be announcing 4 new awards in addition to the 6 existing below.

Read about the categories HERE.

24 -26 September 2019 CATSINaM National Professional Development Conference

 

 

The 2019 CATSINaM National Professional Development Conference will be held in Sydney, 24th – 26th September 2019. Make sure you save the dates in your calendar.

Further information to follow soon.

Date: Tuesday the 24th to Thursday the 26th September 2019

Location: Sydney, Australia

Organiser: Chloe Peters

Phone: 02 6262 5761

Email: admin@catsinam.org.au

2- 4 October  AIDA Conference 2019

Print

Location:             Darwin Convention Centre, Darwin NT
Theme:                 Disruptive Innovations in Healthcare
Register:              Register Here
Web:                     www.aida.org.au/conference
Enquiries:           conference@aida.org.au

The AIDA 2019 Conference is a forum to share and build on knowledge that increasingly disrupts existing practice and policy to raise the standards of health care.

People with a passion for health care equity are invited to share their knowledges and expertise about how they have participated in or enabled a ‘disruptive innovation to achieve culturally safe and responsive practice or policy for Indigenous communities.

The 23rd annual AIDA Conference provides a platform for networking, mentoring, member engagement and the opportunity to celebrate the achievements of AIDA’S Indigenous doctor and students.

9-10 October 2019 NATSIHWA 10 Year Anniversary Conference

 

2019 Marks 10 years since the formation of NATSIHWA and registrations are now open!!!

During the 9 – 10 October 2019 NATSIHWA 10 Year Anniversary Conference will be celebrated at the Convention Centre in Alice Springs

Bursaries available for our Full Members

Not a member?!

Register here today to become a Full Member to gain all NATSIHWA Full Member benefits

Come and celebrate NATSIHWA’s 10 year Anniversary National Conference ‘A Decade of Footprints, Driving Recognition’ which is being held in Alice Springs. We aim to offer an insight into the Past, Present and Future of NATSIHWA and the overall importance of strengthening the primary health care sector’s unique workforce of Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander Health Workers and Health Practitioners throughout Australia.

During the 9-10 October 2019 delegates will be exposed to networking opportunities whilst immersing themselves with a combination of traditional and practical conference style delivery.

Our intention is to engage Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander Health Workers and Health Practitioners in the history and knowledge exchange of the past, todays evidence based best practice programs/services available and envisioning what the future has to offer for all Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander Health Workers and Health Practitioners.

Watch this space for the guest speaker line up, draft agenda and award nominations

15-17 October IUIH System of Care Conference

15 October IUIH 10 year anniversary

Building on the success of last year’s inaugural conference, the 2019 System of Care Conference will be focusing on further exploring and sharing the systems and processes that deliver this life changing way of looking at life-long health care for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders.

This year IUIH delivers 10 years of experience in improving health outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people with proven methods for closing the gap and impacting on the social determinants of health.

The IUIH System of Care is evidence-based and nationally recognised for delivering outcomes, and the conference will share the research behind the development and implementation of this system, with presentations by speakers across a range of specialisations including clinic set up, clinical governance, systems integration, wrap around services such as allied and social health, workforce development and research evidence.

If you are working in:

  • Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Community Controlled health services
  • Primary Health Networks
  • Health and Hospital Boards and Management
  • Government Departments
  • The University Sector
  • The NGO Sector

Watch this video for an insight into the IUIH System of Care Conference.

Download brochure HERE IUIH System of Care Conference 2019 WEB

This year, the IUIH System of Care Conference will be offering a number of half-day workshops on Thursday 17 October 2019, available to conference attendees only. The cost for these workshops is $150 per person, per workshop and your attendance to these can be selected during your single or group registration.

IUIH are also hosting a 10 years of service celebration dinner on Tuesday 15 October – from 6.30-10pm. Tickets for this are $150 per person and are not included in the cost of registration.

All conference information is available here https://www.ivvy.com.au/event/IUIH19/

15 October IUIH 10 year anniversary

16 October Melbourne Uni: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health and Wellbeing Conference

The University of Melbourne, Department of Rural Health are pleased to advise that abstract
submissions are now being invited that address Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health and
wellbeing.

The Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Health Conference is an opportunity for sharing information and connecting people that are committed to reforming the practice and research of Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander health and celebrates Aboriginal knowledge systems and strength-based approaches to improving the health outcomes of Aboriginal communities.

This is an opportunity to present evidence-based approaches, Aboriginal methods and models of
practice, Aboriginal perspectives and contribution to health or community led solutions, underpinned by cultural theories to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health and wellbeing.
In 2018 the Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Health Conference attracted over 180 delegates from across the community and state.

We welcome submissions from collaborators whose expertise and interests are embedded in Aboriginal health and wellbeing, and particularly presented or co-presented by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and community members.

If you are interested in presenting, please complete the speaker registration link

closing date for abstract submission is Friday 3 rd May 2019.
As per speaker registration link request please email your professional photo for our program or any conference enquiries to E. aboriginal-health@unimelb.edu.au.

Kind regards
Leah Lindrea-Morrison
Aboriginal Partnerships and Community Engagement Officer
Department of Rural Health, University of Melbourne T. 03 5823 4554 E. leah.lindrea@unimelb.edu.au

4 November NACCHO Youth Conference -Darwin NT

The NACCHO Youth Conference will again take place the day before the Members Conference on Monday 4 November at the Darwin Convention Centre.

The conference theme is Healthy Youth – Healthy Futures and it is a day of learning, sharing, and connecting on health issues affecting young Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

This year we aim to have around 80 youth delegates attend to hear from guest speakers, voice their ideas and solutions and connect with the other future leaders in the sector.

Registrations will open in early September 2019, so please encourage the young people from your community who you think will benefit attending.

I strongly encourage those who can afford it to arrange for your youth delegates to remain for the Members Conference and AGM so they can increase their understanding of the Sector as a whole and learn how to network and build useful contacts.

Darwin Convention Centre

Website to be launched soon

Conference Co-Coordinators Ros Daley and Jen Toohey 02 6246 9309

conference@naccho.org.au

5 – 7 November NACCHO Conference and AGM  -Darwin NT

As you may be aware, this year’s conference is being held in Darwin on Tuesday 5 and Wednesday 6 of November at the Darwin Convention Centre.

The theme for our conference is Because of Them We Must: Improving Health Outcomes for 0 to 29 Year Olds and will focus on how our Sector is working to improve the health and wellbeing outcomes for children, youth and young adults.

Clearly those in the 0 – 29 year age bracket are a significant proportion of our total population. If we can get their health and wellbeing outcomes right, we should hopefully overtime reduce the comorbidity levels which are so debilitating for so many of our older people.

There are many amazing examples in our sector of how we work with young people. I would like to see us share them at the conference.

Please let us know if you have an idea for a presentation that will highlight innovative and successful work that you do in this area.

To make a submission please complete this online form.

If you have any questions or would like further information contact Ros Daley and Jen Toohey on 02 6246 9309 or via email conference@naccho.org.au

Darwin Convention Centre

Website to be launched soon

Conference Co-Coordinators Ros Daley and Jen Toohey 02 6246 9309

conference@naccho.org.au

7 November

On Thursday 7 November, following the NACCHO National Members Conference, we will hold the 2019 AGM. In addition to the general business, there will be an election for the NACCHO Chair and a vote on a special resolution to adopt a new constitution for NACCHO.

Once again, I thank all those members who sent delegates to the recent national members’ workshop on a new constitution at Sydney in July. It was a great success thanks to your involvement and feedback.

5-8 November The Lime Network Conference New Zealand 

This years  whakatauki (theme for the conference) was developed by the Scientific Committee, along with Māori elder, Te Marino Lenihan & Tania Huria from .

To read about the conference & theme, check out the  website. 

NACCHO Aboriginal Health and drug #ICE : New @HealthInfoNet review says strong connection to country and community can help reduce methamphetamine use by our mob 

” The use of methamphetamine and the related harms has been the subject of growing concern in Australia, with Australians rating it the drug of most concern in the 2016 National Drug Strategy Household Survey.

The most commonly used drugs in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities are tobacco, cannabis and alcohol.

However, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are experiencing a disproportionate burden of harm from amphetamines, including methamphetamine.’

Download a PDF Review of methamphetamine use among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people

Review+of+methamphetamine+use+among+Aboriginal+and+Torres+Strait+Islander+people

Read over 70 Aboriginal Health and Drug Ice articles published by NACCHO in past 7 years 

The authors of the Australian Indigenous HealthInfoNet’s latest publication, the Review of methamphetamine use among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people; Drs Mieke Snijder and Stephanie Kershaw from the University of Sydney say ‘This review shows how important it is to support individuals, families and communities and the urgent need to develop more culturally appropriate resources’.

The review describes the historical and social factors that influence the use of methamphetamine among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and how family, peers and community can be protective factors, including a strong connection to culture and country.

The review highlights new and emerging programs that are being implemented to address methamphetamine use, such as the Cracks in the Ice Toolkit for community and family members, and the Novel Interventions to Address Methamphetamine Use in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Communities (NIMAC) study in South Australia.

This short video highlights a number of key facts about methamphetamine use among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

It is based on the Review of methamphetamine use among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

Information covered includes:

  • the prevalence of methamphetamine use among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people
  • the health and social impacts of methamphetamine use
  • the evidence base for programs, strategies and treatment approaches for addressing harms from methamphetamine use.

There is currently no evidence on what are the most effective prevention and treatment strategies for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people for methamphetamine use, however appropriate responses need to address social determinants as well as provide treatment services.

HealthInfoNet Director, Professor Neil Drew says ‘This review summarises many publications and data into one publication which ensures those working in the sector receive an authoritative update that is both accessible and timely’.

The Knowledge Centre has created some Knowledge Exchange tools for those who want the key facts and updates in a visual format: an animated video and factsheet https://aodknowledgecentre.ecu.edu.au/about/knowledge-exchange-products/

NACCHO Aboriginal Health and #VOICE #ClosingtheGap : Read Minister @KenWyattMP ‘LOOKING FORWARD, LOOKING BACK’ – 19TH ANNUAL VINCENT LINGIARI MEMORIAL LECTURE Darwin 15 August 

” What are you going to do tomorrow, in three months’ time and in a year’s time? – good will, while important, will not allow us to complete this journey and positively shift the pendulum.

How can we elevate our successes?

How can we give voice to those who feel voiceless?

And, how can we make sure their voices are heard as loudly as those who come from Canberra and in the media?

I want you to remember these words from Vincent Lingiari:

“Let us live happily together as mates, let us not make it hard for each other… We want to live in a better way together, Aboriginals and white men, let us not fight over anything, let us be mates.”

Minister Ken Wyatt ‘LOOKING FORWARD, LOOKING BACK’ – 19TH ANNUAL VINCENT LINGIARI MEMORIAL LECTURE Darwin 15 August

The Hon Ken Wyatt AM MP

Kaya wangju – hello and welcome, in Noongar.

As a Noongar, Wongi and Yamatji man standing before you, I thank Bilawara for her warm welcome this evening.

I formally acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land on which we stand, the Larrakia people, and pay, my respects to Elders past, present and emerging.

Good evening to all of you who have joined us this evening and in particular, I want to acknowledge my brothers and sisters who, many that I’ve walked, the challenges of change with.

The words of a song that was sung by the much-loved Slim Dusty of Looking Back and Looking Forward was the basis for what I wanted to cover tonight because of several reasons but Slim in particular was loved by Indigenous Australians – Slim was a storyteller.

Since the beginning of our time our nation’s sacred knowledge and identity has been kept and shared in song and in transmission through our stories.

Song is important to our culture, and to Australian culture. Music and the stories presented through songs are understood and loved by all Australians.

In Slim’s case, his songs were heard drifting throughout Australia’s living rooms, pubs, town halls, on the old wireless radio and through the records we played.

Through his songs and storytelling, Slim brought Indigenous Australia into suburbia, into the minds and hearts of the nation and the wider Australian culture.

The words you would’ve heard in his song ‘Looking Forward, Looking Back’ – are very poignant – and help paint an image of modern-day Australia.

I won’t sing it to you, because that’ll sort of distract from the quality of the music, but as Slim says:

Looking Forward, Looking Back.

We’ve come a long way down the track.

We’ve got a long way left to go.

Indigenous Australians, in everything we do, draw on the insights of our journey, the knowledge and wisdom of the past, and use that to embrace our future generations.

As we look back, we see the tracks of those who’ve walked before us.

For each of us, looking back evokes different memories and experiences, but I want us to be able to Look Forward – together – with a united purpose and determination for our children and grandchildren. And whilst for us as well – we have lived our time.

That’s why I’m here, with you, at the 19th annual Lingiari Lecture.

Tonight I will outline how I see us walking together, to advance:

  • Local truth-telling;
  • Constitution Recognition of Indigenous Australians;
  • Giving voice to local communities; and
  • Addressing disadvantage in Indigenous Australia.

So why did I start with Slim?

I’m told that, back in the day, there were juke-boxes here in the Territory that had nothing but Slim Dusty records on them. And as a Slim Dusty and Country Western music fan, I can certainly understand that sentiment.

But the thing that I really admired about him was that he sang about the land, about country, about people and our Australian way of life.

He sang about us, and to us, travelling in the old purple with his caravan to many remote communities and country towns across Australia.

Slim once said the most valuable performance fee he ever received in his entire career was the fee paid by a young girl called Miriam from Daly River here in the Territory.

Miriam and the children of the Daly River Mission wanted to see Slim perform but they couldn’t travel to Darwin to see him.

So together they saved up some money and wrote to Slim offering him an attractive performance fee if he came to their town.

The performance fee they offered was five dollars. But that was good enough for Slim.

He came to Daly, accepted the fee, and put on a show.

Over the course of his life, he visited that community many times. He’d go out to the mustering camp for dinner and share their black tea and bully beef sandwiches.

He’d watch and learn as the women and children showed him how to look for minnamindi.

He learnt how to cook with the honey-bag the kids brought back from the wild bees.

He fished with them; he went shooting with them.

He was invited to corroborees and learned how to make ochre paint.

Knowing us – and really knowing us – meant he could sing about us. He could share our stories in ways we didn’t have the means to and he could tell us stories of other places and people that helped us to understand our neighbours around us.

He sang of Trumby the ringer who couldn’t read or write…he sang of The Tall Dark Man in the Saddle…and of the painter Albert Namatjira.

He sang of a man called Bundawaal, “a King without subjects or crown”; a tribal elder reflecting on past struggles and glories, who couldn’t stop “an alien race without pity or grace” eradicating his people.

The song was based on a story that the local Aboriginal people told Slim while he was on tour.

He was singing about this when hardly anyone else in Australia was talking about us in the same way that he sang.

Slim opened the door for Indigenous people themselves to share the stage in the Australian country music industry, some of these early Indigenous pioneers in the Country Music Industry were people like Auriel Andrew, Jimmy Little and Gus Williams, just to name a few.

Picture a time in Australia, and this is for all the young ones out there, because for many of us here tonight know what it’s like to be told:

Where we could – and could not – sit.

Where we could – and could not – go.

You couldn’t sit on a seat at the cinema – you had to sit on a milk crate at the front of the auditorium or the old chairs.

You couldn’t enter a pub.

But Slim Dusty’s concerts were open to all, and we could sit wherever we liked.

People like Slim helped shift the pendulum.

Throughout our history, advancements in Indigenous affairs have swung like a pendulum.

This pendulum has shifted, back and forth, sometimes bringing meaningful advancement for Indigenous Australians, through events and actions of our own people, such as:

  • Albert Namatjira becoming the first Indigenous Australian to be given restricted citizenship,
  • Charlie Perkins Freedom Ride,
  • The election of Neville Bonner in 1971 to our nation’s Parliament, the first Indigenous Australian to serve in the Australian parliament. If you ever get the opportunity, go to the old museum at the parliament, the Old Parliament, and read his diary entry. He has a pillow on display and the diary entry says “I was never invited to any event, any function. At the end of a day, I would leave my office, go home to my trusted friend, my pillow, and would lay my head down to rest.”
  • Eddie Mabo’s fight and victory for Native Title and land rights, and of course
  • Vincent Lingiari’s Wave Hill walk-off and a strike which led to the Native Land Rights Act in 1976.

These significant achievements shifted the pendulum positively, however this hasn’t always meant the pendulum stayed that way.

While we have succeeded in some areas, in others we have not.

Looking forward, we must address where we have failed.

Where we have failed to permanently shift the pendulum on fundamental disadvantage with Indigenous Australia, on factors such as;

  • The basic right to an education,
  • The value of a full-time job,
  • Access uniformly to health care – and the need to address alarming rates of suicide and mental illness in our community,
  • And much, much more.

As I stand here tonight, looking forward, I am optimistic about the opportunities that lie ahead for us – and equally as realistic about the challenges we must overcome.

LOCAL TRUTH-TELLING

As we embark on this journey – I am above all else wanting to have and encourage conversations across this nation – through these conversations we become more comfortable with each other, our shared past, present and future.

Truth-telling to me is not a contest of histories; it’s an understanding of history. It’s an acceptance that there can be shared stories around events in our nation’s history.

I recently spoke with an elderly woman who expressed her dismay that her childhood and education hadn’t featured the stories or history of Indigenous Australians.

In particular, she spoke about learning of massacres later in life and used the words to say that she had been lied to as a child.

I responded by saying that she wasn’t lied to, but she didn’t hear or have the opportunity to hear about our history through our eyes.

This is why we share and we need to share our history because it is important that the history of this nation is paralleled to the events that have occurred.

It is not about guilt. It is about acknowledging that there were events that occurred.

And we need to acknowledge that people will come to this debate from various angles, and perceptions of history – none of this is wrong, or should be dismissed or discouraged.

We cannot simply tell our truth through yelling.

It must be done through conversation.

For me, one of the most indelible moments that sparked a national conversation was that in December 1992 when the then Prime Minister Paul Keating delivered, what is now known as the Redfern Speech.

I had the fortune of being there.

The crowd was electrified and noisy, charged with energy and emotion.

I remember a bunch of balloons in the colours of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander flags bobbed on the roof above Keating’s head, and children dressed in red as they sat on the grass at the foot of the stage, trying to keep still but mostly failing.

Keating’s words that day have entered the history books, so has that speech.

The words most often quoted are his accounting of the deeds of non-Aboriginal Australians. He said:

We took the traditional lands and smashed the traditional way of life. We brought the diseases. The alcohol. We committed the murders.”

But it was the next line that caused the strongest reaction from the audience. You couldn’t miss it.

We took the children from their mothers.

Those seven words drew a loud outburst from the crowd.

It was raw emotion.

Yet, it was both positive and negative – but most of all it was a significant moment of truth-telling, by none other than our nation’s Prime Minister of the day.

That shifted the pendulum – and from that shift, in 2008 we saw Prime Minister Kevin Rudd issue an apology on behalf of the Commonwealth Government to the Stolen Generations.

And any one of us here tonight could probably remember where we were, who we were with and the way in which we watched that speech being delivered. But the reactions that were portrayed on the screens, the tears running down the faces of those who were most affected, and the sense of relief became a glaringly obvious moment based on the fact: the truth of the past had been acknowledged.

Whilst this was regarded by some as merely a symbolic gesture, as of 2015 the fact is that there are an estimated 13,800 surviving Indigenous Australians aged 50 and over who had been removed from their families and communities and considered part of the Stolen Generation.

The healing that resulted from this act of truth-telling cannot be quantified.

And while this took time, it does demonstrate that truth-telling today can lead to significant moments of reconciliation in the future.

If we walk together and acknowledge our shared history we can achieve permanent positive change.

Truth-telling is not best served by a national commission or similar interrogation of truth.

We all should know detailed stories of the areas in which we lived. All Australians – sharing the one history.

I personally would rather see an organic and evolving truth-telling, in which we share our stories, our acknowledgement of the events of the past, but the way in which we as a nation of people are melding together for a better future.

There has to be local storytelling of the history of the past. And it must be local, otherwise we gloss over those very elements that are important in country, within region, and we will only tend to focus on national stories.

Every story to do with our country is as equally important as the national stories.

Around kitchen tables, over the BBQ and in the backyard, down at the local football and netball clubs and in pubs – this is where permanent change will come from – not from loud voices in Canberra and the media.

The 2018 Joint Select Committee on Constitutional Recognition heard this first hand, and reported the following:

“A large number of stakeholders agreed that truth-telling is best implemented at local and regional levels.”

A key component of this local truth-telling is the fact that we must be comfortable having these conversations.

And comfortability is a two way street – for Indigenous Australians it means having the ability to speak our truth and have it heard; and for those seeking to understand, we must allow them to ask questions and contribute to the rigour of the conversation – whilst at all times maintaining respect for one another.

Until this happens, we won’t see the shift in the pendulum that we want to see and achieve.

Importantly, truth-telling is also an opportunity to celebrate the achievements of Indigenous Australians – we must stand proud and celebrate the progress we’ve made.

Too often the pictures painted are that of setback and failure, which simply reinforces the negative elements of our history.

I want us to lead in a positive manner – I want all of us to lead in a positive manner. And, I want to celebrate our successes and champion those who achieve and do great things. In sport we do that exceptionally well – we acknowledge Ash Barty, we acknowledge Cathy Freeman, and many of our high-level achieving sports men and women.

But we also need to do it for the things that we achieve personally, those matters that we achieve as a community, but as equally important is the success of a child at each stage of schooling. And I’m not talking about achieving significant reform here, which is certainly important.

What I’m referring to is the kid who didn’t finish school getting their first job, and keeping it, and finding themselves contributing member to their community.

We need to celebrate every child who goes to school and receives an education, the foundation of a more meaningful and purposeful life.

These quiet achievements are as much about what defines Indigenous Australia in 2019 as the differences, we all too often allow those differences to divide us.

CONSTITUTIONAL RECOGNITION OF INDIGENOUS AUSTRALIANS

Looking forward to our opportunity to shift the pendulum – let’s talk about Constitutional Recognition of Indigenous Australians.

Whilst the Constitution belongs to all Australians, it is important for the purpose of the conversations that I’ve spoken about tonight are so critical in achieving what we set out to do.

As I’ve said before – this is too important to rush, and it’s too important to get wrong.

On eight occasions, the Australian people have voted to change our founding document.

The Constitution is like the rule book for sport; it is the rule book of our nation.

On 36 other occasions they’ve been lost – and there 36 issues that have not come back to the Australian people to consider again in a referendum.

The most recent example of this being the 1999 Republic and Preamble Referendum – a campaign that saw a rift in our nation’s fabric – and result where not a single State carried a Yes vote – and often forgotten, is the fact that the vote on the Preamble was rejected by a greater margin than the question of the Republic.

This is not to say we can’t achieve Constitutional Recognition within the term of this Parliament.

But it is important that we learn from the 1999 Referendum, and reflect on how challenging it can be to translate good will into a positive outcome.

Looking back to 1967, and the Referendum put forward by the Coalition Holt Government, 90.77% of Australians voted to embrace our people as part of Australia.

Key to this was bi-partisan support, the simplicity of the question and a clear purpose for holding the Referendum.

I want to be very clear – the question we put to the Australian people will not result in what some desire, and that is a enshrined voice to the Parliament – on these two matters, whilst related, need to be treated separately.

This is about recognising Indigenous Australians on our Birth Certificate.

And I’ll talk about voice later on.

When I was elected in 2010, I was appointed to the Expert Panel on Constitutional Recognition of Indigenous Australians – we held public conversations in 84 urban, regional and remote locations and in every capital city – as well as the hundreds of meetings and around 3,500 submissions were received.

From this, the Panel reported to government in 2012, and subsequently we had three more reports to government on the same matter.

Each of these reports have looked at a set of words to put to the Australian people.

The words are there in those documents.

Our challenge now is finding a way forward that will result in the majority of Australians, in the majority of states, overwhelmingly supporting Constitutional Recognition. We must be pragmatic.

The Constitution belongs to all Australians, from those in Slim’s home town of Kempsey to those in my childhood town of Corrigin, no one of us can lay claim to the Constitution.

It belongs to us collectively, and it belongs to those who came before us, and most importantly, it will belong to our children and our grandchildren.

I’m not thinking about what I can achieve for myself, or concerned about my legacy, I’m focused on realising recognition for my children, your children and generations to come.

Let me challenge the loudest voices in this debate – now is our opportunity to do this, and it will require understanding and tolerance of all views.

If we don’t seize the opportunity now, it may be lost for all of time – we must not allow this to happen – so I invite you to walk with all Australians on this journey.

It’s not about walking with me, or walking the path of any one individual – it’s about walking in the footsteps of those who’ve come before us, to create a new path for all Australians.

This is not an issue that can be viewed through the prism of political ideologies and all Australian politics have a way to go.

I ask my colleagues, from all sides, to remember what is your first duty as a Member of Parliament – and that is to listen to and represent the views of your community.

There is a lot of work to do on this journey – we haven’t had a referendum since 1999 – and we must educate a new generation on the importance of the Constitution and the significance of the change we are asking for.

This will require all of us to lay the foundation through education and conversation – that is the first step.

I had a young Australian ask me the other day when to expect their ballot to arrive in the mail to post back and wanted to be part of this change.

I had to explain to her the difference between the recent postal plebiscite to recognise same-sex Marriage and the difference between what a referendum is and how it works.

Having these conversations are as important as the conversations we have about why we need to recognise Indigenous Australians in the Constitution and demonstrates the steps we need to consider to achieve this.

Let’s start these conversations, which may seem very basic to us, but are very important to realising success.

The pendulum will shift – but it’s up to us to determine which way.

VOICE

Let me now turn to voice and being heard.

Having your voice heard is going to look very different to how your neighbour sees their voice being heard.

In Australia today, there are almost 800,000 Indigenous voices – all of equal importance and relevance.

Therein lies the complexity of defining ‘a voice’.

The voice is multi-layered and multi-dimensional.

I see rooted in our elders, who are the basis for our knowledge, culture and lore, and rooted in our communities, and extending through the ways in which all levels of government, service providers and corporations engage and work with our people.

Too often I visit communities and I’m told that their voice isn’t being heard because needs are not being met on the ground and we certainly heard that at Garma for those who were in attendance.

And others, who say that they want their local member of parliament to hear their voice.

How we give voice to these Australians is through conversation and understanding.

Knowing what is happening, knowing what needs to happen – and work with leaders and individuals within our communities to develop the practical solutions that see a shift in the pendulum at the most local of levels.

Having these voices heard is not only a matter for the Commonwealth government – it’s a matter for State and Territories, local governments and service providers.

That’s why I’ve tasked the National Indigenous Australians Agency with changing the way they engage – to ensure that the priority is meeting the needs of local communities first.

I’m often asked about the commitment of the Morrison Government but let me assure you that the Morrison Government is committed to a co-design process so we ensure we have the best possible framework in place to hear those voices at the local, regional and national level.

More will be said in the months to come, and much like Constitutional Recognition, it’s too important to rush, or to get wrong.

This is about ensuring Indigenous voices are heard as loudly as any other Australian voice is.

Again – this is a journey for all Australians to walk, and through conversations we must respect, understand and address all perspectives on this matter.

Giving voice to Indigenous Australians, and realising Constitutional Recognition are the greatest opportunities in our lifetime, but they are not mutually-exclusive.

This must be remembered if we are to shift the pendulum.

SHIFTING THE PENDULUM

But what about shifting the pendulum tomorrow?

There are things that we can be doing, as individuals, as parts of organisations and as members of communities to positively shift the pendulum.

Don’t think that any one action you can take won’t lead to meaningful change – the individual actions of those here tonight, let alone all those across this nation, has the potential to improve lives and outcomes for our people.

We can all shift the pendulum.

And that’s what I’m focused on every single day.

I will be judged as equally on my ability and this government’s ability to create jobs, improve access to healthcare, have young people attend school and succeed, and reduce suicide rates as I will be on delivering Constitutional Recognition.

And this is what drives me.

Every Indigenous Australian who finds a job, every young person that gets to school in the morning, every prevented suicide and instances of Otitis Media for example being treated is what I will celebrate.

And that’s something you should celebrate too. It’s something you can have a direct impact upon.

How do you play a role in shifting the pendulum? Consider that proposition tonight and leave here motivated to shift the pendulum for one person, one family, one community or more.

Many of you will be doing that already, so the question becomes, how can we grow and share that? How can we celebrate that?

We must look at what we do and the good we have the potential for – and to then share these successes as loudly and widely as possible.

By celebrating success, we’re not blinding ourselves to the challenges at hand, or dismissing the levels of disadvantage within Australian Indigenous communities.

We know that people are dying earlier.

We know that our people are committing suicide.

We know that children are being born into a lifetime of poverty.

And, that’s on us as well.

I don’t discount or diminish this in any way.

We owe it to our children, and to future generations to come to create an environment and culture of opportunity and of positivity so that when an Indigenous Australian children is born, they see a world where their dreams can be realised, and where each day is filled with hope and optimism.

Where the face they see in the mirror, doesn’t limit their aspirations.

Where the face they see in the mirror is the face they see reading the 5 o’clock news, the face they see exploring space or one day the face they see leading our nation.

To achieve this future, we must change how we look at ourselves – and we must have others view Indigenous Australians through our successes and not our failings.

Just as disadvantage should not be viewed through colour – success should not be limited by colour.

I asked what we can do tomorrow to shift the pendulum – well, start by celebrating success, by sharing success and by ensuring that one person’s success today is the hope for someone else’s success tomorrow.

But to emphasise the importance of acting and listening at a local level, I want to take us back to the 1967 referendum.

As the referendum votes were being tallied and the nation’s ‘Yes’ vote was starting to emerge, Vincent Lingiari, a Gurindji man and his stockmen were several months into their famous Wave Hill walk-off and strike.

The strike although initially an employee rights action had soon become a national issue as the relationship between Indigenous Australians and the wider community and our national idioms were once again being challenged.

The strike lasted 8 years and that eventually led to the Native Land Rights (Northern Territory) Act 1976.

This shifted the pendulum, legislating the right for Indigenous people of the Northern Territory to negotiate over any developments on their lands.

LINGIARI

Lingiari’s actions at a local level, culminated in the Prime Minister Gough Whitlam’s pouring the red dirt of our land through the hands of Vincent.

While this act was symbolic, it put in train a series of events that defines the land rights movement to this day.

The courage shown by Lingiari was not only for him, but for future generations, as recognised by what Whitlam said. And I won’t repeat what Sue shared with us earlier but it was a sign of possession of our lands for our children forever.

I am truly humbled to be here in front of you, delivering the 19th annual Vincent Lingiari Memorial Lecture – and I thank Charles Darwin University for the opportunity to contribute to this series of lectures, which has helped in its own way, be a form of truth-telling and spark the conversations that we’ve needed since 1996.

To be in the company of such distinguished voices truly is an honour.

And, I don’t want tonight to be about me, but if I could take one moment to say that the significance of being appointed the first Indigenous Minister for Indigenous Australians is not lost on me.

And I thanks the Gurindji people for their faith and for their commitment and I will certainly walk with you to deliver on the things that are important to our people but I will walk with our people across this nation and other Australians.

For young Indigenous Australians out there, across this great nation, dreaming of a career in politics, I hope that my journey can give you hope.

Many of you here know my journey, but just let me share it again for that young person who’s hearing from me for the first time tonight.

I was born in 1952 and raised in Roelands Mission near Bunbury in Western Australia, and the oldest of 10 kids.

My father was a railway ganger. My mother was a member of the Stolen Generations.

And, we lived in a tiny place called Nannine, just west of Meekatharra.

My schooling at first was by correspondence – working a radio with a foot pedal, like an old sewing machine, for two hours at a time.

Soon afterwards, my parents moved to Corrigin.

Education was my turning point, and by going to school, my drive for knowledge and desire to learn is something that I retain and value today.

I have a few other fragments of memory from when I was a skinny-ankled kid running around Corrigin.

There was the time that some people in our town started circulating a petition to get the Aboriginal family that had just moved in kicked out.

The petition failed. The townspeople wanted us to stay and have a fair go.

I also remember a time when I was about ten years old and somebody said to me: you might end up being a politician one day.

And I thought “not in this country will I ever have that opportunity”.

As I grew into a teenager in the mid-60s, I became enterprising.

I worked on farms, I’d catch rabbits, sell the meat to the butcher (certainly not the ones I bruised; I’d cook those) and I’d sell the skins as well.

I used to work on farms too. I’d earn money by chopping wood, doing the fencing, driving tractors during harvesting.

But, it gave me money for myself. I’d keep half my earnings and buy a few things and put some away in the bank. The other half I’d give to mother to help put food on the table for all of us.

This is not a sob story.

To me it sort of felt like freedom.

It gave me a sense of personal responsibility and an attitude of enterprising thinking.

Those experiences living in a country town probably shaped me.

While I was busy skinning rabbits and making a buck, Australia was growing and changing.

I hope collectively we can fulfil the expectation I feel each day, to continue to grow and shape a better future for all Indigenous Australians, and continue the healing of our nation.

I know I don’t walk alone – but I also acknowledge there are many expectations placed on me. And I feel the weight of expectation.

But, I want to take this weight – and turn it into an optimism for what we can achieve – together when we swing the pendulum.

CONCLUSION

And, I’ll repeat again – everything I have spoken about tonight, from truth-telling to Constitutional Recognition is too important to rush, and too important to get wrong.

I need everyone in this room, and all of those out there who want us to succeed to ask yourselves – what can I do to help us realise our goals?

What are you going to do to shift that pendulum?

What are you going to do tomorrow, in three months’ time and in a year’s time? – good will, while important, will not allow us to complete this journey and positively shift the pendulum.

How can we elevate our successes?

How can we give voice to those who feel voiceless?

And, how can we make sure their voices are heard as loudly as those who come from Canberra and in the media?

I want you to remember these words from Vincent Lingiari:

“Let us live happily together as mates, let us not make it hard for each other… We want to live in a better way together, Aboriginals and white men, let us not fight over anything, let us be mates.”

Let this be the basis for conversations we have. And, remember these important words of Vincent Lingiari.

Take stock every so often and ask yourself – are your actions working for or against shifting the pendulum – on any of the measures we’ve discussed tonight, or on any other significant measures through which we define success and progress.

Let’s remember the importance of learning, listening and understanding when we look back – and through this, we will be able to look forward.

Look forward and work towards realising

  • Local truth-telling;
  • Constitution Recognition of Indigenous Australians;
  • Giving voice to our local communities; and
  • Addressing disadvantage in Indigenous Australia.

Together we can shift the pendulum, help every child out there realise their dreams, and leave a more unified, understanding and tolerant Australia for the generations to come.

Success for me, will be to look back, after all is said and done, and be able to say, as Slim once sang:

We’ve done us proud.

To come this far,

Down through the years,

To where we are,

Side by side,

Hand in hand,

We’ve lived and died for this great land,

We’ve done us proud.

Let us walk together.

Let us shift the pendulum together.

I thank you for the privilege of being here with you this evening.

Thank you.

[ENDS]

AUTHORISED BY KEN WYATT, LIBERAL PARTY, CANBERRA.

NACCHO Affiliate and ACCHO Members Deadly Good News Stories : National CEO Pat Turner speech #Voice #ClosingTheGap #QANDA #AMSANT25Conf Plus @QAIHC formally opens new building for Queensland peak ACCHO body

1.1 National : Our CEO Pat Turner keynote speech at AMSANT 25 Anniversary Conference in Alice Springs

1.2 Close the Gap Steering Committee meets at NACCHO office in Canberra

1.3 : National : How history can help shape the debate about an Indigenous voice to Parliament. Features Our NACCHO CEO Pat Turner

2.1  NSW : Yerin Eleanor Duncan Aboriginal Dental Clinic is the first of its kind on the Central Coast.

2.2 NSW : Katungul ACCHO : Otitis Media & Eye Health Manager Dean Haycox, has just returned from an upskill opportunity with Poche Centre for Indigenous Health.

3.Victorian Government Government investing $13.6 million over two years for all Traditional Owners in Victoria to prepare for treaty and to pave the path forwards for future treaty negotiations.

4.1 QLD : QAIHC formally opens new building for Queensland peak body

4.2 QAIHC Chairperson wins prestigious AMA award

5. WA : The South West Aboriginal Medical Services clinic on wheels visited Newton Moore Senior High School’s Clontarf Academy boys .

6. SA : Clifford Warrior from Port Lincoln ACCHO lives a fast life with active family 

7.1 AMSANT Our Health Our Way 25Yrs Anniversary Conference See Photo album of the event #AMSANT25Conf

7.2 : NT Aboriginal Peak Organisation’s condem the NT Government’s decision to ignore Royal Commission recommendations

How to submit in 2019 a NACCHO Affiliate  or Members Good News Story ?

Email to Colin Cowell NACCHO Media 

Mobile 0401 331 251 

Wednesday by 4.30 pm for publication Thursday /Friday

1.1 National : Our CEO Pat Turner keynote speech at AMSANT 25 Anniversary Conference in Alice Springs

  “We have started the task of determining priority reforms that we think are needed to accelerate the life outcomes of our peoples, and to be built into a new National Agreement on Closing the Gap for the next ten years.

We need a radical shift to the way governments work with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples at all levels of policy design and implementation.

The first priority reform area we have proposed to governments is to ensure the full involvement of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in shared decision making at the national, state and local or regional level and embedding their ownership, responsibility and expertise to close the gap.

This will ensure that, over time, all of us have a seat at the table and responsibility for making decisions about what governments do in our areas and communities. “

Pat Turner CEO NACCHO at AMSANT Conference : Read full speech HERE

Please note Pat Turner will be on Q and A Monday 19 August 

Read June Oscars : Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner

Read Barb Shaw 2 speeches AMSANT Chair

Read Donna Ah Chee Congress ACCHO CEO

1.2 Close the Gap Steering Committee meets at NACCHO office in Canberra

1.3 : National : How history can help shape the debate about an Indigenous voice to Parliament. Features Our NACCHO CEO Pat Turner

Dr Will Sanders:Senior fellow at the Australian National University’s Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy Research.-

Pat Turner: Arrente Woman from Alice Springs. Pat was Commonwealth public service from the 1970’s onward. She was CEO of ATSIC for 4 years from 1994 to 1998 and is now the CEO of NACCHO, the National Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation.

Michael Dillon: Visiting fellow at the Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy Research at the Australian National University.

Robert Tickner: Former Minister for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs in the Hawke and Keating governments.

Alison Anderson: Former ATSIC Commissioner

Listen HERE

2.1  NSW : Yerin Eleanor Duncan Aboriginal Dental Clinic is the first of its kind on the Central Coast.

Yerin Eleanor Duncan Aboriginal Health Services has launched the first Aboriginal dental clinic on New South Wales’ Central Coast.

A special ceremony in Darkinjung country took place last Thursday, launching the new facility that will provide culturally appropriate dental treatment to First Nations people.

Although completed in October last year, industry and community leaders gathered for bush tucker, traditional dance and a didgeridoo performance to formally open the clinic.

The Wyong dental clinic was developed through a collaboration between Yerin and the Central Coast Local Health District.

Yerin CEO Belinda Field said the establishment of this new clinic was a major milestone for the Central Coast First Nations community.

“We are so proud to open this new clinic for our mob to offer dental treatments and oral hygiene solutions that are performed in a culturally safe and responsive manner,” Ms Field said.

“Like in many other areas, there is a considerable gap between the dental health of Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Australians.”

According to the NSW Government’s current Aboriginal Oral Health Plan, Indigenous communities are twice as likely to experience untreated dental decay.

“Yerin Eleanor Duncan is excited to be leading the way to level the playing field in this vital area,” Ms Field said.

This new dental clinic adds to Yerin’s 23 years of health services to Indigenous Australians across the Central Coast.

The organisation provides culturally appropriate and safe primary health care in areas such as dental, GP, mental health, early childhood, chronic disease, permanency support programs, and alcohol and other drugs.

2.2 NSW : Katungul ACCHO : Otitis Media & Eye Health Manager Dean Haycox, has just returned from an upskill opportunity with Poche Centre for Indigenous Health.

We caught up with Dean (Pictured left ) and asked him about the experience.

Why did Poche offer you the opportunity to attend the course?

I was a successful applicant for their scholarship program in 2017 and sp they offered me the the opportunity to up-skill cancer awareness skillset for AHW –AHP .
This skill set provided information on cancer, treatment stages, support services, screenings and early detection and prevention.

Prior to the course my knowledge was limited, but now I understand the importance of early detection and screening programs for breast screen, testicular, bowel, melanoma etc. A lot of Koori people are apprehensive about screening as they are worried about the outcome of the tests, but if cancer is detected early it can be treated.

What did you enjoy most about the course?
The skills we learnt were excellent but the highlight for me was visiting the Melanoma Institute and the Cancer Institute; the work these organisation are doing around
treatment and screening is amazing.

What’s one interesting take-away from the course?
I didn’t know about immunotherapy, which is a type of cancer treatment where the immune system is “switched back on” to help fight cancer in the later stages.

What message did you take with you that you would like the community to know?
I want people to understand that cancer screening programs are for detecting cancer early, the earlier the better. Too many people die from cancer because it is picked up too late- if it is picked up early it can be treated and monitored.

Images courtesy of Poche Centre for Indigenous Health.

3.Victorian Government Government investing $13.6 million over two years for all Traditional Owners in Victoria to prepare for treaty and to pave the path forwards for future treaty negotiations.

Jill Gallagher ( pictured right with Rachel Stephen-Smith) is a proud Gunditjmara woman and Victoria’s Treaty Advancement Commissioner. Working with community to progress treaty & establish an Aboriginal Representative Body.

Minister for Aboriginal Affairs Gavin Jennings today announced a treaty readiness funding package of $13.6 million over two years, which will give equitable and flexible support to Traditional Owners in formally and nonformally recognised areas.

Victoria is leading the nation in negotiating treaty with its First Peoples as part of its pledge to progress self determination.

From September 16, Aboriginal Victorians will vote in the historic election of the First Peoples’ Assembly of Victoria. The Assembly will be the voice of Aboriginal people in Victoria as it works with the State to design a framework for future treaty negotiations.

The treaty readiness funding package recognises the diverse circumstances and aspirations of Traditional Owners in Victoria on their journey towards treaty and the need to provide equitable support to enable all Traditional Owners to participate in negotiations.

The investment will support Traditional Owners in regions without formal recognition to undertake research and map family groups and Traditional Owner structures.

Engagement officers will be employed across Victoria to provide on-the-ground support to Traditional Owners.

The package includes investment in a significant partnership between nation-building service providers including the Federation of Victorian Traditional Owner Corporations, First Nations Legal and Research Services, and

Aboriginal Victoria’s Traditional Owner Programs. This partnership will ensure that Traditional Owners in formally and non-formally recognised areas can access core support and resources across three streams: foundational support, recognition support and treaty readiness support.

Traditional Owners will also be supported to pursue additional nation-building activities, as determined by them, to meet their specific needs and priorities. These activities could include healing and family reunification, cultural knowledge sharing, advice on formal recognition process, treaty education and policy development.

Immediate work is underway to build nation-building support capacity and recruit Engagement Officers. Funding will be available for Traditional Owners to access shortly. For further information visit aboriginalvictoria.vic.gov.au or for more information on the First Peoples’ Assembly of Victoria election, visit firstpeoplesvic.org.

4.1 QLD : QAIHC formally opens new building for Queensland peak body

The Queensland Aboriginal and Islander Health Council (QAIHC) yesterday officially opened its new building in Russell Street, South Brisbane.

Cover photo Building opening QAIHC Hall of Famers Uncle Jeff Timor and Aunty Mary Martin with QAIHC CEO Neil Willmett

Photo above  Previous Chairpersons of QAIHC (L-R) Sheryl Lawton, Aunty Gail Wason, Lizzie Adams, and Kieron Chilcott

Last year QAIHC moved into new offices, to meet the growing needs of the Sector. Today the building will be officially opened by community leaders, and a smoking ceremony held to cleanse the building and promote the wellbeing of those who work in and visit it.

“The building opening celebrates QAIHC’s journey fighting for health equality for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples”, said CEO Neil Willmett.

“The need for a bigger building is indicative of our growing workforce – one that allows us to better service our members, and the Sector.

“The building also makes a statement. Externally, vibrant colours announce your arrival and serve as a reminder to all that QAIHC is here, providing leadership to the Sector and acting as a conduit for information to and from stakeholders.

“Internally, a history of the organisation and key people involved in its establishment can be found, reminding staff and visitors of those who came before us, and those for whom we’re working.”

QAIHC is a peak organisation that is focused on strengthening the capability and capacity of our membership and improving the health status of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Queenslanders.

Established in 1990, QAIHC is a vital player in ensuring that an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander perspective is embedded into health service delivery. Find out more at www.qaihc.com.au

4.2 QAIHC Chairperson wins prestigious AMA award

Chairperson of the Queensland Aboriginal and Islander Health Council (QAIHC), Aunty Gail Wason, was recently awarded the prestigious Australian Medical Association Queensland’s (AMAQ) Excellence in Health Care Medal. Pictured above Centre with QAIHC CEO Neil Willmet on right

The award recognises Aunty Gail’s unwavering commitment to improving the health and wellbeing of her community. She is the Chief Executive Officer of Mulungu Aboriginal Corporation Primary Health Care Service and has more than 25 years’ experience in Aboriginal affairs and health.

Aunty Gail strives to ensure that the community has access to the full range of high quality, culturally appropriate primary health care services that empower clients to fully participate in the management of their own health.

On winning the award, Aunty Gail said, “I’m surprised and humbled to receive this award when there are so many people in our Sector doing good work. I’m thankful for the acknowledgement bestowed upon me by the AMAQ”.

“This award is a team effort. Between the team at QAIHC and at Mulungu, I have so many people who help me succeed and I’m grateful for all those I work with, particularly those who don’t get recognition for the arduous and meaningful work they do.

“Previous Chairs and CEOs of QAIHC have done some pioneering and innovative work for the Sector and their work shouldn’t go unrecognised. The Sector is where we are today, in part, because of them.”

QAIHC CEO Neil Willmett “It’s great to see a humble leader getting recognition and a mainstream award for her dedication to improving the health and wellbeing of Queenslanders”, he said.

“Aunty Gail has experienced first-hand how important it is for clients to be appropriately cared for when attending an Aboriginal Medical Service. The thoroughness and diligence these services show is an important factor in closing the gap, and these are two of Aunty Gail’s strong points”, said Mr Willmett.

5.1 WA : The South West Aboriginal Medical Services clinic on wheels visited Newton Moore Senior High School’s Clontarf Academy boys .

Hosting the clinic on wheels at South-West schools, the clinic enables students to have their health check during school hours.

The clinic also provides the opportunity for students to discuss any health-related issues in a safe, confidential space.

The Clontarf Foundation exists to improve the education, discipline, self-esteem, life skills and employment prospects of young Aboriginal men.

The foundation works by using the existing passion that Aboriginal boys have for football to attract the boys to school and keep them there.

Any Aboriginal boy enrolled at the Newton Moore Senior High School can apply to be part of the program.

“Health and well-being is an important part of our program. Our boys all enjoy a good feed and their footy, but learning how to make good choices with what they eat and drink is crucial,” Newton Moore SHS Clontarf Academy director Boyd Davey said.

“In conjunction with the Federal Government Department of Health and Ageing and SWAMS, we are able to deliver annual health assessments.

“Firstly this gives our boys access to quality medical care, secondly establishes relationship with a medical practice to break down future barriers and thirdly, allows us to learn more about the healthy state of our academy and where we need to focus our attention to improve outcomes.”

The clinic will return to the school in Semester Two to follow up with the students.

“Building a strong relationship with students whilst they are in their school years will hopefully enable them to continue prioritising their health as they grow into adults and start having families of their own. This continuity will help to close the gap for future generations.” SWAMS chief executive Lesley Nelson said.

The clinic’s mobile facility travels with a qualified nurse, doctor and aboriginal health worker.

6. SA : Clifford Warrior from Port Lincoln ACCHO lives a fast life with active family 

I was born in Ceduna, started school in Port Lincoln, completed primary school in Coober Pedy and finished high school back in Port Lincoln. I am the youngest of three with two older sisters. The smell of freshly cut grass and overcast mornings is how I remember my days at Lincoln South Primary School (Lincoln Gardens).

Originally published HERE 

I remember my first football game for Mallee Park and still have the trophy from that season. My first goal was at the town primary school oval. I stood about five metres from goal when the ball landed in my arms and the umpire blew his whistle yelling “mark!” One of the older boys put his arm around me and told me to kick it through the middle.

I went back, started walking forward into a slow jog and kicked it as hard as I could and it went straight for the middle…then curved left for a point. Soon the ball came back as I was on the goal line when I picked it up for a quick little sledge-hammer kick over the line so I had just done a seven-point play (fist pump).

We moved to Coober Pedy when I was about 10. Growing up in a multicultural town was quite an experience. My first job there was with some other boys, putting price tags on basketball cards for $5. I shot my first kangaroo (malu) with Dad when I was 11 and now I take my boys hunting with me. Returning to Port Lincoln was something I put off for as long as possible so Mum let me finish the school year off first. I returned in 2000 for summer. The weather was not as hot as Coober Pedy and I was often asked why was I wearing jeans and a jumper when it was “hot”. It took me a week or so to adjust.

I started at Port Lincoln High School that year, where I met Antoinette then fell in love around 2001. We completed year 12, then had our first child Shauna when we were 18. We moved around for a bit including to Western Australia when Anti got a job in sport and rec and I worked in the local abattoir. When we decided to go back to Port Lincoln we had little Cliffy; two years later Leo was born. After buying our home I thought we needed a dog – we didn’t, I know that now so lesson learnt. Anyway his name is Snowy, he’s a husky and likes to trash our yard.

I want to play sport for as long as I can so health and fitness are important. With huge support from Anti I recently finished second in an eight-week challenge at F45 so shout out to the team for a life-changing experience. I had the privilege of playing football with my dad when he was in his 50s so I hope to do the same with my boys. I now coach under 11s, which little Cliffy plays in. He’s already better than me and also plays under 9s with Leo. He always tries to kick the ball to him. Shauna plays netball and has had a pretty good career and will no doubt continue to excel.

For the past nine years I have worked at the Port Lincoln Aboriginal Health Service in the social and emotional wellbeing team. I have a Graduate Diploma in Substance Use through Sydney Uni so I also provide drug and alcohol support. With an active family that plays multiple sports life is pretty fast and full on but I would not change it. Anti makes life easy. With the talent these kids have I suspect life will get a lot faster. Talent definitely skipped a generation in my case. I love watching my children play sport so I will try to stay in one piece hoping one day I can play alongside them.

7.1 AMSANT Our Health Our Way 25Yrs Anniversary Conference See Photo album of the event #AMSANT25Conf

View the Album HERE 

See Album 2

Our Health, Our Way! Conference last week…!

7.2 : NT Aboriginal Peak Organisation’s condem the NT Government’s decision to ignore Royal Commission recommendations

We support the NT Aboriginal Peak Organisation’s statement released today, condemning the NT Government’s decision to ignore Royal Commission recommendations in announcing a new youth detention facility site beside the Darwin adult prison.

The APO is asking the NT Government to reconsider its decision and to work collaboratively with the community to help our young people transform their lives.#YouthJustice

Aboriginal Health and Justice #LawYarn : @NACCHOChair Donnella Mills speech at #NILCIHJC2019 #NILC2019 Justice health partnerships provide a model of integrated service delivery

Legal and health services throughout Australia have expressed interest in this holistic approach to the health and wellbeing of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

And we are hopeful that the evaluation findings will support the rollout of our model to ACCHOs across Australia.

I believe that the development of collaborative, integrated service models such as Law Yarn can provide innovative and effective solutions for addressing not only the overrepresentation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in the justice system, but also the health gaps between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Australians.

Address the legal problems, and you will have better health outcomes. Justice health partnerships provide a model of integrated service delivery that go to the heart of the social determinants of health, key causal factors contributing to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples’ over-exposure to the justice system.[i]

With Aboriginal community control at the front and centre of service design, these partnerships can deliver both preventive law and preventive health for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.” 

Acting NACCHO Chair Donnella Mills speaking at the Indigenous Health Justice Darwin August 13

Picture above : Barb Shaw Chair AMSANT , Donnella , Priscilla Atkins and MC Christine Ross 

I would like to acknowledge that the land on which we are meeting today is the traditional land of the Larrakia Nation. I wish to acknowledge and respect the continuing culture of the Larrakia people and the contribution they make to the life of this important region.

I thank the convenors of the Indigenous Health Justice Conference for welcoming me so warmly. I am delighted to be here to share ideas with you on a topic that is close to my heart. For those who don’t know me, I am a Torres Strait Islander woman with ancestral and family links to Masig and Nagir. I am the Acting Chair of NACCHO, which stands for the National Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation.

It was tempting to focus today on the problem rather than a solution. I could have talked about the unconscionably high rates of incarceration for our people and their over-representation in the gaols and institutions across the country. I could have asked why nothing has changed since the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody was initiated in 1988. But most of you are already very familiar with these topics and frustrations.

What I would like to focus on instead is the Aboriginal community-controlled model of health care, how it started, how it evolved over time and where it is going. Why? Because I think that the model of community control is the future, not just in health, but in justice and other areas.

It gives us control. It gives us a way forward in which we assume control of our own health and justice outcomes and develop our own solutions and genuine partnerships.

I want to talk to you about how the principles, values and beliefs underpinning the Aboriginal community-controlled model provide a sensible foundation for preventing and reducing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples’ exposure to the justice system.

But before we look forward, let’s look backwards for a moment, so that we can appreciate the context in which this model was forged.

Aboriginal Community Controlled Health since 1971

The first Aboriginal medical service was established at Redfern in 1971 as a response to the urgent need to provide decent, accessible health services for the largely medically uninsured Aboriginal population of Redfern. The mainstream was not working. So it was, that forty-eight years ago, Aboriginal people took control and designed and delivered their own model of health care.

Similar Aboriginal medical services quickly sprung up around the country. In 1974, NAIHO (the National Aboriginal and Islander Health Organisation) was formed to represent them at the national level. All this predated Medibank in 1975. NAIHO became NACCHO in 1992 and the ACCHO sector has been growing bigger and stronger every year.

We now represent 144 ACCHOs across the country. Our members provide about three million episodes of care per year for about 350,000 people. Collectively, we employ about 6,000 staff (56 per cent whom are Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islanders), which makes us the single largest employer of Aboriginal or Torres Strait people in the country.

The primary health care approach developed by Redfern and other early ACCHOs was innovative. It mirrored international aspirations at the time for accessible, effective and comprehensive health care with a focus on prevention and social justice. It even foreshadowed the WHO Alma-Ata Declaration on Primary Health Care in 1978.

NACCHO has often played a leadership role in the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community. Some of you may be aware that, recently, NACCHO and almost 40 other peak Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander bodies have worked hard to force the nine Australian governments to get the Closing the Gap process back on track.

Closing the Gap

As the ‘refreshed’ strategy was being prepared for sign off by the Australian Governments, our frustration with the process galvanised a small group of community-controlled organisations to come together to write to the Prime Minister, Premiers and Chief Ministers asking that it not be agreed. NACCHO led the bringing together of organisations for this purpose.

Along with NACCHO, APONT, Central Land Council, and Northern Land Council here in the Northern Territory were four of the first fourteen organisations that signed up to this letter to the Prime Minister. I would like to acknowledge the great work that John Paterson and other Territorians have done in this respect.

Governments could see that we weren’t going away. There were three important messages that we wanted them to hear. These were:

  1. Include us in the design and delivery of services that impact on us and the outcomes will be far better.
  2. We need to be at the centre of Closing the Gap policy as the gap won’t close without our full involvement.
  3. COAG cannot expect us to work constructively with them to improve outcomes if we are excluded from the decision making.

By staying strong and unified, our voice could not be ignored. On 6 December 2018, the Prime Minister met with us and acknowledged that the current targets were ‘government targets’ not ‘shared targets’, and that for Closing the Gap to be realised we had to be able to take formal responsibility for the outcomes through shared-decision making.

Six days later, the nine Australian Governments publicly committed to developing a genuine partnership with us through which a new Closing the Gap policy would be agreed.

The initial fourteen organisations have since grown to almost forty, as we brought together Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peaks bodies across the country to form a Coalition of Peaks to negotiate a new Closing the Gap framework with Australian Governments.

This is community control at the national level. It is the first time that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peaks have come together in this way, to work collectively and as full partners with Australian Governments. It’s also the first time that there has been formal decision making with our peoples and the Australian Governments in this way.

We need this sort of radical shift to the way governments work with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people at all levels of policy design and implementation. We need a seat at the table and responsibility for making decisions about what governments do in our communities. Another priority reform area is placing Aboriginal community-controlled services in all sectors – not just health – at the heart of delivering programs and services to our people. When we are in control and lead services for our communities the outcomes are so much better.

Throughout our negotiations with government, we learned the importance of staying strong and presenting a unified voice. Our membership may be large and reflective of very diverse organisations. But this diversity is also a strength, as long as we are willing to stay true to our common cause.

Let me now focus more closely on health and justice.

All of you here today know the shocking statistics. Earlier this year it was reported that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander men are imprisoned at a rate almost 15-times greater than non-Aboriginal men, and for women the rate is even higher, 21-times worse than non-Aboriginal women.[1]

Our women represent the fastest growing population group in prisons; their imprisonment rate is up 148% since 1991.[2] Locking up our women affects the whole community. Children may be removed and placed in out-of-home care. Research has found there are links between detainees’ children being placed into out-of-home care and their subsequent progression into youth detention centres and adult correctional facilities.[3] Communities suffer, and the cycle of intergenerational trauma and disadvantage is perpetuated.

Figures on the incarceration of our children and young people in detention facilities also reveal alarmingly high trends of overrepresentation. Our young people aged 10–17 are 26-times as likely as non-Aboriginal young people to be in detention on any given night.[4] How can this be justified?

Governments’ inertia and lack of commitment to genuinely addressing the issues have contributed to a worsening situation. The National Indigenous Law and Justice Framework 2009-2015 was never funded, attracted no buy in from state and territory governments, and the review findings of the Framework were never made public. We need to come together – like we have done in the Closing the Gap process – to force governments to work with us to fix this.

Emerging out of these inquiries is a growing understanding that Closing the Gap on justice outcomes must begin with a commitment to self-determination, community control, and cultural safety. These are three of the most critical elements of the community-controlled model itself.

Appropriately resourced community controlled services are essential for addressing these barriers. Best practice solutions to preventable problems of our peoples’ exposure to the justice system must begin with enabling their access to trusted services that are governed by the principles and practices of self-determination, community control, and cultural safety.[5]

Increasing funding for the corrective service sector will not (and does not) address the issue of our peoples’ exposure to the justice system. As Allison and Cunneen note, ‘the solutions to offending are found within communities, not prisons.’[6] Their research is referring to what we call ‘justice reinvestment’, a strategy and an approach, whereby a portion of correctional funds – a portion of money for prisons – are diverted back into disadvantaged communities.

Reinvesting the money into community-identified and community-led solutions not only addresses causation; it also strengthens communities. Depending on the project itself, justice reinvestment may not only help to reduce people’s exposure to the justice system; it may also improve education, health, and employment outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. Analysis of justice reinvestment projects in Northern Australia shows how the underpinning principles of this approach reaffirm self-determination and strengthen cultural authority and identity.[7]

It is encouraging to note that in its 2016 report of the inquiry into Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander experience of law enforcement and justice services, the Senate committee recommended that the Commonwealth Government support Aboriginal led justice reinvestment projects.[8] In December 2017, the Australian Law Reform Commission recommended that Commonwealth, state and territory governments should provide support for:

  • the establishment of an independent justice reinvestment body; and
  • justice reinvestment trials initiated in partnership with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities.[9]

Health justice partnerships on the ground

Given ACCHOs’ commitment to providing services based on community-identified needs, it is not surprising, then, to learn that we are starting to address justice inequities by developing innovative partnerships with legal services.

Health justice partnerships are similar to justice reinvestment in that they target disadvantaged population groups and are community-led. They differ in that funding is not explicitly linked to correctional budgets and secondly, the primary population groups targeted through these partnerships are those people at risk of poor health.[10]

Health justice partnerships in the ACCHO context address people’s fears and distrust about the justice system, by providing a culturally safe setting in which to have conversations about legal matters. In testimony given to a Senate Inquiry, a NSW ACCHO representative described how:

We form relationships with the health services and actually provide a legal service, for example, within the Aboriginal medical service. We have a lawyer embedded in the Aboriginal medical service in Mount Druitt so that when the doctor sees the person and they mention they have a housing issue – ‘I’m about to get kicked out of my place’ – they can say, ‘Go and see the lawyer that is in the office next door.’[11]

ACCHOs are increasingly recognising the benefits of working with legal services to develop options that enable services to be delivered seamlessly, safely, and appropriately for their communities. Lawyers may be trained to work as part of a health care team or alternatively, health care workers may be upskilled to start a non-threatening, informal conversation about legal matters with the clients, which results in referrals to pro bono legal services.

 Case study: Law Yarn

 

As a lawyer myself and the ex-Chair of the Cairns-based Wuchopperen Health Service, I have become aware of the need to provide better legal supports for my community. In conversations with local Elders and LawRight, Wuchopperen entered into a justice health partnership in 2016.

LawRight is an independent, not-for-profit, community-based legal organisation which coordinates the provision of pro bono legal services for individuals and community groups. The aim of the partnership was to improve health outcomes by enhancing access to legal rights and early intervention. Initially, it was decided that, as community member and lawyer employed by LawRight, I would provide the free legal services at Wuchopperen’s premises.

One of the challenges of health justice partnerships is ongoing funding, and in 2017 we were forced to close our doors for several months. We knew the partnership was addressing a real need in our community, so we submitted a funding proposal to the Queensland Government, and received funding of $55,000 to trial ‘Law Yarn’.

Law Yarn is a unique resource that supports good health outcomes in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. It helps health workers to yarn with members of remote, regional and urban communities about their legal problems and connect them to legal help.

Representatives from LawRight, Wuchopperen Health Service, Queensland Indigenous Family Violence Legal Service and the Aboriginal Torres Strait Islander Legal Services came together and created a range of culturally safe resources based on LawRight’s successful Legal Health Check resources.

A handy how-to guide includes conversation prompts and advice on how to capture the person’s family, financial, tenancy or criminal law legal needs as well as discussing and recording their progress.

Four aspects of Law

These symbols have been created to help identify and represent the four aspects of law that have been identified as the most concerning for individuals when presenting with any legal issues. If these four aspects can be discussed, both the Health worker and Lawyer can establish what the individual concerns are and effectively action a response.

Each symbol is surrounded by a series of 10 dots; these dots can be coloured in on both the artwork and the referral form by the Health worker to help establish what areas of law their clients have concerns with.

Building trust and relationship

Questions for engaging with clients about legal problems.

Launch of Law Yarn

Law Yarn was officially launched at Wuchopperen Health Service, Cairns, in May 2018 by the Queensland Attorney General as a Reconciliation Week Event.

Read NACCHO Coverage

Legal and health services throughout Australia have expressed interest in this holistic approach to the health and wellbeing of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. And we are hopeful that the evaluation findings will support the rollout of our model to ACCHOs across Australia.

In conclusion, I believe that the development of collaborative, integrated service models such as Law Yarn can provide innovative and effective solutions for addressing not only the overrepresentation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in the justice system, but also the health gaps between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Australians.

Address the legal problems, and you will have better health outcomes. Justice health partnerships provide a model of integrated service delivery that go to the heart of the social determinants of health, key causal factors contributing to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples’ over-exposure to the justice system.[12]

With Aboriginal community control at the front and centre of service design, these partnerships can deliver both preventive law and preventive health for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

[1] https://www.lawcouncil.asn.au/media/media-releases/recommendations-to-reduce-disproportionate-indigenous-incarceration-must-not-be-ignored

[2] Law Council of Australia. 2018. The Justice Project, Final Report – Part 1. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People.

[3]. Law Council of Australia. 2018. The Justice Project, Final Report – Part 1. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People.

[4] Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. 2018. Youth detention population in Australia. AIHW Bulletin 145.

[5] Thorburn, Kathryn and Melissa Marshall. 2017. The Yiriman Project in the West Kimberley: an example of justice reinvestment? Indigenous Justice Clearinghouse, Current Initiatives Paper 5; McCausland, Ruth, Elizabeth McEntyre, Eileen Baldry. 2017. Indigenous People, Mental Health, Cognitive Disability and the Criminal Justice System. Indigenous Justice Clearinghouse. Brief 22; AMA Report Card on Indigenous Health 2015. Treating the high rates of imprisonment of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as a symptom of the health gap: an integrated approach to both; Richards, Kelly, Lisa Rosevear and Robyn Gilbert. 2011. Promising interventions for reducing Indigenous juvenile offending Ibid. Indigenous Justice Clearinghouse, Brief 10.

[6] Allison, Fiona and Chris Cunneen. 2018. Justice Reinvestment in Northern Australia. The Cairns Institute Policy Paper Series, p. 5.

[7] Allison, Fiona and Chris Cunneen. 2018. Justice Reinvestment in Northern Australia. The Cairns Institute Policy Paper Series, p. 8.

[8] Finance and Public Administration References Committee. 2016. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander experience of law enforcement and justice services. The Senate: Australian Parliament House.

[9] Australian Law Reform Commission. 2017. Pathways to Justice—An Inquiry into the Incarceration Rate of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples, Final Report No 133, p. 17.

[10] Health Justice Australia. 2017. Integrating services; partnering with community. Submission to national consultation on Implementation Plan for the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Plan 2013-2023.

[11] Finance and Public Administration References Committee. 2016. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander experience of law enforcement and justice services. The Senate: Australian Parliament House, p. 31. Testimony from Ms Hitter, Legal Aid NSW, Committee Hansard, 23 September 2015, p.28

[12] Ibid., p. 4; Chris Speldewinde and Ian Parsons. 2015. Medical-legal partnerships: connecting services for people living with mental health concerns. 13th National Rural Health Conference, Darwin; Barry Zuckerman, Megan Sandel, Ellen Lawton, Samantha Morton. Medical-legal partnerships: transforming health care. 2008. The Lancet, Vol 372.

NACCHO Aboriginal Health News : Minister @GregHuntMP launches Australia’s Long Term National Health Plan that charts the way forward over the next 3 and 10 years : Download HERE

Delivering the world’s best mental health system – stigma-free and focused on prevention, starting with children under 12 – is the major focus of the Australian Government’s Long Term National Health Plan, outlined today.

Under this Plan, we will build a mentally and physically healthy Australia. For the first time, mental health will be rated equally alongside physical health.

The Long Term National Health Plan recognises that depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder and psychosis are health problems to be treated just like diabetes, asthma and broken bones.

It charts the way forward over the next three and 10 years in the key areas of mental health, primary care, hospitals, preventive health and medical research.

The Long Term National Health Plan includes:

  • The 2030 mental health vision, including a new strategy specifically for children under 12 years
  • The 10-year Primary Health Care Plan
  • Continued improvement of private health insurance
  • The 10-year National Preventive Health Strategy
  • The 10-year Medical Research Future Fund (MRFF) investment plan.

To help inform the Plan, the Government is commissioning a multi-year study of more than 60,000 Australians to provide the most complete picture ever of our physical and mental health.

The Intergenerational Health and Mental Health Study will cover mental health, general health, nutrition and physical activity.

Health Minister Greg Hunt launching The Long Term National Health Plan at the National Press Club August 14

Download Read full 30 minute speech HERE

Transcript Minister Greg Hunt Launch Health Plan

Improving the health of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people is a top priority for the Government.

Over four years from 2019-20, we will invest $4.1 billion in dedicated health programs for Indigenous
Australians.

This represents an annual increase of around four per cent. This will improve access to culturally sensitive comprehensive primary health care, and target areas of critical need to accelerate progress
towards the Closing the Gap targets.

Our focus is on working with Indigenous communities and other governments to ensure programs are working effectively to improve health outcomes, by tackling the social factors which impact heavily on health.

All Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Services now report against national key performance
indicators, which are critical for measuring progress towards the Government’s Closing the Gap targets.

We are also funding research and innovation in cooperation with Australia’s First Nations’ people,
including $160 million for a 10-year national Indigenous Health Research Fund.

Up to $25 million will be directed to communities and stakeholder groups to implement proposals at
a local level to improve Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health “

Australia’s Long Term National Health Plan charts the way forward over the next 3 and 10 years in the key areas of mental health, primary care, hospitals, preventive health and medical research

Download the Plan HERE

australia-s-long-term-national-health-plan_0

Mental health

The Government will build a mental health system that is integrated, simplified, trusted and comprehensive.

The new Children’s Mental Health Strategy focuses on the 0–12 age group, and aims to maintain mental wellbeing and prevent mental ill health. It will improve delivery of supports for early childhood, parenting and early education.

We know that half of all symptoms of mental illness begin before the age of 14, and that neuropsychiatric conditions are the leading cause of disability in young people. If untreated, these conditions severely influence how children develop, and how they do at school and in life.

The Children’s Mental Health Strategy will provide a framework to embed protective skills in early childhood, create mentally healthy home environments, support parents, and prevent or treat early childhood trauma.

The expert working group developing the Strategy will be co-chaired by Professor Frank Oberklaid and Professor Christel Middeldorp. Two internationally recognised leaders in child mental health.

Professor Oberklaid, Director of the Centre for Community Child Health at The Royal Children’s Hospital, and Professor Middeldorp, conjoint Professor of Child and Youth Psychiatry at the Child Health Research Centre and Children’s Health Queensland Hospital and Health Service, are two of Australia’s leading child mental health experts.

The Government will continue to tackle stigma around mental illness and encourage people to seek help – and seek it early.

Enormous progress has been made on destigmatisation, but self-stigma – people’s self-consciousness about their own mental health concerns remains high. It is the main barrier to people seeking help.

As a Government, and through the nation’s leaders, organisations, schools and the community, we will work to ensure there will be no shame – in particular, no shame in our own mental health challenges – when we reach out for help.

The Government is undertaking unprecedented action to reduce the rates of suicide, particularly for our young people and Indigenous Australians. More than 3,120 recorded suicides in 2017 – part of an upward trend over the past decade – is a national tragedy.

The Government will establish a ‘towards zero’ suicide target and culture through a whole-of-government approach driven by Australia’s first National Suicide Prevention Adviser, Christine Morgan.

One of the specific priority areas for the next round of the Government’s Million Minds mental health research mission will be research on suicide prevention. Funding of $8 million will be made available to support this research with a round to be opened for competitive application in November 2019.

We will continue to improve service delivery. Funding of $111 million will establish 30 more headspace centres in this term, taking the total to 145 around Australia.

Funding of $110 million is allocated for the Early Psychosis Youth Services Program; $114.5 million to establish eight adult mental health centres; $63 million for residential eating disorder centres in each state and territory; and $36.7 million to expand Way Back services in selected regions, to support people after attempting suicide.

Between now and 2030, we will establish a network of adult mental health centres.

Australia’s mental health system needs to be better integrated. The Government will work towards a New National Mental Health Partnership with states and territories. This Partnership will be informed by the National Mental Health Commission and the Productivity Commission, which are currently working together on Vision 2030: Blueprint for the Future.

The Partnership will identify individual and shared responsibilities for states and territories, and the Commonwealth.

The goal of national partnerships with each of the states and territories is for a simplified mental health system from prevention to treatment to recovery.

Primary care

The Government will implement the 10-year Primary Health Care Plan.

A key reform is support for GPs to provide more flexible care for patients over 70 with chronic and complex conditions, through a new patient enrolment payment model rather than fee-for-service MBS items.

We will develop genomics testing as the new standard of care. Genomics will transform prevention, prediction, diagnosis and treatment by providing precision medical care, targeting the unique genetic makeup of individuals.

We will progressively roll out universal telehealth, modernising general practice, improving continuity and convenience, and particularly benefiting rural and remote Australia.

We will encourage more nurses to enter the primary care workforce.

We will make pharmacy an even more essential part of primary care. The Government is committed to early and inclusive negotiations for a new Community Pharmacy Agreement.

Through our Stronger Rural Health Strategy, we will better distribute the health workforce, with 3,000 new doctors and nurses and hundreds of allied health professionals to be located in areas of need, especially in regional and rural Australia.

Indigenous health is a key priority. We will complete the next iteration of the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Plan by mid-2020.

Through Medicare and the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS), we will continue to ensure Australians have guaranteed access to subsidised health care and medicines. We have provisioned $40 billion for PBS medicines over the next four years. Of this, more than $10 billion is for cancer medicines. We are also looking at ways to improve subsidised access, including streamlining processes for medicines that offer a real therapeutic advance.

Hospitals and private health insurance

We have begun the next wave of private health insurance reforms. We are working collaboratively with insurers, hospitals and doctors to deliver a better outcome for consumers. Our first round of reforms delivered the lowest premium changes in 18 years.

With $131 billion in record public hospitals funding on the table for the next five years under the National Health Reform Agreement, we will work with states and territories to better coordinate care for complex and chronic conditions, keep people out of hospital, and improve management, including self-management, of people with chronic and complex conditions.

Under our landmark $1.25 billion Community Health and Hospitals Program, we will continue to allocate funds for important health and hospital projects. So far, $100 million in signed bilateral agreements with states and territories has been released for 65 projects, including the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre to bring CAR T – cell treatment to Australia ($80 million), Sydney Children’s Comprehensive Cancer Care Centre ($100 million), the Repat Brain and Spinal Centre, South Australia ($20 million), and the Logan Urgent and Specialist Care Centre, Queensland ($33.4 million).

Preventive health

The Government will develop and implement a 10-year National Preventive Health Strategy. This strategy will provide a better balance between treatment and prevention. It will be designed to keep people healthier and out of hospital.

We will continue to lift cancer screening rates across the three current population-based cancer screening programs – bowel, breast, and cervical – and have requested Cancer Australia to investigate the potential for a national lung cancer screening program.

Australia is set to be the first country in the world to eliminate cervical cancer through vaccination and screening.

We will continue to invest in the National Immunisation Program – $400 million for this year. We will develop a national obesity strategy with states and territories. A $20 million National Tobacco Campaign over four years will continue to reduce tobacco use. Our goal is to reduce smoking rates to below 10 per cent by 2025.

The National Preventive Health Strategy includes an Indigenous Preventive Health Plan. Under this plan, targets for improved health outcomes include:

  • Ending avoidable blindness by 2025
  • Ending avoidable deafness by 2025
  • Eradicating rheumatic heart disease by 2030
  • A 10 per cent annual increase in the number of people having at least one health check a year
  • 60 per cent of pregnant women to have at least one health check in the first trimester
  • Stopping the growth in type 2 diabetes among children and young people within five years.

Medical research

The 10-year, $5 billion MRFF investment plan and the $500 million Biomedical Translation Fund are giving funding certainty to our best and brightest researchers and start-ups. They are reaffirming Australia’s reputation as a world leader in the health and medical research.

A total of 54 clinical trials are now being funded through the MRFF. Within 10 years, we will have established Australia as a global centre for clinical trials.

Eight research missions covering brain cancer ($124.7 million), mental health ($125 million), genomics $500 million), ageing, aged care and dementia ($185 million), Indigenous ($160 million), stem cell ($150 million), cardiovascular ($220 million) and traumatic brain injury ($50 million) are funded through the MRFF. Over time, they will transform health care.

Work on breakthrough treatments includes the $20 million Mackenzie’s Mission to research rare genetic conditions like spinal muscular atrophy and fragile X syndrome, and the $50 million Genomic Cancer Medicine Program.