• COVID-19 vaccine take-up and hesitancy
• Sugar tax will cut disease and save lives
• Restoration to guide health reforms
• Better health literacy for better equity
• Artwork competition: ear and hearing health
• Save the Date – NDIS Ready grant round closing soon – 11 June 2021

COVID-19 vaccine take-up and hesitancy

Dr Dawn Casey, Deputy CEO NACCHO and Co-Chair Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Advisory Group on COVID-19 spoke on NITV-The Point on Tuesday 8 June about the latest rollout of the COVID-19 vaccine, its take up and hesitancy, and the Victorian lockdown.

“There are just over 65,000 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who have been vaccinated with their first dose so far. There was hesitancy when the announcements around the issues that AstraZeneca was not suitable for under 50s, but the numbers have started to pick up.”

“There has been no blood clots for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people recorded.”

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples are now eligible to receive the vaccines, including those aged 16 and over. Speak to your healthcare worker to find out more.

You can view the interview below or by clicking here.

or information on the vaccines, visit the Australian Government Department of Health website.

#OurJobToProtectOurJob   #GetVaccinatedToBeProtected   #HaveYouHadYourShot

Sugar tax will cut disease and save lives

The AMA has today called for a tax on sugary drinks as a key plank of its plan to tackle chronic disease and make Australia the healthiest country in the world.

In his address to the National Press Club in Canberra yesterday, AMA President Dr Omar Khorshid said that Australia lags behind comparable nations in health outcomes and disease prevention, and it was ‘time for action’ to reduce consumption of sugar-filled drinks.

“More than 2.4 billion litres of sugary drinks are consumed every year in Australia. That’s enough to fill 960 Olympic sized swimming pools,” Dr Khorshid said.

“Diabetes, obesity and poor vascular health are huge contributors to the burden on our health system. The tax could save lives, and save millions of dollars in healthcare costs,” he said.

The tax proposed in the AMA’s report released yesterday would raise the retail price of the average supermarket sugary drink by 20%. This would be an important first step towards tackling obesity and raise revenue to take further steps.

The AMA’s call for a tax on sugary drinks is part of its new blueprint for a robust, sustainable health system – beyond the pandemic – with high quality, patient-centred care at its heart. The Vision for Australia’s Health, also launched yesterday, calls for reform around five policy pillars – general practice, public hospitals, private health, equity and innovation.

View The Vision for Australia’s Health plane here.

View the A tax on sugar-sweetened beverages: Modelled impacts on sugar consumption and government revenue report here.

Restoration to guide health reforms

The Aotearoa New Zealand Government has announced sweeping reforms for the nation’s health system.

They have been welcomed by the Royal Australasian College of Physicians (RACP) ‘as a health system structure seeking to live its commitments’ to the Treaty of Waitangi and refusing any longer to ‘tolerate the health inequities experienced by our Māori and Pasifika whanau’.

Dr Sandra Hotu, Chair of the RACP Māori Health Committee, and Dr George Laking, RACP Aotearoa New Zealand President, outline the changes and their implications for improving health and health systems, for both Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand.

Together with an ethic of restoration, Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand must look to a practice of partnership informed by the stories and experiences of our First Nations. Partnership must be tangible. It must be expressly lived as a solution space lead by Indigenous voices, rather than a problem space. Partnership is informing the refresh of Closing the Gap 2019–2029, as described in the partnership agreement between the Community Controlled Peak Organisations and the National Federation Reform Council.

As Alex Brown and Eddie Mulholland wrote on Croakey in 2020, the agreement for power-sharing represents a “critical moment for genuine engagement between Australian governments and Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisations (ACCHOs)”.

The vision of the ACCHOs – ‘Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people enjoy quality of life through whole-of-community self-determination and individual spiritual, cultural, physical, social and emotional well-being’ resonates with the intent of the Māori Health Authority. This is because the rationale for each is so closely aligned: racism in healthcare as well as the need for culturally safe services to address health inequity.

You can read the article at Croakey Health Media here.

Better health literacy for better equity

New survey findings show a significant number of consumers need to be supported to feel more in control of their health care. The report, commissioned from the Consumers Health Forum (CHF) by NPS MedicineWise, defines and measures health literacy in Australia. It also identifies gaps which are preventing people from accessing the best possible health care.

“Health literacy is core to us delivering more equitable health outcomes,” said Leanne Wells, CEO of CHF.

The survey of more than 1,500 respondents found that approximately one in five consumers:

• Rarely or never felt comfortable asking their doctor, pharmacist or nurse when they needed more information.
• Rarely or never felt comfortable asking the health professional to explain anything they didn’t understand.
• Found the information a health professional gave them always or often confusing.

“We need to increase consumers’ capacity to manage and feel in control of their health care, including around medicines. It’s really important that we strive to improve medicines literacy because we know people at higher risk of medication-related harm are people with multiple conditions, people who are taking lots of medications and people with English as a second language,” said Ms Wells.

You can view the New survey results shine a light on health literacy in Australia media release here.

You can read the Consumer Health Literacy Segmentation and Activation Research Project report here.

Artwork competition: ear and hearing health

Calling all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists aged 13 years or older!

NACCHO invites you to design an artwork about how important ear and hearing health is within Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities.

The winning artwork will receive a $500 voucher prize and will be used across Australia for NACCHOs National Ear and Hearing health program.

The winning artwork will be used on merchandise, stationary and promotional materials to celebrate current Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander achievements, across Australia.

Click here to submit your artwork and for conditions of entry.

All entries must be submitted by: 21 July 2021. 

NDIS Ready grant round closing soon

Attention all Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisations!

NDIS Ready Indigenous Business Support Funding (IBSF) ACCO round grant applications are CLOSING SOON! 

Grants are available to help up to 100 eligible ACCHOs and ACCOs address the basic establishment costs, and business and technical challenges in registered and delivering services under the NDIS and to equip themselves to operate more effectively long-term under the NDIS model.  

Information on the grant and how to apply can be found on the IBSF website.

Please contact the NDIS Ready team if you have any questions.

Applications close on Friday 11 June 2021.