• Pregnant women eligible for COVID-19 vaccine
• Make an informed vaccine choice
• COVID-19 resources for carers
• COVID-19 task force commander interview
• COVID-19 vaccine update for GPs webinar
• All-Aboriginal police station brings huge change
• Childhood immunisation rates on the rise
• If you see disrespect, unmute yourself, speak up
• New process for job advertising
• Save the Date

Pregnant women eligible for COVID-19 vaccine

All pregnant women or women trying to fall pregnant are now eligible for their COVID-19 vaccine.

You can hear Dr Marilyn Clarke explain why it’s important to get a COVID-19 vaccine to protect both you and your baby during pregnancy in this video.

For more information speak to your local health care worker or visit the Australian Government Department of Health website vaccine eligibility page here.

 

Make an informed vaccine choice

“Make an informed choice after speaking to a trusted Aboriginal medical professional.” That’s the advice Andrew Birtwistle-Smith has for people who are on the fence about the COVID-19 vaccination.

Birtwistle-Smith is a Boandik Meintangk man from southeast SA and the CEO of South Australian medical service, Pangula Mannamurna Aboriginal Corporation in Mount Gambier. Birtwistle-Smith is fully vaccinated and said he made the choice to get the jab after weighing up the pros and cons.

“I just got myself informed [by] speaking to my medical professional and my local GP in regards to the role of the vaccinations, what it means, and what the pros and cons were,” he told NIT. “The benefits far outweigh the negatives. If I got COVID and I wasn’t vaccinated, based on statistics, I could be in serious trouble.”

“Even with the vaccinations … I might not be 100% covered and I still might get the virus, but based on research around hospitalisations, death, and long-term effects from COVID, if I’m vaccinated, there’s less likelihood that will happen to me.”

He said it’s important to be aware that not all information available about the vaccinations will be reliable. “Try and avoid taking things from Facebook or from your particular websites that have no evidence about whether that information is accurate or not,” he said. “I know it’s difficult to do, particularly when it’s coming from family or family’s Facebook pages, but I still say that may not necessarily be accurate information. What’s best is to go and speak to medical professionals.”

To view the National Indigenous Times article in full click here.

COVID-19 resources for carers

The current COVID-19 restrictions are affecting many among us in Australia, particularly family carers caring for a person at the end of life. To support them in their caring role, a  range of information resources have been developed by CarerHelp, including factsheets on:

• Caring for a person at the end of life at home during COVID-19
• Caring for a person at the end of life in hospital during COVID-19
• Funerals and grieving during COVID-19
• Using telehealth
• Can I trust this information
• Caring during COVID-19 infographics

You can access all of these resources on the CarerHelp website here.

COVID-19 task force commander interview

Lieutenant General John Frewen, the COVID-19 task force commander, was interviewed by Leigh Sales on ABC 7.30. In response to to Ms Sales question “In the race between cases spreading through the population and vaccination spreading through the population, vaccination is winning, but is it moving fast enough that when lockdowns and case numbers inevitably move into much higher figures, that death and serious illness will remain low?” Lieutenant General Frewen replied:

“Leigh, so as you’ve mentioned, I’m glad you’ve seen that the momentum in the vaccine rollout is really picking up speed, but of course, this Delta variant is- it’s really- it spreads rapidly. It’s really concerning. So we do have to have two arms at play. We’ve got to have the lockdowns, the testing, the tracing, the isolation. And then we also need to be vaccinating as quickly as we can. And I’m committed to a national vaccine rollout because I think for the very reason you’ve described about outbreaks moving around, that we do need to make sure that the vaccine rollout is happening as consistently as we can.”

“Ideally in some areas we’ll manage to get to those high rates of vaccination before further outbreaks. But in situations like we’ve got in Sydney right now, which you know are very, very challenging, we’ve got to do the two concurrently. So we’re working to get those vaccines into the highest priority areas as fast as we can. But all of those other measures we’ve got to persist with until we get the spread under control.”

To view a full transcript of the interview click here.

COVID-19 vaccine update for GPs webinar

The latest in the Australian Government Department of Health’s series of COVID-19 vaccine updates for GPs webinar will be held from:

11:30am–12:00pm this Thursday 26 August 2021.

Joining Professor Michael Kidd AM will be Dr Lucas de Toca, First Assistant Secretary, COVID-19 Primary Care Response, Department of Health.

At this webinar, you’ll be provided with the latest information on the vaccine rollout. GPs and all health professionals are welcome.

When you’re ready to join, use this link.

All-Aboriginal police station brings huge change

Senior Constable Wendy Kelly helped make history when she transferred to the Aboriginal community of Warakurna: it became Western Australia’s first entirely Indigenous-run police station.

In a video produced by Isabelle Rodd, Senior Constable Kelly explains how a new policing approach had a dramatic effect in the community.

Child immunisation rates continue to rise

The Australian Government invests over $450 million each year though the National Immunisation Program, providing free vaccines to protect against 17 disease groups for eligible Australians, including children, adolescents, the elderly, pregnant women and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

Among two-year olds, the coverage rate has increased to 92.63% for the 12 months to June 2021. One-year old children have a coverage rate of 94.85%. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children at five years of age continue to have the highest coverage rate of any group at 97.12%. The coverage rate for two-year old Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children increased to 91.96%, while the rate for one-year olds is 93.36%.

To view the media release in full click here.

If you see disrespect, unmute yourself, speak up

As parents and influencers of our young people, we want the best for them, and for our community. You may have seen the Stop it at the Start campaign’s ‘Unmute yourself’ advertising over the past few months. Stop it at the Start is the Australian Government’s national campaign to reduce violence against women.

While not all disrespect results in violence, all violence against women starts with disrespect. We all want our young people to be healthy and proud of who they are. We want them to understand right and wrong, and to respect others and respect themselves. Our young people learn from us — what we say and do tells them what kind of behavior is OK.

Stop it at the Start aims to unite the community to help break the cycle of disrespect and violence against women by:

• setting positive role models for respectful behaviour
• unmuting ourselves to ‘speak up’ about disrespect when we see it
• yarning with young people about respect.

There are simple ways we can all make a positive change. By speaking up about respect, we can make our communities better, stronger places for our future generations.

You can access a range of resources, including the video below, developed especially for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples on the Australian Government’s Violence Against Women – Let’s Stop it at the Start website here.

New process for job advertising

NACCHO have introduced a new system for the advertising of job adverts via the NACCHO website and you can find the sector job listings here.

Click here to go to the NACCHO website where you can complete a form with job vacancy details – it will then be approved for posting and go live on the NACCHO website.

Wear it Purple Day

Wear It Purple was founded in 2010 in response to global stories of real teenagers, real heartache and their very real responses. As the world saw the faces of precious young lives lost, some young people found a new sense of conviction and purpose to ensure that young people everywhere would know that there were people who did support and love them. Wear it Purple was established to show young people across the globe that there was hope, that there were people who did support and accept them, and that they have the right to be proud of who they are.

Since 2010, when Wear it Purple was founded Wear it Purple has developed into an international movement. New generations of rainbow young people continue to be dedicated to promoting the annual expression of support and acceptance to rainbow young people.

What started out small has now grown; however the message remains the same. Everybody has the right to be proud of who they are.

For more information you can access the LGBTIQ+ Health Australia website here.