- New Deadly Choices promotional assets launched
- Griffith’s award winning eye care model
- NAATSIHWP Professional Development Symposium
- 2023 Oceanic Palliative Care Conference
- Sector Jobs
- Key Date – Brain Injury Awareness Week – 21–27 August 2023
The image in the feature tile is of a Deadly Choice Tobacco Education Program information stand from the Deadly Choices section of the Institute of Urban Indigenous Health (IUIH) website.
The NACCHO Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health News is platform we use to showcase the important work being done in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health, focusing on the work of NACCHO, NACCHO members and NACCHO affiliates.
We also share a curated selection of news stories that are of likely interest to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health sector, broadly.
New Deadly Choices promotional assets launched
Queensland’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community-controlled health sector came together in Brisbane today to assist in launching a suite of Deadly Choices preventative health promotional assets, including a series of television advertisements, aimed at limiting the number of community members from across the state taking up vaping and smoking.
Seeking to orchestrate healthier, happier communities right across Queensland, Deadly Choices will shine a light on the endemic global health concerns of vaping among youth, while also targeting the incidence of tobacco smoking among pregnant mothers, plus families living in remote communities, all key directives of the Institute for Urban Indigenous Health (IUIH)’s integrated statewide approach via the Tackling Indigenous Smoking (TIS)-Deadly Choices partnership.
The major directives of the 2023 Deadly Choices advertising campaigns will be to stress to individuals the importance of making deadly, healthy choices, not only for themselves, but for their families and for their communities as a cultural commitment. “TIS funding allows Deadly Choices to propagate its preventative health messaging around the dangers of tobacco smoking, from Far North Queensland through the Central and South-Western regions of the State, and from the North Coast all the way down to the border areas of the Gold and Tweed Coasts, Stanthorpe and Goondiwindi,” confirmed IUIH Director of Commercial Operations, Dallas Leon.
“Notably, we’ll establish strategic new partnerships with community-controlled health service organisations from Palm Island, Yarrabah, Nhulundu Health in and around the Gladstone region, North Coast, plus Goolburri Health which has an established footprint across the Darling Downs and South-West. “We’ll also strengthen our preventative health practice and messaging in areas of Queensland where Deadly Choices currently delivers health education programs in schools, on behalf of Health and Wellbeing Queensland.
Deadly Choices has previously been acknowledged by the World Health Organisation (WHO) for its efforts in promoting the dangers of smoking among Indigenous communities and has at its disposal an arsenal of health sector service provision experience to enhance protocols against smoking.
You can view IUIH’s media alert ‘Deadly Choices’ Formulates Tobacco Takedown for Qld Communities in full here and find more information about IUIH’s Deadly Choices program here.
Griffith’s award winning eye care model
An ophthalmology project set up at Griffith Base Hospital in NSW to improve access to eyecare services for Indigenous and non-Indigenous people living in the Western Murrumbidgee Local Health District has hit the ground running and with further support can strengthen its delivery of eyecare to the region. When an ophthalmologist and a hospital director floated the idea of establishing a visiting eye health service at Griffith Base Hospital – a six hour drive west of Sydney – little did they know that 24 months later their initiative would be nominated by the hospital staff for a NSW Government Murrumbidgee Local Health District (MLHD) Excellence Award.
At a ceremony in Wagga Wagga in June, ‘Saving Sight is our Vision’ was named winner of MLHD’s Keeping People Healthy Award, one of 15 award categories. At the time, MLHD CEO Ms Jill Ludford said it was rewarding to see the number of activities happening across the district with sincere efforts to support First Nations communities, “Improving access to eyecare services through the delivery of high quality, sustainable, affordable, regular and culturally sensitive eye services has been Griffith Ophthalmology’s focus.”
Led by Associate Professor Geoffrey Painter, one of the founders of Gordon Eye Surgery and a director of Foresight Australia, and colleague Dr Dominic McCall, a group of mostly Sydney-based ophthalmologists visit Griffith Base Hospital every four weeks to see and operate on patients from the Western MLHD. In addition, Foresight has sponsored two training courses to upskill employees from the Griffith Aboriginal Medical Service.
To read the Insight article Griffith Base Hospital’s award-winning eyecare model in full click here.
Foresight Australia has sponsored two training courses to upskill employees from the Griffith Aboriginal Medical Service. Image source: Insight.
NAATSIHWP Professional Development Symposium
The National Association of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Workers and Practitioners (NAATSIHWP) is holding a professional development symposium at the Adelaide Convention Centre on Kaurna Country over Tuesday 24 and Wednesday 25 October 2023.
The symposium will consist of two full days of of workshop-based sessions for full and student NAATSIHWP members to learn about leading-edge clinical and primary health care practices as well as social and emotional wellbeing and culturally based activities.
You can find out more about the symposium, including scholarship opportunities here.
2023 Oceanic Palliative Care Conference
The 2023 Oceanic Palliative Care Conference (OPCC) is taking place in Sydney between Wednesday 13 September and Friday 15 September. Close to 80 scholarships have been awarded to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health workers, palliative care workers, consumers, and carers in Australia and the Oceanic region to attend the conference. The scholarships cover registration costs and travel from as far away as Broome, Katherine, northeast Arnhem Land, PNG and Samoa.
Palliative Care Australia CEO Camilla Rowland said the cost of participating is often a barrier “and our hope is that these scholarships enable important voices to be heard and experiences to be shared. OPCC represents a critical learning and development opportunity, and we want that to influence and grow the care people receive – wherever they are.”
The theme for OPCC 2023 is ‘With the end in mind; shaping stronger health systems, delivering quality palliative care.’
Find more information about the 2023 Oceanic Palliative Care Conference 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.
Key Date – Brain Injury Awareness Week – 21–27 August 2023
During Brain Injury Awareness Week 2023 NACCHO is sharing information about brain injury, in particular how brain injury impacts Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. Brain injury impacts many Indigenous, rural, and remote communities across Australian.
Australia’s Brain Injury Organisation, Synapse, has produced a number of Indigenous factsheets that talk about issues in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities that may result in a brain injury, or be occurring because of one. The factsheets. available here, include all the most relevant and current information about brain injury and outline what supports are available. The topics covered by the factsheets include:
- Domestic and Family Violence
- Drug and Alcohol Abuse
- Mental Health and Suicide
- Physical Assault
A Yarning Circle developed to bridge the gap for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people with traumatic brain injury. Photo: Edith Cowan University. Image source: NITV Radio website.