- Workforce shortages across the sector
- Eliminating workplace racism a must
- Mentoring program aims to increase retention
- How to fix Australia’s broken health system
- Chronic Kidney Disease education program
- NSW’s new 2-year plan to CTG
- NACCHO Youth Conference
- Sector Jobs
- Save the Date – International Childhood Cancer Awareness Month
The image in the feature tile is from the Trainee Aboriginal Health Practitioner webpage of the Danila Dilba Health Service website.
Workforce shortages across the sector
Workforce shortages across the health sector is impacting access to culturally appropriate services for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people nationally. To effectively support growing demand, we need to leverage the current ACCHO workforce and draw from local communities to build a multi-disciplinary care workforce that includes both cultural and clinical experts.
The Government’s commitment to the roll out of a NACCHO-led national traineeship program has been welcomed by the ACCHO sector as an ideal way to grow a suitably qualified and job ready Aboriginal Health Worker (AHW) and Health Practitioner (AHP) workforce. Our Aboriginal Health Workers and Health Practitioners are the heart of our ACCHO workforce. They are skilled, valued and trusted members of ACCHO teams and local communities.
NACCHO is working closely with our eleven community-controlled RTOs which will play a key role in delivering these traineeships. Their focus on the provision of culturally competent, holistic care, and accessibility for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students is a critical difference in the training they offer.
You can read more about the NACCHO-led traineeship program in this media release from the Minster for Indigenous Australians, the Hon Linda Burney MP, here.
Image source: AHCSA About RTO / Education webpage.
Eliminating workplace racism a must
Dr Leroy-Dyer said Indigenous workers who experience racism and a lack of action to combat it will often leave the workplace. She told the summit this perpetuates a welfare mentality rather than empowering Indigenous people to take up employment opportunities. “We would like to see a racism-busting agenda spearheaded by the union movement that ensures responsibility for tackling racism is shared by all: employers, government, business and sector bodies, and the public,” Dr Leroy-Dyer said.
Indigenous women and girls in particular are calling for the right to have a say on workplace reform, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander social justice commissioner June Oscar said. “Their right to be at the table to inform these processes going forward, that are so needed, that will impact and create opportunities,” she told the summit.
To view The Standard article Racism in workplaces spotlighted at summit click here.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner June Oscar shines light on racism. Photo: Aaron Bunch , AAP Photos. Image source: The Standard.
Mentoring program aims to increase retention
Charles Sturt University has led a pre-pilot program with a local health district to increase retention and satisfaction of First Nations midwives and nurses through a cultural mentoring program. Charles Sturt University in conjunction with five local health districts and four universities has received a grant of more than $360,000 to extend a pilot program that aims to increase the retention and satisfaction of First Nations nurses and midwives through culturally safe practices.
The project: ‘DANMM that’s good!”: Evaluating the feasibility and acceptability of the Deadly Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Nursing and Midwifery Mentoring (DANMM) Program across rural, regional, and metropolitan NSW’ received the funding from NSW Health to be piloted across five local health districts in NSW.
One of the chief academic investigators of the pre-pilot program who was heavily involved in the grant submission process, Senior Lecturer in the Charles Sturt School of Nursing, Paramedicine and Health Care Sciences, Dr Jessica Biles said the pre-pilot program achieved positive outcomes which led to the extra funding.
To view the Charles Sturt University article $360,000 grant for First Nations Nursing and Midwifery Mentoring program in full click here.
Dr Jessica Biles, Senior Lecturer in the Charles Sturt School of Nursing, Paramedicine and Health Care Sciences. Image source: Charles Sturt University website.
How to fix Australia’s broken health system
An article published in The Guardian yesterday six experts from different fields commented on ways to fix our healthcare system so that more people can access timely and affordable care. Profressor Mary Chiarella from the University of Sydney’s Susan Wakil School of Nursing and Midwifery said we need to rethink the role of nurses. True equity of access in community and primary healthcare, she said, will only be achieved by the full deployment of nurses.
Adjunct Associate Prof Lesley Russell from the Menzies Centre for Health Policy and Economics said more emphasis needs to be put on preventive care. If the system is to be truly patient-centred, then the focus must be on patients’ needs – and specifically on affordable and timely access to preventive services, treatment and care. Dr Sebastian Cordoba from the International Federation of Social Workers and course coordinator at RMIT University said we need to understand that poverty is a health issue. He said PHC in Australia is an impenetrable, unnecessarily complex and expensive system that fails to provide care and support for some of the most marginalised groups in society. The system entrenches inequality and provides interventions that fail to get to the cause.
Prof Jen Smith-Merry, director of the University of Sydney’s Centre for Disability Research and Policy said we need to address disability competency. The health of people with disability is on average much worse than people without and they are more likely to have complex needs that necessitate a range of health and disability supports.
Dr Lisa Hodge, a counsellor, lecturer and social scientist at Charles Darwin University said we need to take mental health seriously. Mental health problems, including eating disorders, often manifest in self-harm and suicide. Finally Prof Catherine Chamberlain, an Indigenous and child health expert said we need to improve access for Indigenous children as currently, there is virtually no access to a range of essential primary healthcare services other than medical care for many Aboriginal and Torres Strait islander children.
To read The Guardian article How to fix Australia’s broken health system: six experts have their say in full click here.
Image source: AMA News.
Chronic kidney disease education program
Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is a common, harmful and silent disease that affects almost one in five Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander adults. It is twice as common as diabetes, and a significant cause of cardiovascular deaths among Australian adults. CKD often remains undetected until the majority of kidney function is lost. Health workers in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities are well placed to carry out targeted screening for early detection of CKD. The disease can then be managed through individualised action plans that can slow the progression of CKD and reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease.
NPS MedicineWise is inviting GPs, Aboriginal Health Workers and Health Practitioners who work for ACCHOs to take part in an educational visit on this topic. Sessions can be provided through an in-practice visit, or online through most video conferencing platforms (Teams, Zoom, FaceTime).
This program has been funded by the Australian Government Department of Health and Aged Care, with content developed in collaboration with the NACCHO and Kidney Health Australia.
Delivery starts on Monday 26 September 2022 and will be available until the end of December 2022. To register your interest click here.
NSW’s new 2-year CTG plan
Peak First Nations agencies are hopeful Aboriginal Communities across NSW will realise their ambitions for greater socio-economic outcomes as a new agreement boosting self determination efforts took its next steps this week. The state’s Closing the Gap initiation plan outlined five priorities over the next 24 months. Among them, commitments to strengthen group partnerships increasing community informed dialogue, redirection from state bodies into Aboriginal community controlled organisations and measures addressing experiences of racism in Government. The shift is said to see community-controlled organisations have equal say in the direction of funding.
The announced $30 million injection, under the Community and Place Grants, came from NSW Coalition of Aboriginal Peak Organisations co-chair Charles Lynch and Aboriginal Affairs Minister Ben Franklin. Some 28 of the 144 initiatives set to benefit were co-developed with CAPO. “The initiatives included in this plan have been driven by principles of self-determination, based on what communities have told us in consultations, and developed through shared decision-making with our government partners,” Mr Lynch said.
Going forward, ACCO’s will gain equal access to data and analytics to support decision making and business going forward. “We know that our communities are hurting, that there needs to be more support, more accountability and more transparency,” Aboriginal Health and Medical Research Council co-chair Robert Skeen said.
ACCO’s are required to submit applications for funding by Friday 20 September and report back on program delivery by the end of 2023.
To read the National Indigenous Times article Priorities revealed in NSW’s new two-year plan to Close the Gap click here.
Image source: South West Aboriginal Medical Service website.
NACCHO Youth Conference
Are you under 29 years and working in the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health sector?
If so, register NOW for our FREE – NACCHO Youth Conference 2022:
Where: Beautiful Ngunnawal and Ngambri country (Canberra)
Date: Monday 17 October 2022
Time: 9:00AM to 5:00PM
Engage in discussions, share your experiences, and meet up with many deadly peers from across the country.
Places are filling quick! Register here.
Sector Jobs
Sector Jobs – you can see sector job listings on the NACCHO website here.
Advertising Jobs – to advertise a job vacancy click here to go to the NACCHO website Current job listings webpage. Scroll down to the bottom of the page to find a Post A Job form. You can complete this form with your job vacancy details – it will then be approved for posting and go live on the NACCHO website.
International Childhood Cancer Awareness Month
September is International Childhood Cancer Awareness Month, a time when cancer organisations around the world put the spotlight on children’s cancer and the need to improve diagnosis, treatment and outcomes.
70% of Australians are unaware that more kids die from cancer than any other disease in this country. Sadly around 750 to 800 children under the age of 15 are diagnosed with cancer every year and almost half of those diagnosed are aged 0-4 years. Leukaemias, tumours of the nervous system (mainly brain tumours) and lymphomas are collectively responsible for two out of every three cases of childhood cancer. Australia is estimated to have the sixth highest incidence rate of childhood cancers among the G20 countries.
The good news is that survival rates for children with cancer in Australia continue to approve. Most of the gains have occurred as a direct result of improvements in treatment through international collaborative clinical trials.
Fore more information about Childhood Cancer Awareness Month 2022 visit the World Health Organisation Internationl Agency for Research on Cancer webpage here.
