Category Dental

Dec 11 2023

NACCHO Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Health News: Victorian ACCHOs to receive funding support

feature tile image: young ATSI girl having teeth checked by dentist; text: '$35m+ to help Victorian Aboriginal communities better access culturally safe, holistic healthcare closer to home'

The image in the feature tile is from the Bendigo and District Aboriginal Co-operative (BDAC) webpage Locally-drive Aboriginal Children’s dental health project a win for all. BDAC is one of seven Victorian ACCHOs selected to share in $35m+ of additional funding.

The NACCHO Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health News is a 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.

Victorian ACCHOs to receive funding support 

Indigenous Victorians will have access to 100,000 extra additional community healthcare appointments as part of a new investment supporting the state’s ACCHOs. It comes as the Victorian government announced seven ACCHOs across metro and regional Victoria will receive their share of more than $35m in funding to help Aboriginal communities better access culturally safe and holistic primary care closer to home.

The government says the investment will allow ACCHOs to expand their services and opening hours, as well boosting their preventive and early intervention services and treatment. The expansion will help deliver more care services – tailored for the cultural needs of First Nations people – and is designed to both increase the health outcomes for Indigenous Victorians whilst also reducing the number of presentations to emergency departments and for preventable hospital admissions. This greater access to primary care will facilitate better treatment of chronic diseases, including early identification.

VACCHO CEO, Jim O’Shea, said the announcement was about recognising the work put in by the various ACCHOs throughout Victoria. The seven funded ACCHOs include: Rumbalara Aboriginal Co-operative; First People’s Health and Wellbeing; Ballarat and District Aboriginal Co-operative (BDAC); Murray Valley Aboriginal Co-operative; Bendigo and District Aboriginal Cooperative; Victorian Aboriginal Health Service; and Lake Tyers Health and Children’s Services.

To view the National Indigenous Times article Victorian Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisations receive funding support in full click here. BDAC featured in the video below in one of the seven ACCHOs to be funded.

ACCHO to trial breastfeeding support program

Wiradjuri elder Aunty Donna Kirby is a “breastfeeding champion”. Having breastfed more than 20 children, including six of her own, her sister’s and those of struggling mums in her community, her knowledge is sought out by mothers looking to nurse their newborns. In Wagga Wagga, where Aunty Donna resides, more than 70% of First Nations women are opting for formula over breastfeeding.

A survey conducted at the Riverina Medical and Dental Aboriginal Corporation (RMDAC) where Aunty Donna is now working to help uncover why so many women are turning away from the breast. The 2018–19 national Aboriginal health survey found that fewer than 70% of Indigenous mothers start down the breastfeeding path, compared with 96% of non-Indigenous mothers. At three months of age, just 19% of Indigenous infants were still breastfed; for non-Indigenous babies, the rate was about 50%.

The RMDAC survey being used to develop a 12-month pilot program aimed at increasing breastfeeding rates. “In Australia, there are other breastfeeding support programs but we know from our numbers that Aboriginal women are not accessing those services,” says board director Simone Sheriff. “Some mothers are experiencing neglect or racism [in the hospitals], so these programs must be designed by our women, for our women.” The pilot program is expected to begin in early 2024 and will focus on culturally sensitive practices and hiring additional First Nations midwives and lactation consultants to work at the centre.

To view the ABC News article Indigenous mothers feel unsupported while breastfeeding, leaving many to give their babies formula in full click here.

7 female staff of Riverina Medical & Dental Aboriginal Corporation standing outside ACCHO

The local Aboriginal health centre’s pilot program is expected to begin in 2024. Photo: Monty Jacka, ABC Riverina. Image source: ABC News.

Gindaja showcases model of care to the world

Gindaja Treatment and Healing Centre in Yarrabah, North Queensland, has taken to the global stage to showcase its Indigenous-led model of care. The organisation was invited to discuss the Gindaja Model of Care at the Healing our Spirit Worldwide (HOSW) Conference: the Ninth Gathering in Vancouver, Canada in September this year. Gindaja Treatment and Healing CEO Ailsa Lively said the conference had been an amazing opportunity to highlight her team’s commitment to delivering quality health care. “We embarked on a journey to develop our model of care to drive the focus of service provision across a full continuum of care and within a strong Indigenous led framework,” she said.

“The Model of Care had to unite the organisation and provide our stakeholders, including non-Indigenous stakeholders, with our own self-determined framework and evidence base. “It also had to inspire new and innovative Indigenous approaches and responses that could be developed and trialled.” The Gindaja Model of Care is framed by the organisation’s mission statement: To provide culturally appropriate, specialised alcohol and other drugs care and support services in the areas of education, treatment, recovery and healing to people with alcohol and substance dependencies in Yarrabah and beyond.

The Model of Care focuses on the following areas: health promotion and education, learning and wellbeing, residential recovery, Step Up Recovery (relating to the Step Up supported accommodation program) and its after care and its continuing care. Gindaja is dedicated to an approach that is: grounded in social and emotional wellbeing; evidence informed; holistic and empowering; flexible and responsive; person, family and community centred; culturally secure and respectful; confidential and inclusive; and non-judgemental and compassionate.

You find more information on the Gindaja model of care here and view the QAIHC Sector Leader article Gindaja showcases model of care at World Conference in full click here.

L-R: CEO Ailsa Lively, AHW Kerry-Anne Yeatman, Board Chairperson Lynese Hari, Learning and Wellbeing Coordinator Hezron Murgha, Finance Officer Ashleigh Schreiber, Board Director Jasmine Canendo & Residential Coordinator Tamara Yeatman

Pictured at the conference L-R: L-R: CEO Ailsa Lively, AHW Kerry-Anne Yeatman, Board Chairperson Lynese Hari, Learning and Wellbeing Coordinator Hezron Murgha, Finance Officer Ashleigh Schreiber, Board Director Jasmine Canendo & Residential Coordinator Tamara Yeatman. Image source: QAIHC Sector Leader.

Experts push for fluoride mandate

The Queensland state government must end the “lunacy” and mandate fluoride in Queensland’s water supply, a leading advocate of better dental health says, amid fears that a generation of regional and Indigenous residents will suffer. Dentist Michael Foley, who was instrumental in then premier Anna Bligh’s 2007 decision to mandate fluoride in the state’s water supply, called for more Queenslanders to be given access to fluoride. The decision was reversed in 2012 by then LNP premier Campbell Newman.

About 72% of residents – mostly in South East Queensland – now have access to water fluoridation, which the National Health and Medical Research Council notes reduces tooth decay by 27-44%. Dr Foley is calling for the government to reintroduce fluoride, with some exceptions. “Fluoridation is not appropriate or needed if decay levels are low – sadly, not an issue in Queensland – but also in communities that rely on bore water and don’t treat the water, communities where the water already contains beneficial levels of fluoride, or places like Nanango where the water tastes bad and very few people drink the town water,” he said.

Dr Foley said Indigenous communities were being significantly disadvantaged. “Not a single one of our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities has water fluoridation, despite them having rampant tooth decay,” he said. “It’s more difficult to promote fluoridation in remote communities, but most Aboriginal communities in the NT have water fluoridation so there’s no reason why communities in Queensland shouldn’t also.”

The above was extracted from and article Expert push for fluoride mandate to fight tooth decay in full click published in The Chronicle on Sunday 10 December 2023.

dentist Dr Michael Foley in his dental surgery

Dr Michael Foley was instrumental in a 2007 state government decision to mandate fluoride in the state’s water supply. Image source: The Chronicle.

Race data needed to improve public health

Disparities in health outcomes manifest in various forms, with racism one consistent determinant. Lack of racial data is a barrier to overcoming structural racism. A high level of racism is associated with poor health care and outcomes in a wide range of contexts, including participation in intervention innovations and primary health care, medical incidents, access to treatment and utilisation of health care, hospitalisation and rehabilitation, and maintenance.  Racial minorities in Australia and other high income countries are less likely to receive clinically indicated, protocol-driven care than their white counterparts. Existing evidence suggests that the lack of adequate data on race and ethnicity obscures evidence or racism and holds back antiracism efforts in health policies, interventions and guidelines.

Although Australia does not collect data on race and ethnicity, data on cardiovascular health hospitalisation and outcome indicate that, compared with non-Aboriginal Australians, Aboriginal Australians have a coronary heart disease mortality that is two times higher and are 60% less likely to undergo angioplasty. The lower receipt rate of angioplasty is closely and significantly associated with symptoms deemed as non-cardiac (16%), prioritising non-invasive tests (8%), discharge against medical advice (11%), and unspecified/unclear reasons (36%). In countries where data on race exist, racial disparities have also been reported in all-cause mortality and recently in coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outcomes.

Reducing racial and ethnic disparities in Australia is a challenge due to the paucity of data on race and ethnicity. When compared to Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries, Australia is currently falling behind in tracking and addressing racial and ethnic inequities in health and social determinant factors.

To view the Medical Journal of Australia InSight article Is Australia falling behind in tracking racial disparities in health? in full click here.

'racism' spelt out in Scrabble tiles

Photo: Blue Diamond Gallery. Image source: SBS Hindi.

Smoking law changes to reduce prevalence

In Western NSW, twice the number of adults smoke compared to those in Sydney. To slow the flow, new tobacco legislation will consolidate new laws with existing ones, aimed at preventing the next generation of smokers and associated health risks. The new legislation also tackles the growing wave of nicotine addiction through vaping, where young people (16-24 years) hold the market, despite once offering hope that Australia was ageing out of smoking.

Being rolled out next year, the purchase of a new pack of smokes will see updated health warnings on the packaging, and health promotion inserts when opening the pack. New and existing products designed to make tobacco more palatable, such as menthol or crush balls will be banned, and tobacco companies will be required to report the ingredients used in their products.

“This new legislation, coupled with vaping regulations which take effect from 1 January 2024, will save tens of thousands of lives, and reassert the country as a world-leader in tobacco control,” CEO of the Public Health Association of Australia Adj Prof Slevin said. It follows a suite of new laws that were introduced late last month, further cracking down on the sale of nicotine vapes that aren’t medically prescribed. While the ban has proven lacklustre in enforcement, with no shortage of vapes out and about, the new laws completely ban vapes (including nicotine-free) from containing enticing flavours or packaging.

To view the Western Plains App article Smoking law changes to reduce prevalence by 2025 in full click here.

ATSI man's hands breaking a cigarette in half

Image source: Australian Journal of General Practice, Vol. 49.

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.

Dec 4 2023

NACCHO Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Health News: NACCHO CEO’s annual wrap-up

feature tile: image of Pat Turner hands folded in front of her; text 'Pat Turner AM, NACCHO CEO and Lead Convenor of the Coalition of Peaks reflects on the year that’s been'

The image in the feature tile is of Pat Turner AM, NACCHO CEO and Lead Convenor of the Coalition of Peaks as it appeared in an article Australian Financial Review Magazine reveals Australia’s ten most culturally powerful people, published by 9 News on 1 October 2020.

The NACCHO Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health News is a 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.

NACCHO CEO’s annual wrap-up

On an episode of Speaking Out broadcast on ABC Listen Radio last Friday (1 December 2023) Larissa Behrendt spoke with Pat Turner AM, NACCHO CEO and Lead Convenor of the Coalition of Peaks on her thoughts on the year that’s been and where to from here.

Larissa Behrendt: It’s been a year of highs and lows in Indigenous affairs. Aunty Pat Turner has worked to improve the lives of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people for over half a century, she says despite the referendum result, the focus should remain on creating better outcomes for First Nations people.

It’s become a tradition on Speaking Out to end the year by asking one of our most revered Elders about her thoughts on the year that’s been. Aunty Pat’s year in review gives us a chance to delve into the big issues from someone who’s been in the middle of it.

Aunty Pat welcome back once again. This has been quite a year so it’s a real privilege to have your insights since you’ve been right in the thick of many of the things we’re going to analyse. The most significant moment in Indigenous affairs this past year has no doubt been the referendum on an Indigenous Voice to Parliament. You were deeply involved in the design of it, how do you explain the referendum results Aunty Pat?

Pat Turner: I don’t really think it’s right that Aboriginal people are asked to explain it, or to say what went wrong because really, we only make up 3% of the population and somehow it assumes that, you know by me explaining it, that we were at fault and that it was our responsibility to educate all the Australians and all the people who have to vote to convince them about why we should have a constitutionally protected voice and I think there are a lot of others who are responsible for that.

But what I do know is so many of our people are now grieving and struggling to understand their place in our own country and that’s really bad. But in this grief, as I said previously, it is important that our young people really know that they are so loved, and that they should be so proud of their Aboriginal identity. I know I hug my grannies a little tighter in the last few weeks and we all must continue to do that.

You can read more of the interview here.

collage - Speaking Out tile; ABC Radio logo; portrait of Larrissa Behrendt

Larrisa Behrendt, host of ABC Radio Speaking Out.

Kids experiencing fewer hearing problems

Indigenous children are experiencing fewer ear and hearing problems, though rates are still excessive and preventable. New data from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) has revealed the proportion of Indigenous children under 14 with an ear or hearing problem declined from 11% in 2001 to 6.9%  in 2019. “Hearing problems in children can affect speech, language, thinking skills and behavioural development,” said AIHW spokesperson Jo Baker said. “First Nations people and in particular children, experience high rates of ear and hearing problems, which can have profound impacts on overall health and quality of life.”

While the decrease is promising, the research found three in 10 Indigenous children still experienced hearing loss in 2019, jumping to four in 10 in remote areas. In the broader community, 43% of Indigenous people aged 7 and over had measured hearing loss. The report found social and economic disadvantage to be contributing to greater rates of untreated acute and chronic ear infections among Indigenous people.

University of Newcastle ear, nose and throat surgeon Kelvin Kong said most ear disease and hearing loss affecting Indigenous people is preventable. “Access to culturally safe ear and hearing health specialist services is crucial for First Nations people to seek and receive timely diagnosis and treatment,” Professor Kong said. He said middle ear infections are the main cause of hearing loss among children and young people, and early detection is vital for appropriate treatment.

To view The Telegraph article Indigenous children experiencing fewer hearing problems in full click here.
young ATSI child have ear examination

Image source: The Telegraph.

Reform delay causes dental decay

A Senate committee has investigated why so many Australians are missing out on dental care and made 35 recommendations for reform. By far the most sweeping is the call for universal coverage for essential dental care.  The Senate committee report follows more than a dozen national inquiries and reports into dental care since 1998, many with similar findings.

Dental care was left out of Medicare from the start, and half a century later, Australia still funds oral health very differently to how we fund care for the rest of the body, with patients paying most of the cost themselves. People on lower incomes were much more likely to miss out. People living in the poorest areas are around three times as likely to wait more than two years between visits to the dentist, compared to people in the wealthiest areas. One in four report delaying care.

Even if you can afford to see a dentist, you might not be able to get in. Census data shows there is one dentist for every 400 to 500 people in inner-city parts of most capital cities. But in Blacktown North in outer Sydney, there is only one dentist for every 5,100 people. Regional areas fare even worse. There is only one for every 10,300 people in the northeast of Ballarat, Vic. In some remote areas, there are no working dentists at all. The consequences of missing dental care are serious. Around 80,000 hospital visits a year are for preventable dental conditions. Oral health problems are also linked to a range of chronic diseases affecting the rest of the body too, and may cause damage to the brain.

Compared to five years ago, more of us have untreated dental decay, are concerned about the appearance of our teeth, avoid food due to dental problems, and have toothaches. Despite all this, government spending on dental health has been falling. In the ten years to 2020-21, the federal government’s share of spending on dental services – excluding premium rebates – fell from 12% to 5%, while the states’ share fell from 10% to 9%.

To view The Conversation article Reform delay causes dental decay. It’s time for a national deal to fund dental care in full click here.

gloved dentist's hands holding equipment

Photo: Press Association. Image source: SBS NITV.

Growing calls for on-Country dialysis

Yindjibarndi Elder Tootsie Daniel sits patiently underneath a tree in the front yard of her home in Roebourne, 1,500 kms north of Perth in WA’s Pilbara. She’s waiting for a lift to a kidney dialysis centre, three hours away. It’s a laborious ritual she is meant to go through three times a week. “I’ve had problems getting people to take me to Port Hedland to do dialysis,” she says.”I remember the first week when I came back [from Perth] I missed dialysis for five weeks … it was so unbearable for me. “I was getting worried and upset … because my body was feeling it.”

Three hours down the highway in Port Hedland, Yamatji woman Elizabeth Barry has been on the waitlist for dialysis for more than a year. “Sometimes you do have anxiety because of that, because you know that you just got to take what you can get,” she says. “If we don’t get dialysis we are dead. It is as simple as that … I’ll take whatever days you give me.”

Recent figures from the WA Country Health Service showed the average wait time for dialysis in Port Hedland was 423 days, double last year’s figures. Locals say ballooning wait times result in a growing number of Indigenous people leaving their communities to access treatment in Perth. “There’s lots of other people: my people, my family in Perth that want to come back home,” Ms Daniel says. “Being in Perth is somewhere else. I’m not familiar with, no family, no friends to come visit. “I miss seeing my family and I’m going to miss my community … it made me feel homesick.”

To view the ABC News article Growing calls for on-country kidney dialysis in North West WA, as wait times grow to more than a year in full click here.

WA dialysis ATSI patient Lucy May Bulley

Yinggarda woman Lucy May Bulley says someone had to die before she could get a dialysis placement in Carnarvon. Photo: Xander Sapsworth-Collis. Image source: ABC News.

Babies born to type 2 diabetes mums at risk

Babies of mothers who have type 2 diabetes in pregnancy are being born with congenital defects including holes in the heart and malformed kidneys, frontline clinicians reveal as the nationwide diabetes battle extends into a new front. Endocrinologists at public hospitals have highlighted the trend as the numbers of pregnant women with youth-onset type 2 diabetes grows, with as many as 15% of babies born to these mothers having some form of congenital malformation.

The number of people with type 2 diabetes, a condition in which patients become insulin resistant and develop dangerously high blood sugar levels, has tripled in the past 30 years. One in 10 deaths is attributable to diabetes currently, and a minor or major amputation is performed every two days in Australian hospitals as a result of diabetes complications. The condition is also the leading cause of premature blindness and causes heart attack, strokes and nerve problems. There is no national data on the prevalence of type 2 diabetes in pregnancy, but the numbers of such women is growing as the age of diagnosis of the condition – previously a disease of middle age – gets younger and younger.”

According to Darwin endocrinologist Matthew Hare, who wrote his PhD on the topic at the Menzies School of Health Research, Aboriginal women in Central Australia have the highest rates of type 2 diabetes in pregnancy ever reported globally. Research led by Dr Hare found that there had been a 10-fold increase in the rate of type 2 diabetes among pregnant Aboriginal women in just 30 years, and the condition now affected almost one in 10 Aboriginal women in Central Australia. Alarmingly, one in 10 Aboriginal women with type 2 diabetes in pregnancy developed end-stage kidney disease requiring dialysis within 12 years of follow-up after the pregnancy. These women were almost 30 times more likely to develop end-stage kidney disease compared to women without any diabetes in pregnancy.

The above was extracted from an article Babies of diabetic mums born with birth defects: doctors published earlier today in The Australian.

ATSI mother kissing newborn baby

Image source: Australian Institute of Health & Welfare.

Vax burn-out leaves 1,000s vulnerable

Every year, vaccines save thousands of lives and prevent countless sick days, yet millions of older Australians at high risk of serious illness are not getting their recommended shots and for some that may mean death. According to a new report A fair shot: How to close the vaccination gap, by the Grattan Institute, the pandemic has left many of us suffering vaccine burn-out – sick of vaccination, confused about which jabs we need, misled by misinformation, or complacent about the risks of not being vaccinated.

COVID-19 is less dangerous than it was at the peak of the pandemic, but is still killing thousands of Australians a year – since pandemic measures ended in October 2022, more than 5,000 Australians have died from COVID-19, making it a leading cause of death. COVID-19 vaccination rates have plunged. “Year after year, the same groups miss out. If you don’t speak English at home, you are only half as likely to get recommended COVID-19 vaccinations,” the report says, “and if you are Indigenous, you are a third less likely.” According to the report Australia urgently needs a policy reset to save lives and take pressure off hospitals.

The Grattan Institute wants to see a new National Vaccination Agreement between the federal government and the states, to set ambitious targets and forge a plan to drive up vaccination. Pharmacists and GPs should get more help to reach more people, including cultural groups that are missing out, and people living in aged care homes, Aboriginal health organisations should get more money to boost vaccination rates among Indigenous people and pandemic programs to reach communities with the lowest vaccination rates – including homeless people and some cultural groups – should be sustained and strengthened.

To view The Senior article Vaccine burn-out leaves thousands vulnerable says the Grattan Institute
in full click here.

Tharawal Elder Uncle Ivan Wellington receiving vaccination at Tharawal Aboriginal Corporation

Tharawal Elder Uncle Ivan Wellington receiving a COVID-19 vaccination at Tharawal Aboriginal Corporation. Image source: The Guardian.

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.

Nov 14 2023

NACCHO Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Health News: World Diabetes Day 2023

The image in the feature tile is from Canva.

The NACCHO Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health News is a 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.

World Diabetes Day 2023

Tuesday 14 November is World Diabetes Day, with the theme Know your Risk, Know your Response. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples are grossly over-represented in the diabetes burden of disease compared to other Australians. The prevalence of diabetes in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander adults is three times the national rate for non-Indigenous people, and youth onset type 2 diabetes is rising rapidly. There is an urgent need for earlier diagnosis and a focus on prevention.

NACCHO’s September 2023 Inquiry into Diabetes recommends:

  • Any interventions to address diabetes align with the National Agreement and its four Priority Reform Areas.
  • Government adopts a ‘heath in all policies’ approach, recognising that health outcomes are influenced by a wide range of social, commercial, political, environmental and cultural determinants.
  • The Australian Government allocates diabetes funding based on burden of disease not population.
  • Working in partnership with the sector and young Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to develop better health programs to support young people with diabetes.
  • The Australian Government supports ACCHOs to conduct nationally standardised screening and follow-up of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children for diabetes.
  • The development of resources to support implementation of new screening recommendations.
  • Changes to MBS to improve availability of point of care diagnostics aligned with best practice.
  • The Australian Government supports ACCHOs to deliver high-quality models of antenatal care which include midwife continuity, and antenatal and postnatal screening for diabetes, and breastfeeding support.
  • Funding for GLP1 RA for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people with obesity, given its association with type 2 diabetes and establish regulatory framework that prioritises equitable supply toward communities with the greatest burden of type 2 diabetes.
  • Changes to the PBS to allow concurrent prescribing of GLP1 RAs and SGLT2 inhibitors for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples with type 2 diabetes.
  • Government funds novel models of CGM use and evaluation for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
  • ACCHOs are funded to deliver holistic health promotion, prevention and engagement programs that normalise good health.
  • ACCHOs are funded to establish health promotion and prevention teams to support community health.
  • Funding to embed non-dispensing pharmacists in ACCHOs to support chronic disease management.
  • Funding ACCHRTOs to work in partnership with universities to develop nationally accredited skillsets and pathways to support Aboriginal Health Practitioners to become Credentialled Diabetes Educators.
  • ACCHRTOs are funded to co-design nationally certified diabetes prevention and better health resources to support ACCHO workforce upskilling and training.
  • The Australian Government redirects funding to support Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people with diabetes to the ACCHO sector.

Read the full Inquiry into Diabetes here.

First Nations Director Scholarships Program

In its inaugural round, the Australian Institute of Company Directors (AICD) is partnering with the Australian Indigenous Governance Institute (AIGI) to support 45 directors and senior leaders in the First Nations community-controlled sector who are ready to step into governance roles. The program is aimed at developing a pipeline of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander directors with the skills and capability to be appointed to First Nations and non-First Nations boards. The program will provide 135 foundational and senior governance scholarships over the next three years. Participants will have access to world-class governance education as well as a program of culturally relevant and community-informed mentoring and workshops.

The Program supports the National Agreement on Closing the Gap Priority Reform Two and the Government’s commitment to building a strong and sustainable First Nations community-controlled sector that delivers high quality services to meet the needs of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people across the country. The scholarship is open to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander leaders currently sitting on a board or committee of a member (or subsidiary member) organisation of the Coalition of Peaks. Applicants will be required to upload a Letter of Support from their organisation endorsing applicant’s participation in the program and agreeing to fund travel costs in excess of $500 (excl GST).

Applications close Sunday 26 November. Find more information here.

Image source: Australian Institute of Company Directors.

Collective action for environment, climate and health at HEAL 2023

On this week, the Healthy Environments and Lives (HEAL) Conference is bringing together Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander wisdom, sustainable development, epidemiology, and data science and communication, to share knowledge, and to put that knowledge into action as we face the health challenges of environmental degradation and climate change. In the leadup to the HEAL Network conference Veronica Matthews, Associate Professor at the University Centre for Rural Health at the University of Sydney, told Croakey that, while it’s good we now have a government open to “listening to the science of climate change” and genuine policy commitments, it may not be “enough to reign in the consequences of climate change that we are living with now.”

“Anything we do really has to think about a decolonising process,” Ms Matthews said.

“We need to remedy what the colonial impacts have done to use, the detrimental impacts that we’ve endured, as well as strengthen the value and appreciation of Indigenous knowledge systems and what they can bring.”

Read the full Croakey Health Media article here.

After the 2019/20 bushfires on Karta Pintingga/Kangaroo Island. Image by: Alison Barrett.

Winnunga pivotal to ACT’s health system

Julie Tongs has been the CEO of Winnunga for 25 years and says her vision has always been for Winnunga to be a leader in the provision of primary health care. Speaking to Canberra City News, Ms Tongs said the ACCHO located on Ngunnawal Country is “pivotal to the overall health system in the ACT and surrounding NSW region.”

In the 2021/22 financial year, Winnunga provided 92,000 occasions of care to 8,295 clients. This included COVID-19 vaccinations, testing clinics, telephone consults, walk-in services to GPs, as well as psychologists, psychiatrists, podiatrist, optometry, physiotherapy, dieticians, drug and alcohol support and mental health nurses.

“They come to use because they feel safe here and not judged,” Ms Tongs said.

Read the full article here.

Winnunga Nimmityjah CEO Julie Tongs. Image source: Canberra City News.

A long drive for a healthier smile

Access to essential services, including dental care, remains a challenge for people living in remote areas, and the disparity in healthcare opportunities often results in enduring suffering for those without access. From Gibb River Station, Warrawa man Uncle Clyde Russ undertook a challenging 376km journey to see an Air Force dentist in Derby, WA. At age 72, Uncle Clyde said he usually “hates” dental check-ups and puts off going.

“It’s my least favourtie thing, seeing the dentist. I think that is why I let my teeth get bad,” Uncle Clyde said.

“I really love the [Air Force] dental team at the Derby Aboriginal Health Service.

“They help me feel at ease, and have done the procedures so they don’t hurt at all.”

Now, Uncle Clyde encourages others to look after their dental health.

Read more here.

Air Force dental assistant Sergeant Deborah Williamson and Uncle Clyde Russ. Image Source: Australian Government Defence.

Mental Health paper in Arrernte language

Research on the importance of cultural continuity for Central Australian Aboriginal men’s mental health has been translated into Eastern/Central Arrernte, making it one of the first academic papers to be translated in full into an Australian Aboriginal Language. Eastern/Central Arrernte is one of the most commonly spoken Aboriginal languages in Australia, in an area of Central Australia that includes Alice Springs and East MacDonnell Ranges.

The paper discusses kinship, language, religious and economic activities that can help restore traditional knowledge, which can in turn help Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander men develop positive identity and mental health.

Read in Eastern/Central Arrernte here. Read in English here.

Eastern/Central Arrernte abstract translation.

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.

Sep 21 2023

NACCHO Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Health News: Constitutional Reform important for the improvement of health outcomes for Indigenous Australians

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.

Constitutional Reform important for the improvement of health outcomes for Indigenous Australians

Australian Constitutional Reform important for the improvement of health outcomes for Indigenous Australians.

Pat Turner CEO of NACCHO states, “A Voice and recognition of Indigenous Australians is critical if there is going to be long term sustainable improvements to health outcomes for our peoples. Currently programs and policies are at the whim of whoever the Minister is and the senior executives of Government Departments.”

“During COVID we were fortunate that our voices were listened to by the then Minister and Dr Brendan Murphy, Secretary of the Department of Health. There were no deaths of our peoples from COVID in the first 18 months and vaccinations and antivirals were allocated taking into account the level of burden of disease is 2.3 times that of other Australians.

“More recently, Minister Butler has supported our submission to address cancer in our communities.  While the mortality rates have been declining for non-Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people for at least two decades, there has been an uptrend in cancer mortality for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.”

The situation is far worse in regional, remote and very remote areas. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are less likely to be diagnosed with localised disease and are less likely to receive treatment than other Australians. The discrepancy in five-year survival rate between major cities and remote areas is particularly stark for certain cancers, including lung cancer (12 per cent compared with 6 per cent) and head and neck cancer (47 per cent compared with 31 per cent).

Pat Turner goes on to say, “The state of Indigenous health in this country is appalling and is the main reason governments have not listened to our advice and have not taken action on the statistics before them and certainly have not provided the funds required. Our study shows there is a conservative $4.4 billion gap in health funding between what is spent on non-Indigenous Australians. That’s $5,000 for each Aboriginal person per year.”

“Having worked in Government as a senior executive for decades I strongly believe having a Voice written into the Australian Constitution together with the National Agreement on Closing the Gap is the best way to improve living conditions and health outcomes for our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.”

Donnella Mills, Chair of NACCHO, “The NACCHO board agrees with the Voice and Recognition being written into the Australian Constitution and I am proud to have been part of developing the Uluru Statement.  There is no doubt Australia is a divided country.  In Cairns where I live and other places nationally there are hundreds of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who have Rheumatic Fever and Rheumatic Heart Disease, and we are 55 times more likely to die of the disease as youth than other Australians. We have had two deaths from tuberculosis in the last year, babies dying from congenital syphilis and trachoma.  These are diseases of poverty and diseases seen in Third World countries and haven’t existed in non-Indigenous Australian population in decades. They are diseases that result from overcrowded and poor housing, lack of clean water and limited health care funding.”

“Most of our people were rounded up and placed in artificial environments and mixing the different language groups with their movements restricted with Acts of Parliament. Look at Palm Island as an example or Mapoon. It is now time to make us equal through Recognition and a Voice to Parliament and the Executive in the Australian Constitution.

Find the media release here. 

Supporting our community: online Social and Emotional Wellbeing Resources during the Voice referendum 

The National Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation (NACCHO) and the Australian Indigenous HealthInfoNet have launched a portal that brings together a collection of resources aimed at supporting and reducing social and emotional harms to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in the period prior and post the Voice referendum https://healthinfonet.ecu.edu.au/learn/special-topics/voice-referendum-social-emotional-wellbeing-resources/

The wellbeing resources have been made freely available on the Australian Indigenous HealthInfoNet website for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, organisations and Community, including new Pause, Breathe, Connect wellbeing resources developed by The Healing Foundation. Building Connection, Strength, Resilience is at the heart of these resources, which comprise, factsheets, support websites, apps, posters, videos and other critical tools.

The launch comes as the negative impacts of the debate increasingly affect the social, emotional and mental health wellbeing of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

NACCHO Chief Executive Officer Pat Turner said, “We are witnessing first-hand the adverse consequences of this debate within our communities, manifesting as heightened psychological distress, an increased demand for assistance, and a rise in the utilisation of social and emotional wellbeing and mental health services. The resources we’ve developed are not the answer but are critical tools to help keep our Community safe and well”.

The Healing Foundation Acting Chief Executive Officer Shannan Dobson said, “These resources have tools and tips on managing stress for self, family and community and managing increased misinformation. As well as managing challenging conversations and ways to stay safe. While these resources are for the current heightened racism, they are useful tools for our mob for general wellbeing.”

HealthInfoNet Director Professor Neil Drew said, “We are proud to partner with NACCHO to provide support for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people during this nation defining referendum.  National debates of this kind can involve difficult and challenging conversations and it is important that we care for ourselves and others during and after the referendum campaign”.

For support, please contact an Aboriginal community-controlled health organisation (ACCHO) near you. To find an ACCHO in your area click here. If you are feeling stressed, not sleeping well or have increased anxiety and depression you can seek help from:

Read the media release here. 

First Nations residential rehabilitation facility on Ngunnawal Country

Canberra’s first dedicated residential rehabilitation facility for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people is a step closer to reality with the development application for a revamped $49 million health precinct now open for community feedback. Winnunga Nimmityjah will run the new 24-bed Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander residential rehab facility.

CEO Julie Tongs described the service as a “real game changer” for the region.

“We need to keep people out of prisons. We need to stop sending our mob interstate for residential rehab because they do really, really well when they go away, but then it’s not very long once they come back that they fall into the same old patterns,” she said.

“With our own residential rehab here, we can then integrate people back into their families and back into the community so that they have the strategies and can fall back on us if they need support.”

Read the full article here.

Concept render of the new Watson health precinct. Image source: ACT Government.

60-day prescriptions webinar

As of 1 September 2023, nearly 100 common medicines listed on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) will have the option of a 60-day prescription. This means many patients living with an ongoing health condition can now receive twice the medication for the cost of a single prescription. On Tuesday 26 September, pharmacists are invited to a webinar to discuss the 60-day prescriptions of selected PBS medicines.

The webinar will take place between 2.30pm and 3.30pm AEST. Find more details here.

Preventative dental training grants

The Victorian Government has announced a second round of training grants for Aboriginal health practitioners to take part in preventative dental training. The grants are now open for practitioners wanting to become accredited in the application of fluoride varnish, a preventative dental treatment that helps reduce the risk of tooth decay.

Participating ACCHOs can apply for grants of up to $45,000 – with a total of $650,000 allocated. Acting Minister for Health, as well as Minister for Mental Health and Minister for Treaty and First Peoples, Gabrielle Williams, announced the new grants on Friday.

“We know that poor oral health can contribute to longer term health issues making the upskilling of our Aboriginal health practitioners to deliver preventative dental care so important,” she said.

The latest funding follows an initial round of the initiative earlier in the year, which saw eight Aboriginal health practitioners become accredited. These included the Bendigo and District Aboriginal Cooperative, Mallee District Aboriginal Services; with locations in Mildura, Swan Hill and Kerang, and Njernda Aboriginal Corporation in Echuca.

Expressions of Interest for the second round of the program are now open until Wednesday 27 September.

Read the full National Indigenous Times articles here.

Image source: Unsplash.

Picture books celebrate maternal and child health milestones.

Mallee District Aboriginal Services has partnered with Mildura Rural City Council to source culturally relevant and age-appropriate books for local Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families. The Maternal and Child Health service nurses will distribute the books when Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families bring their babies and children to a key age and stage milestone visits. Free MCH visits are recommended at ten important milestones from birth until a child starts school.

Mallee District Aboriginal Services CEO, Darlene Thomas said the organisation was proud to donate children’s books that celebrate Aboriginal culture.

“We know that reading aloud to children and sharing stories is critical in developing literacy skills and strengthening family relationships. Engaging our children with culturally relevant stories is a powerful way that we can promote reading, connection, and curiosity from an early age,” Ms Thomas said.

Read more here.

Image source: The Sector.

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.

Sep 18 2023

NACCHO Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Health News: Dr king sees colonisation’s impact every day

feature tile image of Dr Jason King against tree trunk; text '“I see and feel every day the impact of colonisation.” Yued Noongar man Dr Jason King'

The image in the feature tile is of Dr Jason King, a Yued Noongar man who says the impact of colonisalism is far-reaching. The image appears in the article First Nations health professionals ‘deeply saddened’ following Jacinta Nampijinpa Price’s colonisation claims published by ABC News on Saturday 16 September 2023.

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.

Dr King sees colonisation’s impact every day

First Nations health professionals and those living with chronic health issues say they are “disappointed” and “deeply saddened” following Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price’s claims First Nations Australians are not living with ongoing negative impacts of colonisation. On Thursday last week (14 September 2023), the shadow minister for Indigenous Australians, gave an address to the National Press Club. When asked if she felt there were any ongoing, negative impacts of colonisation on Indigenous Australians, Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price responded, “No, there’s no ongoing negative impacts of colonisation.”

Yued Noongar man Dr Jason King, who is the director of Clinical Services at the Gurriny Yealamucka Health Services Aboriginal Corporation in Yarrabah, far north QLD disagrees, “In my day-to-day job and through my lived experience I see and feel every day the impact of colonisation.” Dr King said he was “deeply saddened and disappointed” to hear an Aboriginal politician with a high profile making statements that, he says, “blatantly deny the existence, history, lived experience of so many Australians”.

“The community I work for sits no more than an hour out of Cairns and yet there’s 4,000 people there that live in 350 houses,” Dr King said. “We have a Rheumatic Heart Disease rate, a medical condition which has been eliminated from the broader Australian population to a larger extent, that is 100 times the average in this country.” Dr King linked Yarrabah’s high rates of diabetes, heart disease, and suicides to “policies of the past and the future”, rather than the choices of Yarrabah residents.

To view the ABC News article First Nations health professionals ‘deeply saddened’ following Jacinta Nampijinpa Price’s colonisation claims in full click here.

Indigenous Australians Minister Linda Burney with creek in background

Indigenous Australians Minister Linda Burney described Jacinta Price’s comments as “offensive”. Photo: ABC News.

Cathy Freeman: a ‘Just One Breath’ ambassador

Seven million Australians, the equivalent to one in four of us, have a chronic respiratory disease. Sporting hero Cathy Freeman discovered she had asthma at age 18 and she says it has worsened since. Cathy was diagnosed with exercise induced asthma, triggered by vigorous physical exertion and prescribed preventative puffers and Ventolin. Even after Cathy won the 400m gold medal at the Sydney 2000 Olympics she was breathing quite heavily, trying to gulp in as much air as possible. Then, over a decade ago, Cathy was diagnosed with full blown asthma.

It was only a few years ago that Cathy said she finally came to terms with her condition, “Up until then, I just didn’t want to admit I had asthma. As a former professional athlete it didn’t sit well with me, and I was only able to fully accept the condition earlier this year.” Cathy said that when she was asked by Lung Foundation Australia to become an ambassador for their ‘Just One Breath’ initiative, she didn’t hesitate. The campaign aims to inspire conversations about lung health and Cathy said she is passionate about helping others because she sees herself in other people.

To cope with her lung disease Cathy strengthens her lungs through exercise, healthy living and avoiding asthma triggers. Cathy also makes sure she gets plenty of rest and keeps up her water intake. Cathy said people commonly think of lung disease as a smoker’s disease, however lung disease doesn’t discriminate – it affects the young, old, male, female, smokers, former-smokers, and non-smokers. Indigenous people die of lung disease at a rate three times higher than non-Indigenous Australians.

You can check how healthy your lungs are by taking the Lung Foundation’s interactive Lung Health Checklist here and view The Carousel article Lung Disease: Cathy Freeman Reveals Her Secret Battle in full click here.

Cathy Freeman in jeans & white t-shirt standing in white empty room with blue circle with words 'just one breath'

Cathy Freeman. Image source: The Carousel.

Bed bugs, a potentially serious public health issue

Norman Frank Jupurrurla, a Warumungu Elder and traditional owner is living in public housing that’s been stripped bare after bed bugs ripped through his three bedroom home. The contents of his house are at the local tip. It’s the second time in six months that bed bugs have spread throughout his home in Village Camp, a community living area on the outskirts of Tennant Creek. The parasitic insects feed on the blood of humans and animals and have wrongly been associated with poor hygiene. “It’s like hell, mate,” Mr Frank said. “You will be scratching and itching all night and you won’t be able to sleep because of the bugs.”

Dr Simon Quilty, who has lived and worked as a specialist physician in remote NT for most of the past two decades, personally contacted several people in the NT Health Department to sound the alarm. “It’s just astounding that the department doesn’t see the need for early identification of a potentially serious public health, infectious disease,” he said. “Mr Frank has very serious health issues, he’s immunocompromised and the bed bugs can cause sores that eventually can become infected. For people that have chronic disease, bed bugs pose a real threat to their health — more importantly, it’s their psychological wellbeing.”

Dr Quilty has been collaborating with Mr Frank to develop culturally safe, and climate appropriate housing for Aboriginal communities through their organisation, Wilya Janta. Together they hope to solve some of the complex public housing issues places like Tennant Creek face. “Different agencies like housing and health need to be truly collaborative,” Dr Quilty said. “To solve complex problems, the community needs to be in the driving seat and needs easy ways to be heard.”

To view the ABC News article ‘It beggars belief’: Bed bug outbreaks highlight Tennant Creek public housing issues in full click here.

Norman Frank at front of Tennant Creek House with small child

Norman Frank, Tennant Creek, NT. Image source: SBS News

Nurse practitioners can help address workforce shortages

The persistent challenges arising from nationwide shortages of general practitioners in regional, rural and remote Australia are well known. Recent calls for new approaches incorporating effective team-based care and improved coordination combined with funding models specific to rural health care reflect demands for a shift from business as usual. More recently, the Australian Government has turned its attention to strategies to improve availability and access to primary health care (PHC). One of the many strategies includes a debt waiver for Higher Education Loans for doctors and nurse practitioners who meet the eligibility criteria and will work in rural, remote or very remote areas. Nurse practitioners are not a replacement for doctors but can be an important part of the solution.

The nurse practitioner role was first introduced in Australian more than 20 years ago with an intention that nurse practitioners would support the delivery of PHC in rural and remote Australia; however, uptake in primary health care has been slow. The 2022 workforce data report that 69% of nurse practitioners are in metropolitan areas, while in 2019 the Australian Department of Health reported that only 4.4% of all nurse practitioners worked in general practice nursing.

One factor integral to success was both community and medical practitioner acceptance of the nurse practitioner role. Where collaborative arrangements across services are in place, the nurse practitioner is able to work across hospital, residential aged care and general practice, resulting in improved continuity of care. Reports continue to describe uncertainty about the role of the nurse practitioner combined with limited understanding of the scope of practice of the role.

To view the InSight Plus article How nurse practitioners can help address rural health workforce shortages in full click here.

Australia's first Aboriginal Nurse Practitioner Lesley Salem

Australia’s first Aboriginal Nurse Practitioner was awarded the Member of the Order of Australia in 2022 for her significant service to nursing and Indigenous health. Image source: The Northern Daily Leader.

AI revolutionising diabetes treatment

Artificial intelligence (AI) has begun revolutionising the way people with diabetes receive life-saving medicines. Speaking at a parliamentary inquiry into diabetes, endocrinologist Associate Professor Roger Chen said AI had been developed that enabled continuous glucose monitors to interact with insulin pumps. A continuous glucose monitor (CGM) is a wearable device that tracks blood glucose (sugar) every few minutes, throughout the day and night. The readings are relayed in real time to a device that can be read by the patient, caregiver or healthcare provider, even remotely.

A/Proff Chen told a public hearing in Canberra last Friday (15 September 2023) “that from an emotional, face-to-face at the coal face and also from a publication and research perspective that this really has revolutionised type 1 diabetes, it has changed people’s lives and management.” Diabetes Australia says only around 24% of people living with type 1 diabetes are currently able to access the technology. The number of Australians living with diabetes has more than doubled since 2000 to reach more than 1.5m, and the country is on track to reach 3.1m by 2050.

The disease disproportionately affects people in Indigenous communities, and the inquiry heard from one health expert calling for a fresh approach to tackle the problem, led by First Nations people. “The impact of diabetes in Indigenous communities cannot be overstated with around one in 10 adults living with diabetes,” said NACCHO’s senior medical adviser Dr Jason Agostino. Dr Agostino, who practises as a GP in Yarrabah, far north Queensland, and whose son has type 1 diabetes, said there is a high degree of overlap between diabetes, cardiovascular disease and renal disease, “This leads to early heart attacks, people ending up with kidney failure on dialysis, to blindness and amputations. In Yarrabah I suspect every family has been affected by the loss of someone early to the consequences of diabetes.”

You can view the HealthTimes article AI is revolutionishing diabetes treatment, inquiry told in full here.
DailyDose app being displayed on a smartphone and the related diabetes tools with which it works: a glucose sensor transmitter and a smart insulin pen

DailyDose app being displayed on a smartphone and the related diabetes tools with which it works: a glucose sensor transmitter and a smart insulin pen. Photo: Christine Torres Hicks. Image source: OHSU website.

Restoring Smiles of Yarrabah Shire

Monthly shuttle buses from Yarrabah to the James Cook University (JCU) Dental Clinic started last week as part of a new initiative bringing free dental care to the community after claims that only 100 of the 4,000 residents have seen a dentist all year. JCU’s initiative ‘Restoring the Smiles of Yarrabah Shire’ will provide free basic treatments for all Queensland Government issued concession card holders in Yarrabah, running monthly shuttle buses until May 2024.

JCU’s Professor John Abbott is leading the project and said JCU Dentistry staff and students visited Yarrabah for three days in early September to run education workshops, promote health and provide free dental examinations. “Senior dentistry students will be providing a range of dental treatments, under the supervision of experienced clinicians,” Professor Abbott said. He said the project has been made possible by grants from the Australian Dental Health Foundation and the Mars Wrigley Foundation and is being run in partnership with the Gurriny Yealamucka Health Service Aboriginal Corporation.

“The oral health Queensland Government statistics show that only 100 members of the community have received treatment since January at the Yarrabah clinic, with another 100 persons on a waiting list for non-urgent treatments,” Professor Abbott said. “Delayed treatments have caused this already undeserved ‘at-risk’ community to have poorer health outcomes, increased incidence of dental cavities, tooth loss or hospitalisations.

The above story is an extract from an article JCU will start free monthly shuttle buses from Yarrabah to offer basic dental care published in the Herald Sun earlier today.

Kayleen Jackson from Yarrabah being attended by 4th year dentistry student Olivia Gables at JCU Dental Clinic

Kayleen Jackson from Yarrabah being attended by 4th year dentistry student Olivia Gables at the JCU Dental Clinic. Image source: Herald Sun.

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 – Dementia Action Week – 18–24 September 2023

Dementia Action Week is a major leadership, awareness and advocacy campaign led by Dementia Australia as the peak body for people living with dementia, their families and carers. Dementia Action Week 2023 is from 18–24 September, which includes World Alzheimer’s Day on Thursday 21 September.

Around two-thirds of people with dementia live in the community. A lack of knowledge and understanding of dementia may lead to people living with dementia experiencing stigma and discrimination in the community.

Dementia Australia research shows 81% of those with a loved one living with dementia felt that people in shops, cafes and restaurants treated people with dementia differently. That’s why this Dementia Action Week, Dementia Australia is encouraging everyone to take a few simple actions to create a dementia-friendly future for all Australians, a future that is better for everyone in the community.

You can find out more information about Dementia Action Week 2023 on the Dementia Australia website here. You can also watch the below video You’re Not Alone: Discussing Dementia – it is one of a series of videos and other resources, available here, developed by Dementia Australia for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

Aug 28 2023

NACCHO Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Health News: VAHS marks 50 years of saving lives

feature tile image VAHS premises on Nicholson Street, Fitzroy; text 'Victorian Aboriginal Health Service celebrates 50 YEARS making a difference and saving lives'

The image in the feature tile is of the Victorian Aboriginal Health Service (VAHS) premises on Nicholson Street, Fitzroy. The image appeared in an article by Bertrand Tungandame – VAHS celebrates 50 years making a difference and saving lives, published by NTIV Radio on 25 Auguste 2023.

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.

VAHS marks 50 years of saving lives

The Victorian Aboriginal Health Service (VAHS) was set up in 1973 by Aunty Alma Thorpe, Uncle Bruce McGuiness and other Aboriginal community advocates as a place where Aboriginal people could access medical and social care in a time when racism and other barriers prevented Aboriginal people accessing care. Marking the 50th anniversary on August 18, 2023, VAHS Chairperson Tony McCartney reflected on the importance of the date in the history of not only Aboriginal health, but in the Aboriginal rights movement of Melbourne, Victoria, and Australia at the time.

“…VAHS is the oldest Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation in Victoria, and second oldest in the country. Since its inception VAHS has been instrumental in self-determined Aboriginal health and wellbeing in Australia. Since starting from humble beginnings and with volunteers at the small shop front in Fitzroy to a place community members called a home away from home – we have grown into a service with sites across Fitzroy, Preston, Epping and expanding to St Albans in our 50th year,” Tony McCartney said.

Over the years VAHS has achieved many supports and firsts in Australia – including establishing the first Aboriginal dental clinic that travelled around Victoria and to border towns, the first Aboriginal women and children’s program and the country’s leading Aboriginal health worker education program Koori Kollij.

To read the VAHS media release VAHS celebrates five decades of making a difference and saving lives in full click here. You can also listen NITV Radio podcast of VAHS Chairperson Tony McCartner talking about the history of VAHS here.

tile VAHS 50 years 1973-2023 Respect our past. Honour our present. To build our future.

UQ student dental clinic making a difference

Gavin Saltner, Wulli Wulli man is among more than 800 rural patients who attend a student-run dental clinic in SW Queensland each year. The UQ Dental Clinic — run by supervised fifth-year dental students — opened at Dalby 10 years ago, with another practice opening more recently at St George. Mr Saltner said having access to the clinic was important, with cost and travel time making dental treatment prohibitive for some Western Downs residents.

A report from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) earlier this year found that regional and remote populations had poorer oral health standards than those in the city. It also found that access to fewer dentists, longer travel times and limited transport options impacted the oral health care rural residents received. But the model of the dental clinics in SW Queensland has been deemed so successful it could be used elsewhere. The clinics are a partnership between the university and Indigenous organisation Goondir Health Services.

Goondir Health Services executive Shubham Weling said the unique co-location model and a student-led workforce had the potential to be replicated across a range of allied health fields. “We’re opening a clinic in Chinchilla as well and we want to advocate for this model out there,” Mr Weling said. He said placing the clinics’ treatment rooms within the Indigenous organisation’s building allowed for easy referrals to other services. “So you’ve got cross influence between GPs, dentists, as well as disability support workers for the one client,” Mr Weling said. “It improves the uptake of services and just overall health outcomes and family gain because it’s all interrelated.”

To view the ABC News article UQ free dental health clinic in Dalby improves Indigenous oral health outcomes in full click here.

ATSI man Gavin Saltner in in dental chair at UQ Dalby Dentral Clinic, Goodnir Aboriginal Health Services & Dental Clinic

Gavin Saltner is a regular patient at the UQ Dalby Dental Clinic. The clinic is embedded within the Goondir Health Services facility and treats about 800 Indigenous patients a year. Photo: Laura Cocks, ABC Southern Qld.

Kidney Health 4 Life effectiveness study

Newly diagnosed with kidney disease and want more support? Then Kidney Health 4 Life might be for you!!

This September, Kidney Health Australia is launching a research study to assess the effectiveness of Kidney Health 4 Life , a pilot program designed to help people with kidney disease to self-manage their condition. By participating in the study, you will have access to the program before it goes to the wider public, as well as helping to shape the future of kidney disease support.

You may be eligible for the study if you meet the following criteria:

  • Adults (18+ years) diagnosed with early to mid-stage CKD (Stages 1-4) within the past 12 months (from time of enrolment)
  • Adults (18+ years) who have commenced dialysis (both PD and HD) in the past 12 months (from time of enrolment)

Eligible participants will be assigned to either the program group or standard support group. This will help determine how effective the program is compared to Kidney Health Australia’s standard support. People assigned to the program group will have access to online modules covering topics such as diet and nutrition, disease management, exercise, and managing stress and sleep. Health coaching will also be offered.

People assigned to the standard support group will have access to Kidney Health Australia’s current services including Helpline and Kidney Buddy peer support program and extensive resources. The good news for those assigned to the standard support group is that they will have access to the full KH4L program once the study is complete

If you think you fit the eligibility criteria, you can submit an EOI form on the Kidney Health Australia website here. HURRY. Places are limited.

Kidney Health Australia tile text 'are you new to kidney disease or dialysis & need more support? Apply for the KH4L research study today.

Just 3 in 10 kids had a health check in 2021–22

Just three in 10 First Nations children aged 0–14 years received a health check within the past year, according to new data released by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW). The AIHW report — Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander specific primary health care: results from the OSR and nKPI collections, available here, contained data collected from more than 200 organisations.

A total of 586,000 First Nations patients were treated between 2021 and 2022, but only 30% of children had a formal health check in the previous 12 months, making target 4 of the Closing the Gap agreement’s socioeconomic outcome areas — which reads “Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children thrive in their early years” — seemingly further away than ever.

With regards to other preventive health measures, 45% of patients received an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health assessment and 47% received a risk assessment for heart disease in the last two years. 70% of patients aged 11 and over had their smoking status recorded in the past year, of which 53% reported quitting smoking or never smoking. Among First Nations patients assessed for CVD risk, 58% aged 35-74 with no known history of CVD reported a low absolute risk within the last two years, 35% were high risk and 7% had a moderate risk. 65% of First Nations patients with type two diabetes reported blood pressure results within recommended guidelines in the past six months, while more than half had a chronic disease management plan completed within the past two years.

To view the Health Services Daily article Just three in 10 First Nations kids had health check in past year in full click here.

young ATSI child having ear check

Image source: QLD Government Children’s Health Queensland Hospital and Health Service webpage.

Mental Health for Mob fills service gap

Walgalu-Ngambri and Dharawal woman and Mental Health for Mob founder Kristen Franks has seen and heard a lot over the past decade working in the mental health sector. She has worked across towns in central west NSW and in Canberra and its surrounding regions and helped an array of people – from children, the young, schools and families to pregnant women, the suicidal or self-harming, those with behavioural disorders and in the criminal justice system.

“Throughout all this, I noticed that I was often the first Aboriginal mental health clinician an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander person would see,” Kristen says. “It was incredibly difficult to hear this was the first time they’d felt culturally safe [and that] they’ve never felt heard or connected because there was no lived experience understanding.” A decade of hearing this message reached fever pitch in late 2021 when Kristen’s community and Elders supported her to meet this cultural need.

While Kristen never intended to make a profit from offering free mental health care, she soon found herself staring down the hard realities of starting a non-profit organisation. Insurance, registrations and finding a space for clients, to name a few. All while Kristen held down a full-time job and tried to begin to address an “overwhelming” community need. Over the following six months, crowdfunding and some modest grants transformed Mental Health for Mob from an Instagram page that shared mental health resources to a fully fledged mental health service.

You can read the Riotact article How Kristen turned an Instagram page into a culturally safe mental health service in less than six months in full here.

Kristen Franks' face with white body paint & Mental Health for Mob logo

Kristen Franks established Mental Health for Mob. Image source: National Indigenous Times.

Emergency aeromedical evacuation training

About 7 million of Australians (about 30%) live in rural and remote areas. People living in these areas have poorer health outcomes overall according to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW), and also have access to fewer primary, secondary and tertiary health services. Potentially preventable hospitalisations are twice as high as for those in metropolitan and regional areas. A 2023 Royal Flying Doctor Service (RFDS) report found that Australians in rural and remote settings are at substantially higher risk of heart, stroke and vascular disease (accounting for a quarter of all RFDS missions), and the health services are not always there to support them.

A new agreement between CareFlight and Charles Darwin University (CDU) will give health students the opportunity to work in the Top End with emergency aeromedical retrieval teams on flights. The agreement creates clinical placements for future medical students at the CDU Menzies School of Medicine. The university will apply for 40 of 80 places in the Australian Government’s $114.2m Increasing Rural Medical Training Grant Opportunity to support the placements.

Ms Quinn is excited about the CDU partnership. “It is something we have wanted to do for years,” Ms Quinn said. “It is really important for building our workforce for the future. Our patients are some of the most disadvantaged in Australia; they have complex medical problems and disease processes. Students will see what it’s like to be an independent practitioner. It’s not just the medicine – it’s about logistics and making quick decisions,” Ms Quinn said, who added it was a privilege to work in those remote locations.

To view the InSight+ article Tyranny of distance: emergency aeromedical retrieval in outback Australia in full click here.

CareFlight van, plane, patient on gurney, 3 medical professionals

CareFlight treats and transports patients needing specialist care. Photo: CareFlight NT. Image source: InSight+.

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.

Aug 24 2023

NACCHO Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Health News: Funding to address FASD in Central Australia

The image in the feature tile is from NACCHO’s Strong Born Campaign.

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.

Funding to address FASD in Central Australia

The federal government has announced that $18.4 million of the $250 million plan for A Better, Safer Future for Central Australia will go towards helping children with neurodevelopment issues. Central Australian Aboriginal Congress chief executive, Donna Ah-Chee said the funding would help identify children with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD), ADHA and autism.

“Congress has known for a long time that if we get the start of life right, we can change a child’s entire life story.

“We started this critical work in 2018 and now, with these much-needed additional resources, we can make sure that many more Aboriginal children and young people across central Australia can get the assessment and help they need to get on to a more healthy development pathway,” Ms Ah-Chee said.

The funding will see additional staff recruited for the Child and Youth Assessment and Treatment Services (CYATS) program, including two clinical neuropsychologists, an occupational therapist, speech pathologists, a clinical case co-ordinator and an Aboriginal family support worker.

NT Labor Senator Malarndirri McCarthy said expanding the assessment services will mean hundreds of children will be able to receive a FASD diagnosis and early intervention, “FASD is often referred to as an invisible disability but as far as many families and communities are concerned, it’s a very visible part of life with a profound impact on children and their families.”

Read the full National Indigenous Times article here and see NACCHO’s Strong Born FASD Campaign here.

NACCHO Strong Born Campaign social media tile.

Goondir Health Services and UQ improving oral health

The University of Queensland’s Dental Clinic in Dalby has been operating for a decade. The student-led clinic is a partnership with Goondir Health Services and sees more than 800 rural patients attend each year. Wulli Wulli man, Gavin Saltner said having access to the clinic was important, with cost and travel time a barrier for some Western Downs residents accessing dental treatment.

“It’s made a lot of a difference to me.

“Knowing that I could come along to these clinics and get a check-up… they can fit you in wherever they can,” he said.

The clinic’s treatment room sits within Goondir Health Service’s building, allowing for easy referrals to other services. The ACCHOs executive, Shubham Weling said it provides cross influence between other areas of healthcare and the model of care is and should continue to be replicated across the country.

“We’re opening a clinic in Chinchilla as well and we want to advocate for this model out there,” Mr Weling said.

Read the full ABC News article here.

UQ Dental Clinic. Image source: ABC News.

New GP clinic to South Hedland

South Hedland in Western Australia will once again have a GP clinic with Indigenous-owned provider Marlu Health opening a practice to fill the void left by the closure of Sonic Healthcare. 

The practice will offer a variety of medical services including:

  • GP Services;
  • Occupational health, Pre-Employment Medicals, Fitness for Work and Injury Management Services;
  • Psychology and Mental Health Services through Hedland’s only psychologist Caroline Rodgers;
  • Employee Assistance Programs; and
  • Pathology collection services supported by Australian Clinical Labs, with saliva testing to replace urine testing for drug and alcohol screening.

Director of Medical and Health Services, Dr Lincoln Luk, said Marlu Health had a commitment to traditional owner values and giving back to the community.

“We are looking forward to providing a range of services to the Hedland community, and it was important for us to establish our clinic in South Hedland. We have not previously been a GP provider and were not looking to do so, but we saw the need in Hedland and felt that it was our civic responsibility to help,” Dr Luk said.

You can read the article on the Town of Port Headland website here. 

Sonic Health Plus.

“We cannot continue to have spaces that are void of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people’s leadership, voices, ideas, and solutions”

Co-chairs of the National Close the Gap Campaign, Karl Briscoe and June Oscar said if we as a nation are committed to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health equity and equality, and to closing the gap, then we must also be committed to “listening to and hearing the leadership and advice that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples share with us.”

If successful, the Voice, through constitutional recognition, will allow Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander elected representatives to make representations to the Executive and to Parliament. Mr Briscoe and Ms Oscar wrote, “key to this structural reform is that it provides Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples with a constitutionally enshrined voice, a permanent seat at the table, and a genuine opportunity to provide advice on matters that directly affect our lives.”

“We cannot keep doing more of the same. Large-scale structural reform is necessary if we ever hope to close the gap.

“We cannot continue to have spaces that are void of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people’s leadership, voices, ideas, and solutions. To do so will only entrench inequality further,” they said.

Read the full article here.

Image source: Close the Gap Campaign Instagram.

Lessons in heat resilience

When you arrive in Tennant Creek, 1000km south of Darwin, what hits you first is the absence of smells. Usually, the air is permeated with the cooking of kangaroo but now it is barely there.

In the last heatwave, dead kangaroos were found at the bottom of watering holes previously thought to have never dried up. Some locals believed kangaroos could never fall victim to thirst, that they would always find a place to drink. It wasn’t true.

Warumungu Elder Norman Frank Jupurrurla doesn’t need to consult records. He says his experience with the area over his lifetime tells him one thing for certain: it’s getting hotter. The decline of kangaroo populations, and the resulting impact on human food sources, is just one sign.

Dr Simon Quilty, of the National Centre for Epidemiology and Population Health at the Australian National University, is direct when describing the impact climate change is having on the area: “It is an ecological disaster.”

He is the lead author of a new article in The Lancet, analysing heat-mortality rates in the NT. The study, which involved Associate Professor Aparna Lal, of the ANU, and Jupurrurla, also found that despite high rates of chronic illness, socioeconomic and housing inequity, and far less access to air-conditioned spaces, Aboriginal people living in the NT were no more likely to die from the heat than the local non-Indigenous population.

Quilty says this discrepancy appears to be cultural. He says it is “a story of how Aboriginal culture and knowledge of environment has enabled extraordinary resilience to extreme weather”.

You can read the article online in The Saturday Paper here. 

Expression of interest AMC Member Council

The Australian Medical Council (AMC) is seeking expressions of interest for the position of a Member of Council who is an Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander person with experience in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health issues.

Members need to commit to at least three full days per year to prepare for and attend the General Meeting (May/June) and Annual General Meeting (November). Members have the opportunity to collaborate with Council Members drawn from the medical profession, medical and health standards bodies, medical education and training, health consumers and community members.

To nominate for the position, complete and return the Expression of Interest Form along with your CV by Monday 2 October 2023.

Image source: AMC website.

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.

Jul 17 2023

NACCHO Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Health News: Congress assumes Kaltukatjara health centre operations

teenagers playing AFL in red soil at base of hills in Kaltukatjara; text 'Central Australian Aboriginal Congress assumes operations of Kaltukatjara health care centre'

The image in the feature tile is from an article Central Australian Aboriginal Congress takes over Kaltukatjara Health Centre published in The Chronicle yesterday, Sunday 16 July 2023.

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.

Congress assumes Kaltukatjara health centre operations

Yesterday the NT Chief Minister and Minister for Health Natasha Fyles and Member of Gwoja, Chansey Paech announced Kaltukatjara Health Centre would transition to Aboriginal community control. In a media release they said “the Territory Labor Government knows that health care provided in community is the best type of health care. Central Australian Aboriginal Congress (Congress) has this month assumed operations of the health care centre in Kaltukatjara (Docker River).

Congress already provides care at nearby Mutitjulu, an Aboriginal community adjacent to Uluru, as well as other communities in the region. Earlier this year, Congress assumed operations for the health centres in Imanpa and Yulara. One of the most experienced services in the country in Aboriginal health, Congress is the largest ACCHO in the NT, a national leader in primary health care and a strong advocate for the health of Aboriginal people. The transfer of service delivery of the Kaltukatjara Health Centre joins other remote services provided by Congress in Central Australia including Amoonguna, Ntaria (and Wallace Rockhole), Ltyentye Apurte (Santa Teresa), Utju (Areyonga), Mutitjulu, Imanpa and Yulara. Evidence shows that increasing community involvement in the planning and delivery of local health services brings additional health benefits to local residents.

Ms Fyles said “Local Decision Making is the Territory Labor Government’s commitment to provide opportunities to transfer government service delivery to Aboriginal people. The movement towards increased Aboriginal control of health services in the NT is motivated by two main factors — a commitment to Indigenous rights and international evidence showing better health outcomes when there is community participation in health care delivery. Congress and NT Health have worked in partnership to transition operations to Aboriginal community control in Kaltukatjara in line with community needs and local decision making. NT Health will continue to provide support in the community, including visiting specialist services such as paediatrics and BreastScreen NT.”

You can read the media release Kaltukatjara Health Centre transitions to Aboriginal community control in full click here.

exterior of CAAC building

Photo: Blake Sharp-Wiggins. Image source: ABC News.

Governments still failing public on COVID control

Health sector leaders are calling for governments to take more action to reduce the ongoing impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, especially for people who are at greater risk of severe outcomes from the virus. Many people are still dying and being hospitalised from COVID in Australia, and many more are being impacted by long COVID. Inequities in the burden of COVID are clearly evident, with some groups disproportionately at risk of dying from the illness.

A recurring theme is the disproportionate impact upon at-risk groups, including the aged, people with disabilities and medical vulnerabilities. This applies not only to their increased risks from infection but also to the wider impacts upon their lives. People with disability or who are immunocompromised “have been left behind and their needs have been rendered fairly invisible in recent times, including their right to access safe spaces where they can be part of society”, Professor Deborah Lupton, from the Centre for Social Research and Health at University of NSW said.

Similar concerns have also raised by Dr Rebecca Ryan and Dr Louisa Walsh, Research Fellows at the Centre for Health Communication and Participation at La Trobe University. “…one group that has been particularly affected [by COVID-19] but remains largely invisible in public health communications are people who are medically vulnerable (including the chronically ill, immunocompromised and elderly).”

To read the Croakey Health Media article How governments are (still) failing the public on COVID control in full click here.

COVID-19 virus cell with text 'COVID-19'

Photo: Marin Sanchez, via unsplash. Image source: Croakey Health Media.

AH&MRC appoints new CEO

Aboriginal Health and Medical Research Council (AH&MRC), NSW’s peak First Nations health body representing the state’s 49 ACCHOs that provide comprehensive, holistic, and culturally safe primary health care to First Nations communities across NSW has appointed a new CEO, Associate Professor Boe Rambaldini. Boe, a First Nations Elder of the Bundjalung Nation on the north coast of NSW, has significant experience in the Indigenous health sector, as the director of the Poche Centre for Indigenous Health at the University of Sydney from 2017 to 2022 as well as an Associate Professor at Macquarie University and the co-lead at the Djurali Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Research and Education Centre.

His current work at Macquarie University has strengthened his relationships and desire to improve the health of Aboriginal people across NSW, as has his work as chief investigator on several health-related grants, including ARDAC (Antecedents of Renal Disease in Aboriginal Children and young adults study) at Flinders University and improving care pathways in First Nations children.

AH&MRC board chair Professor Phil Naden expressed gratitude at Boe’s appointment after a rigorous recruitment process, “We look forward to working closely with Boe to further improve Aboriginal Health outcomes for our people across NSW. Professor Rambaldini brings to the role a deep understanding of the complex issues surrounding Aboriginal health, with a strong focus on cultural governance, outcomes and research design.”

To view the National Indigenous Times article NSW AH&MRC appoints prolific Indigenous health leader Boe Rambaldini as new CEO in full click here.

new AH&MRC CEO Assoc Prof Boe Rambaldini

New Aboriginal Health & Medical Research Council of NSW CEO Boe Rambaldini. Photo: Poche Centre for Indigenous Health Facebook. Image source: National Indigenous Times.

$42m to ease regional QLD’s maternity crisis

Queensland’s beleaguered regional maternity centres will receive a $42m injection, with plans to boost the obstetric workforce key to easing the maternity crisis. Up to 20 GPs and rural generalists will be supported in completing advanced diplomas in obstetrics after the state government partnered with the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RANZCOG) off the back of the Ministerial Roundtable held last month. It is one of five new initiatives that has the backing of the Australian Medical Association Queensland (AMAQ).

As part of the cash injection Queensland Health will introduce “digital passports” to help clinicians easily move between hospitals for work which will assist in filling workforce gaps The government is also reviewing Queensland Health’s locum policies to maximise incentive options. And there will be more funding to train doctors, nurses and midwives on best practice, woman-centred care and collaboration. First Nations midwifery models of care services will be boosted across Hospital and Health Services and ACCHOs. Queensland’s Health Minister Shannon Fentiman said, “boosting our First Nations midwifery models of care will be invaluable.”

AMAQ president Dr Maria Boulton has praised the Minister for listening to what was needed, “We welcome the support announced today by the Minister and the news our recommendations have been adopted. The Ministerial Maternity Roundtable and five new initiatives are the direct outcomes of our advocacy over the past year to ensure families in these communities have access to fundamental healthcare services and the health workforce is best supported to deliver those services”.”

The above was taken from an article How $42m will help ease maternity crisis by Jackie Sinnerton published in the Cairns Post earlier today.

Maternity & Gynaecology visiting hours sign Gladstone Hospital

Gladstone Hospital. Photo: Tobi Loftus, ABC Capricornia. Image source: ABC News.

Health Worker builds on work of past generations

Murri and Gomeroi woman Amy Rose Creighton says she is “very lucky” to be named after her two grandmothers. “I carry their strength, as well as their names, so I regard myself as honoured to carry both their names and with that comes responsibility and strength,” Mrs Creighton said.  Throughout her childhood, Mrs Creighton grew up surrounded by her culture, as her parents were active members of the Aboriginal Progressive Association. “They were strong for our people, always fought for Indigenous rights, and I grew up hearing about our strengths, not the negative,” she said.

Mrs Creighton’s parents were founding members of the Tamworth Aboriginal Medical Service, Birralee MACS, the Aboriginal Education Consultative Group, while her mum sat on the Tamworth hospital Aboriginal Advisory Board in the ’80s, working with their community to provide spaces and services as needed. Mrs Creighton’s journey would eventually take her to Newcastle, where she completed her Higher School Certificate at an Aboriginal girls’ college, and from there, she applied for her first job at the Awabakal Aboriginal Corporation.

Mrs Creighton has compiled a long list of accolades throughout her career, she has always made sure to emphasise that many Indigenous families and elders have made similar contributions to their communities. What makes her proudest is knowing the next generation is continuing the good fight.”

To view The Northern Daily Leader article Tamworth’s Amy Creighton evokes the strength of her community through her work in full click here.

Health worker and academic Amy Creighton

Health worker and academic Amy Creighton continues to build the work of generations who came before her. Photo: Gareth Gardner. Image source: The Northern Daily Leader.

Mobile childcare helps prevent poor health

A not-for-profit, mobile childcare service is attempting to help solve poor health and dental outcomes in rural multicultural communities. Gnowangerup Family Support Association’s pop-up services, based in the town 350 kms SE of Perth, are sent to neighbouring towns including Borden, Ongerup, Newdegate and Nyabing. The area is a big farming community where many Aboriginal people and migrants call home. The association’s unique mobile, occasional childcare centres not only help parents and carers in isolated areas get back to work, but also try to improve the health of children in the area.

A 2022 impact report showed concerns around dental-related hospitalisations of babies and toddlers in the Great Southern region. That area included Katanning, Gnowangerup, Kojonup, Broomehill, and Tambellup. The report found that young children in the Great Southern were hospitalised at a rate almost double that of the WA state average. Dental problems were found to be “one of the highest causes” of hospitalisation in kids under eight years of age in the area. The report found that health promotion, early identification, and early treatment could help solve the problem.

Gnowangerup Family Support Association director Denise Franco said there were no other childcare centres across the shire and the not-for-profit was helping many families. Ms Franco also said the centre had helped bring free dental van check-ups to its students. This helped make sure any issues in gums and teeth were detected early.

To view the ABC News article Mobile childcare in Gnowangerup shire on the front foot to solve poor health outcomes in full click here.

Denise Franco, Gnowangerup Family Support Association director

Denise Franco says the service helps children and parents. Photo: Briana Fiore, ABC Great Southern. Image source: ABC News.

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.

Jul 12 2023

NACCHO Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Health News: Place-based approaches improving health and wellbeing

feature tile: image of 10+ hands forming circle in the sand; text 'ACCOs are LEADERS in place-based approaches to improving health and wellbeing'

The image in the feature tile is from an article Meeting in the middle: How governments and Indigenous communities can work together, differently published in The Mandarin on 23 May 2022.

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.

Place-based approaches improving health and wellbeing

ACCOs are leaders when it comes to principles of place-based approaches to improving health and wellbeing and addressing complex challenges. ACCOs and ACCHOs emerged from the failure of mainstream services to address their communities’ needs. They have also been leaders in taking holistic and responsive approaches, with community engagement and control central to all they do.

According to an Aboriginal Health and Medical Research Council of NSW (AH&MRC) 2016 review, available here, ACCHOs “have always been at the heart of Aboriginal communities, grounded in local values and culture, and providing a place for engagement, activism, employment and safe haven, in addition to delivering high quality evidence-based health care.”

CEO of FamilyCare Inc, David Tennant, says that place-based approaches can transform communities. But, he says, echoing the warnings of ACCHOs over decades, if they are done to a place or community, rather than with them, place-based approaches can not only fail but cause significant harm.

To view the Croakey Health Media article Place-based interventions: reflections on what helps, and what doesn’t in full click here.

ATSI man having chest checked by health professional at Ummoona Tjukagka Health Service SA

Ummoona Tjukagka Health Service website.

Targeted funds needed to address oral health inequities

The Australian Medical Association  (AMA) is calling on Commonwealth, state and territory governments to collaborate and make targeted investments in programs that provide health care services based on need. AMA President Professor Steve Robson said achieving health equity required a broad focus beyond just treating disease and managing risk factors, “There are many social inequalities within Australia that give rise to serious health issues among disadvantaged communities. Poverty, discrimination and a worrying lack of appropriate health care all contribute to significant oral health inequities between First Nations peoples and non-Indigenous Australians.”

The AMA’s submission highlights the several oral health inequities Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples face, including higher rates of dental disease, which can lead to other health issues such as heart disease and strokes. Professor Robson said many Indigenous Australians relied on public oral health services, which were in short supply, “Government funding for these services is typically provided in short term arrangements, meaning the availability of oral health care is often very limited for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.”

Increasing Indigenous Australian participation in the dental practitioner workforce, improving oral health awareness and collecting comprehensive oral health data for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples are among other recommendations emphasised in the submission. The AMA is also calling for service models to be developed and implemented in collaboration with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, while ensuring investments reflect the varying cost of providing services in remote areas.

To view the AMA’s media release Targeted investments needed to address oral health inequities in full click here.

gloved hands holding X-ray of human teeth

Image source: AMA website.

First of its kind study explores mob’s experiences of cancer

A first of its kind study exploring cancer in Indigenous Australian communities has begun data collection. The Kulay Kalingka study led by the Australian National University (ANU) will gather information about First Nations’ experiences of cancer where no data currently exists – it will fill important gaps in understanding experiences of cancer – the fourth leading cause of burden of disease for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

“The Kulay Kalingka cancer study arose from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community needs, to better understand cancer attitudes, beliefs and experiences and from calls for the inclusion of First Nations patients, families and communities in cancer research,” Professor Ray Lovett from ANU said. Funded by the Australian Government, through Cancer Australia, it’s the first cancer study designed, governed and controlled by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. The study is being led by the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander research team at the ANU National Centre for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Wellbeing Research.

While Australia’s cancer survival rates are among the best in the world, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people experience higher incidence and cancer mortality rates, and lower participation rates in bowel, breast, and cervical cancer population screening programs. The collection of up to 3,000 stories told by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as part of this study will provide the evidence needed to inform the Government’s policies, programs and services to improve cancer outcomes.

To view the ANU article Data collection underway in First Nations-led cancer study in full click here.

Professor Ray Lovett in suit standing at base of staircase

Professor Ray Lovett. Photo: ANU. Image source: ANU Newsroom webpage.

$150m+ for healthcare in Far North QLD and Torres Strait

More than $150m will be invested into six new or updated primary healthcare centres on Badu, Boigu and Horn Islands, and in Laura, Lockhart River and Bamaga. The investment is part of the Queensland Government’s $943m Building Rural and Remote Health Program. Queensland Health Minister Shannon Fentiman and Member for Cook, Cynthia Lui announced the new investment ahead of their arrival into Thursday Island yesterday.

To help grow the workforce in the region an additional $1.1m will be invested into the First Nations workforce in the Torres and Cape through traineeships, scholarships and leadership programs. This includes $800,000 in scholarships for up to ten students who reside in the Torres Strait Islands to assist with the travel and living costs associated with studying tertiary health courses away from home.

An additional $300,000 will be invested into the Deadly Start program, to provide 15 new traineeships to First Nations health students in the Torres and Cape Region.  Minister Fentiman said “We know that more Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people working in our hospitals directly helps us improve health outcomes for First Nations people. To improve health outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples we need more First Nations doctors, specialists, nurses, carers and allied health professionals.”

To view the Queensland Government media statement Health boost for the Torres Strait, Cape York and Northern Peninsula in full click here.

aerial photo of Thursday Island township

Photo: Brendan Mounter, Far North. Image source: ABC News.

Funding boost for SA community initiatives

The SA government has announced a more than $1m investment to support vulnerable members of SA’s Aboriginal communities. The funding package has allocations to programs offering rehabilitation, counselling and advocacy for members. The package includes a $100,000 allocation to the SA Stolen Generations Aboriginal Corporation (SASGAC) to strengthen advocacy and support for Stolen Generations survivors.

Aboriginal population data from 2018 provided by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) and the Healing Foundation reported there are 2,100 Stolen Generation survivors in SA, and Stolen Generations survivors and their descendants account for 46% of the state’s Aboriginal population. “The report also identifies that Stolen Generations and their descendants experience higher levels of disadvantage across all social and economic indicators than the Aboriginal population as a whole,” SASGAC chair Dr Jennie Caruso said. “It is well known that the best people to find the solutions to problems are those who are experiencing or have experienced the issues.

The funding allocation also contributes $140,000 to the SA ACCO Network to co-design a new support service for female Aboriginal victims of crime, and $945,000 for the Department for Correctional Services to design, develop and deliver cultural programs for Aboriginal people in prison and under community supervision to support rehabilitation.

To view the National Indigenous Times article Funding boost for South Australian Aboriginal community initiatives in full click here.

SA Stolen Generations Aboriginal Corporation chair Dr Jennis Caruso

SA Stolen Generations Aboriginal Corporation chair Dr Jennis Caruso. Image source: National Indigenous Times.

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 – National Diabetes Week – 9–15 July 2023

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are almost four times more likely than non-Indigenous Australians to have diabetes or pre-diabetes. Each day during National Diabetes Week 2023 NACCHO is sharing information relating to diabetes as it impacts Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

Diabetes Australia’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Unit lobby state and federal governments to provide culturally appropriate services, support and education programs that align with the National Diabetes Strategy. They work closely with communities, health sectors and government agencies to ensure this support is community-centred.

Jul 3 2023

NACCHO Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Health News: Dr Naomi Mayers receives 2023 NAIDOC award

Aunty Dr Naomi Mayers OAM; text 'Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health leader, Dr Naomi Mayers receives 2023 National NAIDOC Lifetime Achievement Award'

The image in the feature tile is of Dr Naomi Myers OAM from a National Indigenous Times article Dr Naomi Mayers honoured as 2023 NAIDOC award finalists announced published on 6 June 2023.

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.

Dr Naomi Mayers receives 2023 NAIDOC award

This year’s National NAIDOC Week Award Winners were announced at the 2023 National NAIDOC Awards ceremony, held in Meanjin (Brisbane) on Saturday. The 10 award recipients were selected from almost 200 nominations from across the nation. This year’s award recipients included Aunty Dr Naomi Mayers OAM, who was acknowledged with a Lifetime Achievement Award after dedicating her life to the advancement of Indigenous health.

Aunty Dr Naomi Mayers OAM, is a proud Yorta Yorta and Wiradjuri woman, born in 1941 on Erambie Mission, just outside of Cowra in country NSW. Aunty Dr Naomi has developed and led some of the most enduring and fundamentally profound reforms in Aboriginal and Torres Strait health, both in terms of community-controlled services and the broader Australian health system.

Aunty Dr Naomi was one of the founders and a pioneering force in establishing the Aboriginal Medical Service Redfern (AMS) in 1971. The AMS Redfern was the first Aboriginal medical service and has since become a service model for community controlled health services that underpins the principles of self-determination. The service provides culturally appropriate healthcare to Indigenous people and has been instrumental in improving health outcomes for Aboriginal communities throughout Australia.

Aunty Dr Naomi dedicated 45 years to the Redfern AMS and service to the community. She started out as an Administrator, and in 2012 went on to become the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) before her retirement in 2017. Throughout her career at the AMS, Aunty Dr Naomi guided the transformation of the AMS from a small shop-front into a national network of services.

Aunty Dr Naomi is a founding member of the Aboriginal Health and Medical Research Council of NSW, the National Aboriginal and Islander Health Organisation (NAIHO) (now NACCHO), was founding president of the Federation for Aboriginal Women and a member of the first ATSIC Regional Council for Metropolitan Sydney.

To read the National Indigenous Times article Blak excellence celebrated as Meanjin hosts 2023 National NAIDOC Awards in full click here. You can also read more about Dr Naomi Meyers on the NAIDOC Week website here.

Dr Naomi Mayers as a young ATSI health advocate

Aunty Dr Naomi Mayers OAM at the beginning of her career. Image source: National Museum Australia.

52 mob who are changing the world

National NAIDOC Week celebrations are held across Australia in the first week of July to celebrate and recognise: “the history, culture and achievements of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.” In 1956 major Aboriginal organisations, and state and federal governments, all supported the formation of the “National Aborigines Day Observance Committee” (NADOC) and the second Sunday in July became a day of remembrance for Aboriginal people and their heritage. In 1991 with a growing awareness of the distinct cultural histories of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, NADOC was expanded to NAIDOC to recognise Torres Strait Islander people and culture.

Cosmos, a quarterly science magazine, was supported by the Australian Council of Learned Academies (ACOLA)  and Australia’s five Learned Academies to create a list of 52 leading Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who are changing the world. It is neither exhaustive, nor are they listed in any particular order.

Ryan Winn, CEO of ACOLA said: “I am sure readers will recognise many names on the list, but there is a larger number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander researchers we should all know about. These amazing researchers range from early and mid-career through to later career researchers, and cover a broad range of research disciplines. We thank them all, as well as the many other Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander researchers, scientists and knowledge holders, for their valuable and continuing contributions to advancing knowledge in Australia. Their work builds upon the tens of thousands of years of knowledge created by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people on their lands.”

To read the Cosmos article 52 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people changing the world in full click here.

tile text 'for our Elders 50+ Indigenous people changing the world'

Image credit: Marc Blazewicz. Image source: Cosmos.

Uncle Clarke Scott on work with Cancer Council

Uncle Clarke Scott, a Wiradjuri man with close connections to community across the Central West and Riverina regions of NS, has spoken about his experiences working with Cancer Council NSW in creating and developing culturally safe and responsible services and information for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. Uncle Clarke Scott is a member of Cancer Council NSW’s Aboriginal Advisory Committee and has a wealth of experience working in Aboriginal community health.

Uncle Clarke has a strong understanding of what is needed to improve health outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities across NSW, “I think it’s mainly about the word being out among the community. So, with the Advisory Committee having the connection to community to be able to pass on the information from Cancer Council with their pamphlets and all that type of thing,” he says.

In communities, Uncle Clarke explains how the employment of specific Aboriginal staff is vital for culturally safe advice and support, “I think it’s so good that we’re able to help the Aboriginal community with understanding cancer. It’s really important that Aboriginal health workers can provide that cultural advice to the non-Aboriginal staff and cultural support to our community members.”

To view the Cancer Council NSW article NAIDOC Week 2023: For Our Elders in full click here.

17% of WA kids live with food insecurity

Demand for food relief across WA has substantially increased over the past four years and children in regional areas are among those most in need, a report has found. The Hungry For Change report, tabled in parliament last month, found that 17% 0f children and young people in the state live with food insecurity. The full extent of the problem may not be known because families and children hide the fact they have insufficient food, according to the report.

It detailed a recent cost-of-living study, which found over half of the participating households in the Kimberley region did not have enough money to purchase 12 days’ worth of food. These same families could not afford 24/7 electricity, which impacted directly on their ability to store, cook and prepare meals.

Foodbank WA chief executive Kate O’Hara said the government’s willingness to closely investigate the issue was a positive sign. “It’s a sensational approach, just seeing the government get informed about the truth in community to give them the clarity and vision on what could be achieved,” she said.  The “tyranny of distance” was something Ms O’Hara said many from outside of the region struggle to comprehend. “The distance factor means that cold chain, which is vital for quality food to get into the remote areas of state … the cold chain infrastructure is predominantly around the major retail food outlets,” she said.

To view the ABC News article Food insecurity report highlights plight of children in Kimberley and Pilbara in full click here.

2 young ATSI girls in Broome with containers of food from Feed the Little Children charity

Every weekend Feed the Little Children delivers about 700 hot dinners to children in Broome. Photo: Erin Parke, ABC Kimberley. Image source: ABC News.

Senate calls for public dentistry

An interim report into the state of Australia’s dental health has been tabled in the Senate, renewing calls for the inclusion of dental care in Medicare. The Select Committee into the Provision and Access to Dental Services interim report has shown widespread support from experts and the community for broadening Medicare to include more dental and oral health care subsidies.

Oral and dental health in Australia have improved over the past 25–30 years, especially with the addition of fluroide to drinking water. However, the Australian Government dental health statistics indicate there are still significant problems. Poor oral health costs Australia’s health care system significantly.

There are an estimated 750,000 GP consultations each year for dental problems, which costs taxpayers up to $30mp er year. Dental and oral health problems also affect the hospital system, with Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) estimating that, in 2020–21, there were about 83,000 hospitalisations for preventable dental conditions. Dental disease and oral health problems disproportionately affect those on low incomes, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders peoples, people in rural and remote areas, prisoners, disabled people, and those with specialised health care needs.

To view the InSight article Medicare with teeth: Senate call for public dentistry in full click here.

youth in dental chair, dentist & dental assistant

Image source: Goolburri Dental Service. Goolburri Aboriginal Health Advancement Co, Ltd. website.

Cancelled flights affect Cape York health services

Remote Far North Queensland Indigenous communities fear losing health and other essential services if airlines continue to cancel flights. According to the Kowanyama Aboriginal Shire Council, SkyTrans has cancelled 18 flights since the start of this year. Robbie Sands is the mayor of the western Cape York community and chair of the Torres Cape Indigenous Council Alliance (TCICA), which represents 15 remote local government authorities.

He says flight cancellations happen far too often and are causing significant disruption to the delivery of essential services in some of Queensland’s most disadvantaged communities. “Things like weekly medications sent up from Cairns, they can be delayed or don’t come in, which impacts on our peoples’ health,” Cr Sands said.

“We get a lot of allied health services come into our communities, and [cancellations] cause major disruptions if they can’t come in and see and treat our people.”

To view the ABC News article Flight cancellations to remote Cape York communities affecting health, essential services in full click here.

aerial view of Bamaga, North Qld

Bamaga has experienced frequent flight cancellations. Photo: Brendan Mounter, ABC Far North. Image source: ABC News.

Sector Jobs

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