• $200,000 compensation for Stolen Generations survivors
• Quick action helps stop rheumatic fever spread
• Innovative diabetes trial launches in South West Sydney
• New campaign puts focus on non-physical forms of family violence
• Why making coercive control a crime is being debated
• Save the Date – World No Tobacco Day 2021 – 31 May

$200,000 compensation for Stolen Generations survivors

On the eve of National Sorry Day, the Australian Greens urged the Federal Government to adopt a national Stolen Generations compensation package. Victorian Greens Senator and Djabwurrung Gunnai Gunditjmara woman Lidia Thorpe, said the package would see $200,000 provided to each Stolen Generations Member nationally.

“It has been 24 years since the Bringing Them Home Report, which recommended a number of solutions for our Stolen Generation peoples across this country, however, no Federal Government has ever implemented such a scheme. “I have seen so many of our people pass away waiting for justice, waiting for peace. This is my community, this is our community, and our people continue to live in poverty. They continue to feel the effects of being taken away from their families and their communities,” she said.

You can read the full article by the National Indigenous Times here.

Quick action helps stop rheumatic fever spread

Early this month, the WA Centre for Rural Health, Centacare Family Services and the Geraldton Regional Aboriginal Medical Service (GRAMS) put their heads together to get people in Mount Magnet thinking about rheumatic heart disease. About 80 children in the Mid West and Gascoyne suffer from the illness, which is preventable and occurs 60 times more often in Indigenous children than their non-Indigenous peers.

While on a 12-week placement in Mount Magnet, WA Centre for Rural Health social work students Emily Johnson and Brianna Nugent developed a plan, under the guidance of Mid West rheumatic heart disease clinical nurse and GRAMS Mount Magnet outreach nurse Ros Robinson, to get families talking about rheumatic heart disease. They collaborated with local childcare service Bidi Bidi, run by Centacare, to reach community members at risk of an RHD diagnosis, holding one workshop for adults and another for children.

“The main messages we are getting out are wash your hands, don’t share towels and bed, watch your respiratory hygiene and take your child to the doctor if you notice a sore throat, weak limbs or skin sores,” Ms Robinson said.

Read the full story in Pilbara News here.

Innovative diabetes trial launches in South West Sydney

New campaign puts focus on non-physical forms of  family violence

A new awareness campaign has been launched by the Queensland Government during Domestic and Family Violence Prevention Month to help identify all forms of domestic and family violence. “We know domestic and family violence isn’t just physical,” the Premier said. “Often it involves financial abuse, social abuse, isolation or even the use of technology to torment. All of these things can be just as dangerous as physical abuse.

“This new campaign aims to educate Queenslanders on how to recognise all forms of domestic and family violence and what support is out there.

You can read the full story in the National Tribune here.

Campaign resources are available here, and you can you the campaign video here.

Why making coercive control a crime is being debated

As SBS airs ‘See What You Made Me Do’ – a landmark documentary series about domestic abuse – four women have their say about coercive control, the most common risk factor in the lead up to a domestic violence homicide. Coercive control is a deliberate pattern of abuse that can isolate a partner from their friends and family, restrict their movement, and see them being monitored. It can include emotional and psychological manipulation along with social, financial and technology-facilitated abuse.

But while those working to prevent domestic violence in Australia agree coercive control needs to be urgently addressed, there is no consensus regarding how best to tackle it. Some of those working to support survivors of domestic violence worry about the unintended consequences that criminalising behaviour may have for women – particularly those from marginalised communities.

You can read the SBS story here.

NSW health services invited to participate in Ironbark study

The Ironbark Project is inviting NSW services that work with groups of older Aboriginal people (45 years and older) to participate in the Ironbark study. The study compares the health impacts of two programs: Standing Strong and Tall program and Healthy Community program.

The Ironbark Project will fund and train services to run one of these programs weekly for 12 months. Join our information session on 3 June to find out more. Email ironbark@unsw.edu.au for the zoom link, or for more information, visit the Ironbark Project website here.