- Registrations OPEN: 2022 ATSIHAW Virtual TRIVIA
- Danila Dilba diversion connects young people with their victims in effort to stop reoffending
- AMA calls on NT legislators and all jurisdictions to raise the age of criminal responsibility
- Two great scholarships honouring two incredible women
- High school students throughout Cairns can fast-track into a career in healthcare
- AMSANT Annual Report 2021–2022
- Sector Jobs
Registrations OPEN: 2022 ATSIHAW Virtual TRIVIA
Inviting all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Community Controlled Health Services (ACCHOs) staff and other organisations supporting ACCHOs to join us in this year’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander HIV Awareness Week (ATSIHAW) Virtual Trivia on Thursday 8 December 2022.
Loads of prizes up for grabs for your team and sexual health resources for your ACCHOs……entertainment priceless!
REGISTER NOW! Early bird registrations get rewarded! First 10 teams to register will receive a free lunch (value $20pp up to 5 people per team)
Trivia Times:
• 1pm – WA
• 2.30pm – NT
• 3pm – QLD
• 3.30pm – SA
• 4pm – NSW, ACT, TAS, VIC
To REGISTER your Team CLICK HERE.
*Only one person from each team needs to register for their team.
Each year, ATSIHAW provides an opportunity for conversations about HIV in our communities to increase education and awareness, prevention and treatment, the importance of regular testing and to reduce stigma. In 2022, NACCHO are co-hosting the ATSIHAW Virtual Trivia alongside the University of Queensland’s Poche Centre for Indigenous Health.
Sexual health-themed costumes and props are highly encouraged – there will be prizes for the best dressed! Keep it classy!
Background: The ‘U and Me Can Stop HIV’ campaign was created in collaboration, led by Professor James Ward currently at the University of Queensland’s Poche Centre for Indigenous Health (previously with the South Australia Health and Medical Research Institute).
Each year coinciding with World AIDS Day on 1 December, Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander HIV Awareness Week (ATSIHAW) is held nationally to continue conversations about HIV in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Communities. ATSIHAW was launched in 2014 with support from the Australian Government Department of Health and has been run annually ever since. The ongoing theme for ATSIHAW is: ‘U and Me Can Stop HIV’ further promoting the importance of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health being in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander hands!
For more details on ATISHAW’s history click here.
If you have any questions please contact us at BBVSTI@Naccho.org.au
Danila Dilba diversion connects young people with their victims in effort to stop reoffending
A local diversion program is reducing reoffending by forcing young people to hear from their victims. Read how the program is reducing youth crime.
Bringing children face-to-face with their victims has proven to decrease their chances of reoffending, according to an Aboriginal health provider.
Danila Dilba Health Service runs a holistic diversion program that has a 76 per cent completion rate.
The Aboriginal health provider was contracted by the NT government to run diversion and primary care inside Don Dale Youth Detention after the Royal Commission into the Protection and Detention of Children recommended young people be exposed to culturally-appropriate services.
Chief executive Rob McPhee said the program started in 2020 and involved taking young people into the hospital to see the impacts of trauma, while also putting support services around both the child and family.
“We’ve had 50 young people participate in the program and 38 of them have completed it,” Mr McPhee said.
“We get really positive feedback from the young people and from families and where possible, we try to include the victims of their crime as well so that the young people hear from victims that are affected by their behaviour.”
Read the full story released in NT News here.
Image source: NT News
AMA calls on NT legislators and all jurisdictions to raise the age of criminal responsibility
The Australian Medical Association has called on the Northern Territory government and all Australian governments to stop putting children in jail.
The Northern Territory is set to pass legislation which will see the age of criminal responsibility in the Territory rise from 10-years-old to 12, however the AMA says the changes do not go far enough and the minimum age for incarceration should be 14 years old.
President of the AMA Professor Steve Robson said the Northern Territory law will still allow children in primary school and in their first year of high school to be placed in jails like the Don Dale Youth Detention Facility.
“The AMA urges Northern Territory legislators to listen to the experts and not turn their backs on this issue. The health advice is clear, kids aged 12 and 13 should not be held criminally responsible. The job will not be done until the minimum age is raised to 14 years,” Professor Robson said.
“Our position is informed by medical evidence — jail is no place for children. It offers limited rehabilitation opportunities and has serious adverse impacts on child development and mental and emotional wellbeing. There are alternatives.”
AMA Northern Territory President, Associate Professor Robert Parker, said the AMA was also calling on the Northern Territory Government to close the Don Dale Youth Detention Facility.
Read the AMA full media release here.
Youth detained in Darwin prison. Image source: ABC News website.
Two great scholarships honouring two incredible women
Aunty Angela Clarke (Grad Cert) https://mdhs.unimelb.edu.au/…/n/angela-clarkescholarship
Aunty Joan Vickery (Masters) https://mdhs.unimelb.edu.au/…/aunty-joan-vickery…
Aunty Angela Clarke worked as the Koori Hospital Liaison Officer at the Royal Children’s Hospital and later was the Deputy Director of the VicHealth Koori Health Research Unit (Onemda). Her contribution to Aboriginal health was transformative, pioneering new models of community participation in research and embedding culturally responsive clinical practice for Indigenous patients.
Aunty Joan Vickery’s impressive leadership and advocacy over many decades improved Indigenous health outcomes and delivery of services across Victoria. Helping to establish the Ngwala Willumbong Co-operative in 1975 – which continues to deliver outreach services to Aboriginal people affected by substance abuse – she later worked to improve understanding of diabetes among Indigenous families as the first Aboriginal Liaison Officer at St Vincent’s Hospital through rolling out a series of programs and support networks.
For more information visit the University of Melbourne website here.
High school students throughout Cairns can fast-track into a career in healthcare
High school students throughout Cairns can fast track into a career in healthcare with the launch of a $1.4m state-of-the-art medical precinct at Bentley Park College.
There are critical workforce shortages in Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Services across the nation as well as a broader shortage of health care workers and Bentley Park College Principal Bruce Houghton said 40 per cent of students were of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander descent.
“The student response has been outstanding – by completing their certificate courses they can go on to do their diploma at TAFE or go on to nursing at university or become a medical practitioner, a paramedic or a doctor,” Mr Houghton said.
Students can complete certificate two and three courses as well as an assistant in nursing qualification at the precinct, while students from other schools can jump in on school holidays and gain the same qualifications.
Mr Houghton said data in 2020 showed that a lot of Bentley Park graduates were going into medical work.
To read the full story released in the Daily Telegraph click here.
Source: Daily Telegraph
AMSANT Annual Report 2021–2022
AMSANT is staying flexible and moving fast to meet the growing primary healthcare needs of Aboriginal people in the Northern Territory.
AMSANT’s support of Member Services and community controlled health, and their leadership in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, is outlined in our new Annual Report that you can view here.
If you have any queries or feedback email: reception@amsant.org.au
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.
