• ACCHO dreams come true with $15m for upgrade 
• AIMhi-Y digital mental health tool launched
• AMSANT on Four Corners program ‘How many more?
• Videos to support first 2,000 days of life
• Aiding the mental health of those most in need
• Sector Jobs
• Save the Date – World AIDS Day 2022

The image in the feature tile is a render of Yadu Health’s new clinic as it appeared in the InDaily article ‘Dreams come true’: Dilapidated Aboriginal health clinic gets $15m upgrade on Tuesday 1 November 2022. Image: Das Studio + MDLR.

ACCHO dreams come true with $15m for upgrade

The Albanese Government handed Yadu Health Aboriginal Corporation $13.35m in its first budget handed down last week to cover the cost of replacing the dilapidated SA Health-owned building from which the service currently operates. That funding, which follows a Labor election commitment, adds to the $2.5m already committed by the Malinauskas Government in its June budget, bringing the total funding pool to $15.85 m.

About one third of Yadu Health’s 50-year-old building is deemed unsafe due to water damage, black mould and asbestos, with the service’s leaders claiming one staff member received an electric shock after water seeped into electrical wiring. Yadu Health, which supports about 3,000 people in Ceduna and surrounding communities such as Kooniba and Scotdesco in the state’s west, had repeatedly raised the clinic’s dilapidated condition with consecutive state and federal ministers.

Previous state governments claimed it was up to the federal government to fund the upgrade, while the Commonwealth rejected multiple grant applications, leaving the health service in limbo. SA Health last year granted Yadu Health a 99-year lease on the land, allowing it to construct a new building.

To read the InDaily article ‘Dreams come true’: Dilapidated Aboriginal health clinic gets $15m upgrade in full click here.

AIMhi-Y digital mental health tool launched

Menzies School of Health Research (Menzies) has launched a project which supports youth services in the NT and SA to use a newly developed early intervention digital mental health tool co-designed by young people, Aboriginal Elders and clinicians. The Aboriginal and Islander Mental Health Initiative for Youth (AIMhi-Y) program began in 2018. Its development has been supported by the NTPHN and the NT Government, including through work with government school students.

The next phase of the program is a 3-year project, supported by a grant from the Australian Government. The funding will enable youth services to include the newly developed AIMhi-Y smartphone app in treatment and support programs for young people.

To view the Menzies School of Health Research media release Menzies launches distribution of AIMhi-Y app in full click here.

AMSANT on Four Corners program ‘How many more?’

AMSANT has expressed deep concern about the crisis of murdered and missing Aboriginal women in Australia, documented in the recent ABC TV Four Corners program ‘How many more?’ AMSANT CEO Dr John Paterson, said: “I know that the level of concern and despair that we feel is shared by very many people across the nation. “Our hearts go out to the families and loved ones of those First Nations women who have suffered unimaginable deaths at the hands of perpetrators. We express to them our deepest condolences and respects.”

“The individual and collective trauma that accompanies the wholly unacceptable violence against Aboriginal women is made all the more painful by our knowledge of the institutional racism that helps to fuel this epidemic. The policing and justice systems must be accountable for their actions in failing to protect Aboriginal women by not taking their pleas for help seriously. Their systems must be reformed to recognise and respond to the danger signals and to provide culturally safe responses to Aboriginal women reporting domestic violence.”

“Importantly, we must elevate the voices of Aboriginal women in this space, including through strong mechanisms for Aboriginal governance. We already have great examples of inspiring leadership being shown, for example, from Aunty June Oscar through the Wiyi Yani U Thangani (Women’s Voices) project.”

To view the AMSANT media release AMSANT response to ABC TV Four Corners program on murdered and missing Aboriginal women in full click here.

Videos to support first 2,000 days of life

Families in NSW are set to benefit from a series of new videos designed to support children and parents through the crucial first 2,000 days of life. The ‘Building Brains’ video series, developed as part of the NSW Government’s Brighter Beginnings initiative, is now available to all parents via the NSW Health website.

NSW Health Deputy Secretary Health System Strategy and Planning, Deb Willcox, said the ‘Building Brains’ resources will help parents better understand their child’s important developmental targets like how to play, learn, speak, act and move. “We are encouraging parents and carers to take their children for the health and developmental checks that are so crucial in the first 2,000 days of life. These videos are designed to help parents and carers understand why these checks are so important,” said Ms Willcox.

“We know early intervention is key to supporting children who may not be meeting their developmental milestones. These resources also help parents recognise the signs faster, allowing us to provide children and families with appropriate supports sooner.” The Brighter Beginnings initiative is a partnership between the Department of Education, NSW Health, the Department of Communities and Justice, the Department of Customer Service, the Department of Regional NSW, Multicultural NSW, Aboriginal Affairs, and the Department of Premier and Cabinet to drive transformational change in early childhood development.

To read the NSW Health media release Building brighter beginnings for NSW children in full click here.

Aiding the mental health of those most in need

It’s the mid-1990s, and Dr Anton Isaacs completed his medical degree in Bangalore, India before going out to a rural hospital, assisting the resident surgeon. “Towards the end of my two years there,” he says, “I woke up one morning with an insurmountable perception that surgery was not meant for me.” Many years on, Dr Isaacs is with Monash University’s School of Rural Health, based in Warragul. One of his current areas of research is the implementation of “social prescription”, where GPs and primary health workers assess and help the individual as a whole.

Dr Isaacs has just finished a mammoth two-decade body of work where he explored community-based systems to help the mental health of those least likely to be able to find it. He’s authored five papers addressing the Indian experience in a village called Mugalur, near Bangalore, and also the Indigenous Australian experience in the Latrobe Valley, near Melbourne, in communities of the Gunaikurnai people. The summary paper states that while the Indian service is still running, with more than 2000 registered “patients”, the Latrobe Valley model called the Koori Men’s Health Day, ran four times before running out of funding.

His two international case studies, the newest paper says, show “vastly different, albeit marginalised communities with an unmet need for mental health services”, with four “crucial elements” needed in delivering mental health care: mental health literacy, removing the stigma, cultural safety, and financial sustainability. The data that Aboriginal men are over-represented in more severe forms of mental illness, and also over-represented in patient care, and that they find it hard to seek help and tend to leave it until crisis point. Men tell him of “lack of trust in the health service, fear of hospitals, long waiting times, gender mismatches with caregivers, cultural differences and racism … the stigma of being labelled with a mental illness is particularly severe among those who experience economic disadvantage and face multiple stigmas [already].”

To view The National Tribune article From Bangalore to Warragul, aiding mental health of those most in need in full click 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.

World AIDS Day 2022

World AIDS Day is held on 1 December each year. It raises awareness across the world and in the community about HIV and AIDS. It is a day for the community to show their support for people living with HIV and to commemorate people who have died of AIDS related conditions or other conditions associated with HIV.

The national World AIDS Day theme for Australia in 2022 is Boldly Positive World AIDS Day aims to encourage Australians to educate themselves and others about HIV; to take action to reduce the transmission of HIV by promoting prevention strategies; and to ensure that people living with HIV can participate fully in the life of the community, free from stigma and discrimination.

As a community and as individuals, there is a lot we can do in relation to HIV. Working in partnership with people with HIV, we can encourage others to understand how HIV is transmitted. We can support people to access testing, treatment and care, as we know that commencing treatment at the early stages of HIV results in better health outcomes and reduces the likelihood of onward transmission.

UNAIDS theme for World AIDS Day 2022 is “Equalize” is a call to action. It is a prompt for all of us to work for the proven practical actions needed to address inequalities and help end AIDS. Data from UNAIDS on the global HIV response reveals that during the last two years of COVID-19 and other global crises, progress against the HIV pandemic has faltered, resources have shrunk, and millions of lives are at risk as a result.  Four decades into the HIV response, inequalities still persist for the most basic services like testing, treatment, and condoms, and even more so for new technologies.

For more information about World AIDS Day 2022 click here.