• 30th anniversary of Mabo decision
• $2m to extend Halls Creek ACCHO facilities
• Need to decolonise mental health system
• The Mob Way R U OK? podcast returns
• Community-led literacy programs
• Demand surges for alcohol support services
• Remote PHC Manuals project May update
• Winnunga News April – May 2022 edition
• New process for job advertising
• Save the Date – World Environment Day

Image in feature tile is of Eddie Mabo by John Citizen, 1996. Image source: National Portrait Gallery website.

Minister for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Partnerships, Craig Crawford, says today (3 June 2022) marks the 30th anniversary of the Mabo decision – a key milestone in the reconciliation journey of our nation. Minister for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Partnerships Craig Crawford said truth-telling was fundamental to progressing a Path to Treaty in Queensland. “Today marks 30 years since the fiction of Terra Nullius was overturned, when the law recognised the truth that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples’ connection to Country and Culture is continuous and enduring. “For ten years, Eddie Koiki Mabo pursued a case in the High Court of Australia to establish legal recognition of his family’s ownership of their lands on the island of Mer in the Torres Strait. Ultimately, his claim was successful when on 3 June 1992, the High Court ruled in his fav  our, though sadly he did not live to see the result of his advocacy.

To view Minister Crawford’s media release in full click here. You can also read an ABC News article It’s 30 years since the Mabo decision was handed down, overturning terra nullius featuring comments from Eddie Koiki Mabo’s daughter Gail Mabo, in full here.

$2m to extend Halls Creek ACCHO facilities

Yesterday WA Aboriginal Affairs Minister Tony Buti today presented $2 million in support to Yura Yungi Medical Service to extend its facilities in Halls Creek. Yura Yungi is an Aboriginal community controlled primary health care service providing a range of programs to improve the social and emotional wellbeing of Aboriginal people in Halls Creek and the surrounding area. The Lotterywest support of $2 million will go towards the design and construction of an expansion to its existing clinic.

This project will provide new activity rooms, counselling rooms, a large community meeting room, office accommodation for staff and a new restroom, so Yura Yungi can meet the needs of often vulnerable clients. The building extension also includes an expanded dialysis unit, pharmacy and vaccination rooms.

Aboriginal Affairs Minister Tony Buti said “Delivering health services in regional parts of Western Australia can be challenging, and primary health providers like Yura Yungi are vital to their communities. Aboriginal medical services are critical to Closing the Gap in health outcomes for Aboriginal people.” WA Health Minister Amber-Jade Sanderson said she wanted “to thank the staff at Yura Yungi for their continued dedication and for their integral work in the Halls Creek community.”

To view The National Tribune article Remote Kimberley medical service receives $2 million boost in full click here.

Need to decolonise mental health system

Vanessa Edwige, Joanna Alexi, Belle Selkirk and Pat Dudgeon’s recent article Australia needs to decolonise the mental health system and empower more Indigenous psychologists examines how decolonising the mental health system is key to transformative system change and is a movement that has been gaining significant traction in recent years. It is a movement that seeks to restore harmony to the knowledge taught and practised, to the benefits of all Australians.

Decolonising the mental health system will mean that Indigenous knowledges are equally heard and integrated in the provision of culturally safe care. This means decolonising our education systems so that psychologists receive an inclusive and broad education that enables them to work effectively. It also means addressing the underrepresentation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander psychologists.

To view the Guardian article Australia needs to decolonise the mental health system and empower more Indigenous psychologists in full click here.

The Mob Way R U OK? podcast returns

R U OK? has launched a new R U OK? Stronger Together podcast, Mob Way. In this podcast, they yarn with First Nations people and their experiences of life’s ups and downs, how we have conversations and how we open up and ask that simple question ‘are you okay?’, in our way: Mob Way.

New episodes are dropping every Monday, starting this week with one of Australia’s most celebrated singer-songwriters, Shellie Morris, to discuss the importance of connecting with family and Country and the power of healing through music. Listen wherever you get your podcasts or here. R U OK? would love your help to get these important conversations far and wide, across social media, EDM’s etc.

For free resources for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities including videos, posters and conversation guides, check out the R U OK? Stronger Together hub here.

Community-led literacy programs

Jack Beetson has written an article When more than half of Aboriginal adults have low literacy, the best gift you can give a child is a parent who can read and write published earlier today on the ABC News website in which he explains “I come from Brewarrina and Nyngan in NSW. That’s where my parents are from, that’s where my spirit belongs and that’s who my people are. These days I live in the Sydney suburb of Pemulwuy, near Parramatta. It has become a special place to me. As a Blackfella, living in Pemulwuy is like going to heaven before you die. Not only is the suburb named after an Aboriginal warrior, but the streets are all Aboriginal words. Pemulwuy was a remarkable Aboriginal man famous for leading resistance against the European invasion in the 1790s. I taught about him for 25 years when I was working at Tranby Aboriginal College. Living here connects parts of my life, especially fighting for Aboriginal rights and improvements in education.

Jack Beetson’s conversation with Geraldine Doogue for a Reconciliation Week episode of Compass, airs at 6:30PM this Sunday 5 August 2022 on ABC TV. The Compass episode is already available online and can be viewed here.

Demand surges for alcohol support services

The number of Australians seeking out alcohol support services is climbing, according to a new report released by the Foundation for Alcohol Research and Education (FARE). The report, Alcohol use and harms during the COVID-19 pandemic, monitored emerging evidence in Australia during the COVID-19 pandemic (2020-21). FARE Policy and Research Director, Mr Luke Hutchins, said that the pandemic has significantly disrupted the health and wellbeing of Australians, with stress, anxiety and depression contributing to alcohol problems. “Last year, Australians made over 25,000 calls to the National Alcohol and Other Drug (AOD) Hotline – triple the numbers seen pre-pandemic in 2019.

We know many of these people are calling due to an alcohol problem. Alcohol is the most common drug that people seek treatment for, accounting for a third of all AOD treatment in Australia.” With Australia now well into the third year of this pandemic, there is clear evidence of the growing harms of alcohol.  Mr Hutchins said the data raises severe concerns about the health and wellbeing of Australians, with evidence showing that the psychological impacts of COVID-19 have been linked to an increase in people drinking alcohol at risky levels. Professor Dan Lubman AM, Executive Clinical Director of Australia’s leading addiction treatment, research, and education centre Turning Point, said that the demand we are seeing for AOD services is just the tip of the iceberg.

You can read the Alcohol use and harms during the COVID-19 pandemic – May 2022 report here and the FARE media release COVID-19 sees surge in Aussies seeking alcohol support services in full here.

Remote PHC Manuals Project May update

The Remote Primary Health Care Manuals (RPHCM) are currently being reviewed and updated. Monthly updates are being provided to keep health services and other organisations up-to-date as RPHCM moves through the review process. This month’s update advises that the editorial committee will be meeting in Adelaide in June for the final endorsement of all protocols before the manuals are sent to the printer. Further changes will not be made to the draft protocols after this meeting.

RPHCM thanked everyone who contributed to the stakeholder consultations and secondary reviews. These are now complete. Major feedback will be considered by the editorial committee at the June meeting.

You can view the RPHCM Project Update May 2022 flyer here.

Winnunga News April – May 2022 edition

The April – May 2022 edition of the Winnunga News is available now available on the ACCHO’s website. The newsletter includes a range of interesting articles including:

• CEO Update
• Letter for the Alexander Maconochie Centre prisoner on current conditions
• Nerelle Poroch – Winnunga Researcher
• Tongs Presses Candidates to Support Royal Commission article published in CityNews, 24 May 2022
• Congratulations to 2022 ACT Nursing and Midwifery Excellence Awards recipients, including proud Bundjalung woman Narelle King
• ACT Supreme Court Confirms a Further Breach of Human Rights at AMC
• Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Elected Body (ATSIEB) – The Need for Reform
• Measuring the Gap in Health Expenditure
• Incentives and Earned Privileges
• Reports Of The AMC Official Visitors
• Housing Evictions
• COVID-19 and Influenza Update
• Staff Profile – Carley Winters, Justice Reinvestment Worker

You can access the newsletter 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.

World Environment Day

World Environment Day held on Monday 5 June 2022 is the biggest international day for the environment. Led by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and held annually since 1973, the event has grown to be the largest global platform for environmental outreach, with millions of people from across the world engaging to protect the planet. This year’s theme is ‘Only One Earth’.

For more information on World Environment Day click here.