Sep 14 2023

NACCHO Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Health News: Don’t miss out – HUGE PRIZES to be won

Don’t miss out – HUGE PRIZES to be won
Elders say aged care system needs to change
Noongar mob encouraged to reach out
Voice is a chance to close economic gap
Prenatal program helps mums and bubs thrive
Mornington Island store engages Outback Stores
Sector Jobs

The red and yellow dots in the feature tile are from the National NAIDOC Secretariat website.

The NACCHO Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health News is platform we use to showcase the important work being done in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health, focusing on the work of NACCHO, NACCHO members and NACCHO affiliates.

We also share a curated selection of news stories that are of likely interest to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health sector, broadly.

Don’t miss out – HUGE PRIZES to be won

Enter the COVID-19 Vaccination promotion competition by submitting a deadly video advertisement/promotion that represents the theme: Getting a COVID-19 vaccination is looking after yourself, for your chance to win! Entries will be judged on the following criteria:

Relevance to the theme: Getting a COIVD-19vaccination is looking after yourself
Composition
Creativity
Originality
Appropriateness for the target age group: Category 1 – kids 5–12 years (in the ACCHO community), Category 2 – teens and adults 13–49 years (in the ACCHO community), Category 3 – older adults 50+ (in the ACCHO community).

There are 3 amazing prizes up for grabs:

Category 1

First Prize includes return flights, accommodation, and tickets to NACCHO’s 2023 Conference in Perth for 3 staff members
Second Prize includes return flights, accommodation, and tickets to NACCHO’s 2023 Conference in Perth for 2 staff members

Category 2

First Prize includes return flights, accommodation, and tickets to NACCHO’s 2023 Conference in Perth for 3 staff members
Second Prize includes return flights, accommodation, and tickets to NACCHO’s 2023 Conference in Perth for 2 staff members

Category 3

First Prize includes return flights, accommodation, and tickets to NACCHO’s 2023 Conference in Perth for 3 staff members
Second Prize includes return flights, accommodation, and tickets to NACCHO’s 2023 Conference in Perth for 2 staff members

This is an opportunity for you to really show who and what your community is like, and the best ways to communicate with them.

We encourage teams to be creative with the theme. Is the best way to get your mob interested, through humour? Being strong and serious? Telling a story? Addressing negative stereotypes?

Be open to the possibilities of what ‘self-care’ looks like. Self-care could be 30-year-olds discussing the importance of getting the vaccination; or 70-year-olds spinning around the basketball courts because they’re fit and healthy and vaccinated; or tie your promotion to building community strength and vitality.

The more original and community-oriented, the better.

You can access a competition Entry Form here. All entries must be submitted by Thursday 28 September 2023.

The Terms and Conditions for the competition are available here.

Elders say aged care system needs to change

The Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety recognised the aged care system has failed to provide culturally safe care for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people as they age. It recommended major reforms, including active partnership with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. The Australian government has also committed more funding for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander aged care services, with a focus on boosting the role of ACCOs.

So what do older Aboriginal people need to age well? And how can aged care funding and systems enable that? This was at the centre of a study, led by the Dharriwaa Elders Group in its long-term partnership with the University of NSW, known as Yuwaya Ngarra-li. The study involved speaking with 22 Elders in the remote NSW town of Walgett about what ageing well means to them.

Aboriginal Elders play an important role as community leaders and protectors of cultural heritage. This involves passing down knowledge and stories, leadership, care-giving and safeguarding family, community and intergenerational wellbeing. Supporting this aspect of ageing well is crucial. As one Elder explained: “Talking about our stories and storylines, and telling those stories […] It’s Aboriginal culture – it’s an oral system of educating people and giving people information. It’s part and parcel of Aboriginal life […] you know your stories, you know where you come from. For Elders who have worked away from Walgett in various careers, this means a kind of “active retirement” – returning to Country to bring back knowledge and continue a legacy for future generations.

To view The Conversation article The aged care system has failed Aboriginal people. Here’s what Elders say needs to change in full click here. You can also access information about NACCHO’s Elder Care Support Program here.

Dharriwaa Elders Group members sitting at table in staff room - 1 woman, 3 men

Dharriwaa Elders Group. Image source: The Conversation.

Noongar mob encouraged to reach out

Content warning: This article contains reference to suicide. Please refer to the services at the bottom of this article for support.

This year’s theme of World Suicide Prevention Day (Sunday 10 September 2023) was “Creating hope through action” and South West Aboriginal Land and Sea Council (SWALSC) chairperson Megan Krakouer, who has worked for a decade in suicide postvention and prevention, is leading a push to raise awareness in Indigenous communities.

Suicide is the leading cause of death of First Nations people under 40 and almost all First Nation deaths by suicide involve individuals who were living below the poverty line. SWALSC encourages the Noongar community, and all First Nations people, to reach out to those around us and offer love and support to people who are struggling.

Ms Krakouer, who is also the Director of the National Suicide Prevention and Trauma Recovery Project, said suicide is “the most pressing issue that affects our people. This needs to be prioritised by this nation, by every government in this country, before all other issues,” she said. According to the Indigenous mental health and suicide prevention website, available here, data from 2017–2021 shows the rate for suicide among Indigenous Australians is twice the rate of non-Indigenous Australians.

An important step towards suicide prevention and mental wellbeing is connection to community and it’s one of the seven domains of social and emotional wellbeing for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. Social and emotional wellbeing is a holistic way of looking at relationships between individuals, family, kin and community in the context of land, culture, spirituality and ancestry.

To read the National Indigenous Times article SWALSC encourages Noongar community to reach out on World Suicide Prevention Day in full click here. You can also access information about a recent documentary, Keeping Hope, presented and co-produced by actor and proud Nyikina man Mark Coles Smith (below) here.

Presenter and Co-producer of documentary Keeping Hope, Mark Coles Smith at Hovercraft Bay, Broome, WA. Photo: Torstein Dyrting. Image source: SBS.

If this article brought up anything for you or someone you love, please reach out to, call or visit the online resources listed below for support:

13YARN – 13 92 76, 13yarn.org.au

Lifeline – 13 11 14, lifeline.org.au

Beyond Blue – 1300 224 636, beyondblue.org.au/forums

MensLine – 1300 789 978

National Suicide Prevention and Trauma Recovery Project, click here

Kids Helpline – 1800 551 800

Suicide Call Back Service – 1300 659 467

Voice is a chance to close economic gap

The Liberal MP Julian Leeser, esigned in April as the shadow attorney general and shadow minister for Indigenous Australians after the Coalition decided to oppose an Indigenous voice in the constitution, says a voice to parliament is not about “special treatment or privileges” but about getting Indigenous Australians “to the same starting line that other Australians are at”. Amid rising partisan rancour in the referendum debate, with his own side leading the charge for the no campaign, Leeser told parliament he supported the voice because it was a manifestation of “deeply Liberal and conservative ideas”.

Leeser said he is supporting the voice to parliament because “my concern, as a Liberal, is that Indigenous Australians are not sharing in this country’s opportunities”. Leeser said establishing a constitutionally enshrined advisory body was about “Indigenous children, their lives and their future; and trying to create the conditions so that Indigenous children can walk confidently in two worlds”. It was also about “empowerment, respect and the strengthening of Indigenous civic infrastructure, all within our democratic system”. He said the disconnect between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australia was “the root cause of the economic disconnection in Indigenous communities and lives”.

“In our country, the Indigenous employment rate is around 49% – this compares with 75% for non-Indigenous Australians,” he said. “In terms of household income, the latest data of the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) has found that 43% of Indigenous adults receive a total weekly pre-tax income of $500 a week or less. The poverty line in Australia is $489 a week for a single person. Almost one in two Indigenous adults live on the poverty line.” He said closing the gap meant creating opportunity. It meant “jobs, not welfare. It’s about universities not prisons.” Leeser invited “all Australians to lift up their eyes, and despite their own challenges, to see the gap that does not close.”

To view The Guardian article Voice can close economic gap for Indigenous Australians, says Julian Leeser in full click here.

Liberal MP Julian Leeser holding papers, facing press

Julian Leeser says closing the gap is about ‘jobs, not welfare. It’s about universities not prisons.’ Photo: Bianca de Marchi, AAP. Image source: The Guardian.

Prenatal program helps mums and bubs thrive

When Natalie Page went into labour suddenly with her first baby she was quite frightened. Ms Page’s mother drove her to the nearest hospital to give birth to her oldest daughter Emariah. “I was so scared, my mother had a very traumatic time giving birth and I kept thinking, ‘What if this is me? What if I don’t make it?’,” Ms Page said. But by the time she had her third daughter Unarra at the Mater Mothers’ Hospital she benefited from having a midwife by her side who made her feel at ease. Birthing in Our Community (BiOC) is a partnership program between Mater Hospital, the Institute for Urban Indigenous Health (IUIH) and the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Community Health Service Brisbane (ATSICHS).

The prenatal health care program, now in its 10th year, is promoting a self-determination model that prioritises Indigenous mums’ physical and mental wellbeing. Ms Page said she benefited and wished she had been able to access the BiOC program with her first pregnancy. “They have provided so many services, including transport to medical appointments and have been there to provide milk and bread if needed,” she said.

ATSICHS Brisbane CEO Renee Blackman said the success of the birthing program showed what could be achieved when partners worked together with a shared vision and commitment to Aboriginal-led models of care and IUIH CEO Adrian Carson said improved outcomes demonstrated the success of ACCHOs leading reform with mainstream maternity services, such as Mater Mothers’ Hospital. “The ACCHS sector has long advocated that models of care specifically designed for First Nations people and delivered by ACCHSs can achieve better outcomes for our people and be more cost-effective,” Mr Carson said.

To view The West Australian article Prenatal program helps Indigenous mums and bubs thrive in full click here.

Natalie Page sitting on beach with children: baby, toddler & older girl

Natalie Page and her children were helped by a birthing program for Indigenous mums and babies. Photo: from PR handout, AAP. Image source: The West Australian.

Mornington Island store engages Outback Stores

Mornington Island’s only grocery store and takeaway outlet are under new management. Gununamanda Limited Deputy Chairperson Roxanne Thomas says Outback Stores had been awarded a three-year management agreement to manage the store and lift standards after a select tender process was conducted. “We have undertaken a major restructure in the last 12 months, and Outback Stores have agreed to work with the directors to improve our store and we welcome them to Mornington Island,” Ms Thomas said.

The store is in the town of Gununa on Mornington Island, the largest of the North Wellesley Islands in the Gulf of Carpentaria, 125kms north-west of Burke and 444 kms from Mt Isa. The community of about 1,000, about 80% are Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islanders, is serviced by five weekly flights from Mount Isa and Cairns and a weekly barge freight service. “Outback Stores was selected as the successful tenderer due to its retail expertise and successful track record over the last 15 years in assisting remote communities,” Ms Thomas said. “They operate as a not‑for-profit, provide a range of support services and return all profits to the community.”

CEO Michael Borg says Outback Stores was founded in 2006 to improve the health of Indigenous Australians living in remote Australia by addressing nutrition-related health problems, unreliable food supplies and poor management practices associated with many remote stores. The company operates 52 stores in the NT, SA, WA, NSW and now QLD. “Our priority will be to get the Mornington Island store back on its feet, ensure people have access to healthy food and provide a good range of produce at affordable prices. In particular, we will look at reducing prices on staples such as milk, bread, potatoes and carrots,” he said.

To read the RetailWorld article Mornington Island store engages Outback Stores in full click here.

Gununamanda Limited Deputy Chairperson Roxanne Thomas with Store Manager Tyler Sandercock. Image source: RetailWorld.

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 12 2023

NACCHO Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Health News: Calls to integrate pharmacists within ACCHOs

Calls to integrate pharmacists within ACCHOs
VtP and Indigenous LGBTIQA+SB research
Tjuntjuntjara calls for better TB screening
Black Comedy star on body image
Broome home to Australia’s worst prison
Outlet to craft has mental health benefits
Sector Jobs

The image in the feature tile is of GP pharmacist Kylie van Rooijen (R) with RN Neil Dunning, at the Port Lincoln Aboriginal Health Service, discussing how to use a MediSachet roll. The image appeared in the article Why this Aboriginal health service values its GP pharmacist published in the Australian Pharmacist on 2 June 2021.

We also share a curated selection of news stories that are of likely interest to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health sector, broadly.

Calls to integrate pharmacists within ACCHOs

The Queensland Aboriginal and Islander Health Council (QAIHC) submission to the recent House of Representatives Inquiry into Diabetes centers on the impact of social, environmental, and health system factors that create additional challenges for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities in preventing the illness and its associated complications. QAIHC’s Public Health Physician Associate Professor Sophia Couzos said diabetes can be a complex condition for patients to manage and it can be difficult for patients to adhere to treatment, especially medications. “And medications can’t work if patients don’t take them,” she said.

A/Prof. Couzos played a pivotal role as the lead researcher in the Integrating Pharmacists within Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Services to Improve Chronic Disease Management (IPAC Project). This nationwide trial aimed to integrate non-dispensing pharmacists into the clinical teams of 18 ACCHOs in QLD, NT, and Victoria.

This comprehensive approach led to improvements in diabetes management, a reduction in cardiovascular disease risk factors, a decrease in medication errors, and enhanced medication understanding, ultimately resulting in improved medication adherence among the patients. QAIHC CEO Cleveland Fagan said pharmacists working in ACCHOs made a significant difference, “There were improvements in diabetes, blood pressure, and kidney function, more medicine reviews by doctors, far fewer medication prescribing errors, more patients took their medicines as they needed to, and patients felt healthier as a result.”

The Medical Services Advisory Committee (MSAC), an independent body established by the Australian government, supports the value of the IPAC Project. In June this year MSAC advised funding to expand the integration of non-dispensing pharmacists into ACCHOs more widely, reflecting the positive impact observed in the project’s outcomes.

To read the National Indigenous Times article Call to integrate pharmacists within Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Services to fight chronic disease in full click here. You can also watch a short video below on the benefits of an ACCHO Pharmacist.

VtP and Indigenous LGBTIQA+SB research

In the latest episode of the podcast Well, Well, Well educator and researcher Professor Braden Hill talked about his extensive work on Indigenous LGBTIQA+SB health, student equity and access, and his recent advocacy videos about the Voice to Parliament (VtP) Referendum.

Professor Braden Hill is a Nyungar Wardandi man from the SW of WA and the Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Equity and Indigenous portfolio Edith Cowan University, and is the Head of Kurongkurl Katitjin, ECU’s Centre for Indigenous Australian Education and Research. Braden has significant experience in Aboriginal education, and leading equity work in universities, and has lead significant research about LGBTIQA+SB Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, most recently being involved in the Walkern Katatdjin report about mental health for Indigenous LGBTIQA+ youth.

To listen to the Joy 94.9 Radio Well Well Well podcast episode Braden Hill on the Voice to Parliament and Indigenous LGBTIQA+SB research click here. You can view a video of Prof Hill talking about his work below.

Tjuntjuntjara calls for better TB screening

Authorities in one of Australia’s most remote communities are calling for help to screen its residents for tuberculosis, after a 19-year-old woman who spent time there died from the contagious disease in Kalgoorlie. Paupiyala Tjarutja Aboriginal Corporation CEO Jon Lark said the young woman died in November last year was a transient resident of Tjuntjuntjara.

Mr Lark said she spent a lot of time in the remote community, where she had many close contacts, but also travelled to Kalgoorlie and the APY Lands in SA. Mr Lark said the WA government had known about the woman’s death since the end of January. But more than six months later, screening of the woman’s contacts in Tjuntjuntjara is yet to be completed.

103 cases of tuberculosis have been recorded in WA this year, with at least two cases involving Indigenous people, according to Department of Health data last updated on 9 September. Mr Lark said he wanted WA Health staff to travel to Tjuntjuntjara to conduct community-wide screening, to help to determine whether tuberculosis was spreading locally. “It’s so disappointing to be so far removed, so far forgotten, so far from everything and having such limited resources for our health service to be able to deal with a situation like this,” he said.=

To read the ABC News article Tjuntjuntjara community calls for better tuberculosis screening after woman’s death in full click here.

map of Australia with pin for Tjuntjuntjara WA

Tjuntjuntjara is one of Australia’s most remote communities. Photo: Sharon Gordon, ABC News.

Black Comedy star on body image

Australian actress and comedian Nakkiah Lui can remember when she realised her relationship with food was wrong. “I had started getting comments about my weight and being bullied for being fat,” she said. “It’s been a huge defining part of my life, because food was always the enemy.”

The Black Comedy star knows the importance of understanding body image, saying, “When it comes to the discussion of food and body image, the more intersectional we can be in discourses around these the better. We need lots of different perspectives around things like food and especially body image, because for a long time they’ve both been used as ways to include and exclude people,” Lui says. “Our idea of what a beautiful person looks like, what an acceptable body looks like and what a ‘healthy’ body looks like has very much been defined by race, sex and gender.”

The radio host noted that adding an Indigenous lens to discussions of body image may allow people understand the true extent of its impact. “I think when you start adding in conversations around Indigeneity to that, then you’re going to be talking about things like colonisation, like white supremacy, and you’re going to start unpicking things that get to usually go invisible,” she says.

To view the 9Honey article ‘Food was the enemy’: Australia actress Nakkiah Lui’s body image admission in full click here.

portrait image of Nakkiah Lui, host and co-producer of podcast First Eat with Nakkiah Lui

Nakkiah Lui, host and co-producer of podcast First Eat with Nakkiah Lui, which explores First Nations’ food cultures in Australia and abroad. Image source: The Guardian.

Broome home to Australia’s worst prison

In the heart of picture-postcard Broome stands WA’s oldest operating prison, a crumbling vestige of the state’s earlier colonial days. Last month the WA Office of the Inspector of Custodial Services (OICS) released a damning report denouncing the prison as “dilapidated” and “poorly maintained” to the point of being a health and safety hazard with foul-smelling, open drains, persistent mould, water damage, and garden crates used as furniture. Disturbingly, the report found an underlying, unacceptably racist element to the conditions.

It said, “With 80% of the [prison] population Aboriginal, the sub-standard services and conditions would not have been acceptable in a metropolitan prison where Aboriginal people were in the minority.” Since 2001, the WA inspector of prisons has published no fewer than seven reports declaring the prison unfit for its purpose in terms varying from “decrepit” to “inhumane.” Yet hundreds of people spend time in Broome prison each year, with devastating consequences for their physical and mental health.

This situation compounds an already serious mental health crisis in WA prisons. A 2020 study of men who entered the prison system in WA found that over 50% of Aboriginal prisoners had experienced the death of a close family member in the previous 12 months, increasing the risk of depression, self-harm, and suicide.

To read The West Australian article Kriti Sharma and Daniela Gavshon: Picture-postcard Broome is home to Australia’s ‘worst prison’ in full click here.

collage 3 images Broome prison exterior, kitchen, storeroom

In the heart of picture-postcard Broome stands Western Australia’s oldest operating prison, a crumbling vestige of the state’s earlier colonial days. Image source: The West Australian.

Outlet to craft has mental health benefits

Aunty Cheryl Norris can be found most days sitting behind a table at a craft store in SA’s Riverland. Her hands weave tiny beads onto even thinner threads, crafting jewellery to be worn across wrists and ears. “I was like a prisoner at home,” the Indigenous Erawirung woman says. “But now I can come down here to the shop every day. “I’m out and about, I’m seeing people, I’m doing things here.

Joining her at the table, strewn with wool, is Marian Reeves and Darren Ellis. The couple runs the store, nestled in the streets of Berri, having moved from Victoria after their Shepparton rental was devasted by flooding. “We weren’t sure whether we wanted to reopen the shop,” Ms Reeves said.

“But with Cheryl nagging us saying that the community here needs something, we decided to reopen.” The couple had offered a similar space in Shepparton, and knew it could provide a spot for people from the community to craft or even just have a chat.

Ms Reeves said some of the people who came into the shop didn’t have a project, but they just wanted to sit. “It makes us feel good because we’ve made somebody else happy,” she said.

To view the ABC News article Riverland community space provides outlet to craft, along with mental health benefits in full click here.

Aunty Cheryl Norris beading at craft group

Aunty Cheryl Norris says having a place to craft offers her ways to socialise and get out of the house. Photo: Sophie Holder, ABC Riverland.

Sector Jobs

Sector Jobs – you can see sector job listings on the NACCHO website here.

Sep 4 2023

NACCHO Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Health News: COVID-19 competition – win flights to Perth

COVID-19 competition – win flights to Perth
ACCHO named WA’s best GP service for 2023
Glen for Women officially opens
Why the Voice is crucial to health outcomes
Children in detention leads to crime
Reducing medication-related problems
Sector Jobs

We also share a curated selection of news stories that are of likely interest to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health sector, broadly.

COVID-19 competition – win flights to Perth

Win return flights, accommodation, and tickets to the 2023 NACCHO Members’ Conference

6 ACCHOs and 15 creative people can win return flights, accommodation, and tickets for up to 3 ACCHO staff members to attend the NACCHO’s Members’ Conference in Perth this October.

Relevance to the theme: Getting a COIVD-19 vaccination is looking after yourself
Composition
Creativity
Originality
Appropriateness for the target age group: Category 1 – kids 5–12 years (in the ACCHO community), Category 2 – teens and adults 13–49 years (in the ACCHO community), Category 3 – older adults 50+ (in the ACCHO community).

There are 3 amazing prizes up for grabs:

Category 1

First Prize includes return flights, accommodation, and tickets to NACCHO’s 2023 Conference in Perth for 3 staff members
Second Prize includes return flights, accommodation, and tickets to NACCHO’s 2023 Conference in Perth for 2 staff members

Category 2

First Prize includes return flights, accommodation, and tickets to NACCHO’s 2023 Conference in Perth for 3 staff members
Second Prize includes return flights, accommodation, and tickets to NACCHO’s 2023 Conference in Perth for 2 staff members

Category 3

First Prize includes return flights, accommodation, and tickets to NACCHO’s 2023 Conference in Perth for 3 staff members
Second Prize includes return flights, accommodation, and tickets to NACCHO’s 2023 Conference in Perth for 2 staff members

This is an opportunity for you to really show who and what your community is like, and the best ways to communicate with them.

We encourage teams to be creative with the theme. Is the best way to get your mob interested, through humour? Being strong and serious? Telling a story? Addressing negative stereotypes?

The more original and community-oriented, the better.

You can access a competition Entry Form here.

The Terms and Conditions for the competition are available here.

ACCHO named WA’s Best GP Service for 2023

Derbarl Yerrigan Health Services (DYHS) has been awarded WA’s best GP practice of 2023 by the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP). This ACCHO that operates on the lands of the Whadjuk Noongar people in metropolitan Perth was recognised for demonstrating excellence in patient care, safety and a commitment to the wellbeing of the community. DYHS GP Registrar, Dr Corey Dalton, was named the RACGP’s 2023 GP in Training. It is the second consecutive year that an Aboriginal doctor from the DYHS medical team has taken out the award. DYHS CEO, Tracey Brand, said the RACGP awards come as the ACCHO prepares to celebrate its 50th anniversary.

“It is remarkable that a service started 50 years ago by a group of volunteers in an old city building with disused equipment from Royal Perth Hospital has become the largest ACCHO in WA,” she said. “These awards acknowledge our Board’s strong leadership and the dedicated DYHS team’s compassion and commitment to cultural safety and clinical excellence.”

Earlier this year DYHS chose to undergo accreditation through the Australian General Practice Accreditation (AGPAL) which involved the practice team reviewing all systems and processes, prior to an independent assessment conducted by a team of AGPAL surveyors. Ms Brand said “Our model delivers culturally responsive comprehensive primary health services with a focus on prevention, early intervention, comprehensive care and care coordination across the life course of our 22,000 patients.”

To view the Derbarl Yerrigan Health Service media release Derbarl Yerrigan Health Service named state’s best GP service for 2023 in full click here.

Glen for Women officially opens

On Wednesday last week, 30 August 2023, The Glen for Women was officially opened. The Glen for Women runs a 12-week residential rehab program based on the Aboriginal Drug and Alcohol Residential Rehabilitation Network (ADARRN) model of care. The program is designed to support participants with individualised case management plans; grief and trauma counselling; financial counselling; relationship and parenting programs; anger management and relapse prevention programs and 12 step fellowship meetings. Through the program, participants can also learn a range of practical skills to set them up for their return to community.

The Glen for Women has now been operational for 15 months and 84 women have passed through its doors. At the official opening the women who had fought so hard for The Glen for Women, Aunty Coral, Aunty Cheryl, Aunty Gail, Aunty Jan and Aunty Barbara were acknowledged.

You can find more information about The Glen for Women on The Glen website here.

image of outside seated guests for opening of The Glen for Women 20.8.23

Official opening of The Glen for Women. Image sourece: The Glen Rehab Facebook page.

Why the Voice is crucial to health outcomes

Respected Aboriginal leader Aunty Jill Gallagher – CEO of the Victorian Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation (VACCHO) – recently spoke on NITV Radio about the upcoming referendum on an Indigenous Voice to Parliament, how Aboriginal Elders drive the narratives as well as an upcoming VACCHO Elder’s Summit. Aunty Jill explained emphatically why a Yes vote is crucial.

You can listen to the NITV Radio interview Aunty Jill Gallagher on why a Yes vote is crucial, the impact on Aboriginal health outcomes and more in full here.

NITV Radio tile text 'Aunty Jill Gallagher on why a Yes vote is crucial, the impact on Aboriginal health outcomes and more' & portrait image of VACCHO CEO Jill Gallagher

Image source: NITV Radio.

Children in detention increases crime

Some advocates say the best way to create an adult criminal is to lock up a child. The younger a child is slapped with a probation order or locked up for committing a crime, the more likely they are to return behind bars. So when QLD brought in laws allowing kids as young as 10 to be held in police watch houses, human rights groups were appalled.

Indigenous advocates were also alarmed given the over-representation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children in the youth justice system. Catherine Liddle, the head of a national organisation for Indigenous children known as SNAICC, said the Queensland government action was a disgrace.

“Suspending the Human Rights Act so children as young as 10 can be held in police watch houses and prisons designed for adults is utterly shameful,” she said. “It makes a mockery out of all the work that we’ve been doing to close the gap, which says to work in partnership with ACCOs before you make decisions like this.”

To view the SBS News article Does putting children in detention prevent or produce crime? in full click here.

corridor with closed prison doors either side

Photo: Jono Searle – AAP. Image source: SBS News.

Reducing medication-related problems

Medicines are the most frequent health care intervention type; their safe use provides significant benefits, but inappropriate use can cause harm. Systemic primary care approaches can manage serious medication‐related problems in a timely manner.

A quality improvement activity developed to improve medicine safety is ACTMed (ACTivating primary care for MEDicine safety). ACTMed uses information technology and financial incentives to encourage pharmacists to work more closely with general practitioners to reduce the risk of harm, improve patients’ experience of care, streamline workflows, and increase the efficiency of medical care.

A stepped wedge cluster randomised trial is planned to be undertaken in 42 Queensland primary care practices to assess the effectiveness of the ACTMed intervention. The primary outcome will be the proportion of people at risk of serious medication‐related problems — patients with atrial fibrillation, heart failure, cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, or asthma or congestive obstructive pulmonary disease — who experience such problems. The trail will also estimate the cost per averted serious medication‐related problem and the cost per averted potentially preventable medication‐related hospitalisation.

To read the Activating pharmacists to reduce the frequency of medication‐related problems (ACTMed): a stepped wedge cluster randomised trial article published in The Medical Journal of Australia today click here.

You can also read a previous article on ACTMed published in this newsletter here.

tablet dispenser & hand pouring tablets into palm of other hand

Image source: The Economic Times.

Sector Jobs

Sector Jobs – you can see sector job listings on the NACCHO website here.

Aug 28 2023

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

VAHS marks 50 years of saving lives
UQ student dental clinic making a difference
Kidney Health 4 Life effectiveness study
Just 3 in 10 kids had health check in 2021–22
Mental Health for Mob fills service gap
Emergency aeromedical evacuation training
Sector Jobs

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 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.

Aug 18 2023

NACCHO Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Health News: Local solutions vital for sustainable healthcare

Local solutions vital for sustainable healthcare
Voice necessary to close the gap
Mob must be central to LGBTQIA+ plans and policy
Lowitja Institute on health and climate strategy
Understanding everyday racism
Too Deadly for Diabetes funding boost
Sector Jobs

The image in the feature tile is of the Pilbara region of WA from the article WA’s Pilbara hits 45C as large swathes of Australia swelter in heatwave published in The Guardian on 17 February 2023. Photo: John White, Getty Images.

We also share a curated selection of news stories that are of likely interest to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health sector, broadly.

Local solutions vital for sustainable healthcare

Amid growing global concerns about the impacts of heatwaves upon health and health services, a regional ACCHO in WA is taking steps to adapt to the changing environment. The Kimberley Aboriginal Medical Service (KAMS), which represents eight independent member ACCHOs from towns and remote communities across the Kimberley region, is co-designing culturally appropriate heatwave adaptation resources for the region.

Community consultations as part of the KAMS Climate Health Adaptation Project found that heatwaves are a priority issue in the Kimberley region, according to Dr Sophie Moustaka, public health registrar and project officer employed by KAMS for its Climate Health Adaptation Planning project, “We identified that there was an awareness that it is getting hotter, there is an increased intensity of heatwaves, and also less relief between the heatwaves.”.

How health services are addressing climate mitigation and adaptation will be profiled at the Greening the Healthcare Sector Forum next month on 14-15 September, in-person at the Fiona Stanley Hospital, and online, with the aim of providing “opportunities for connection, knowledge sharing, learning and upskilling for all attendees”. Following its theme, “empowering action for sustainable, climate resilient healthcare,” the forum will focus on ‘how’ to empower action and include sessions on Caring for Country, strategy and systems, engagement, leadership and sustainability in practice.

To view the Croakey Health Media article Cultural context, empowered staff and local solutions are vital for sustainable healthcare in full click here.

Kimberley Aboriginal Medical Services.

Voice necessary to close the gap

As co-chairs of the National Close the Gap Campaign Karl Briscoe and June Oscar AO say they are privileged to represent 52 First Nations and mainstream organisations, who – since 2006 – have come together as allies to create a national movement committed to ensuring health equity and equality and improved life outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. Since 2006, this Campaign has advocated for large-scale systemic reform and a paradigm shift in policy design and delivery to truly empower Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. And since the inception of the Uluru Statement from the Heart the Campaign has supported the full implementation of its three components – Voice. Treaty. Truth.

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. The Executive can choose to incorporate these representations when creating legislation, policy, or program design. Equally, they can choose not to. But 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. The intention of the Voice is to change old practices by governments and their agencies. We cannot keep doing more of the same. Large-scale structural reform is necessary if we ever hope to close the gap.

In truth, across the political and policy spectrum there is a tendency to attribute the lack of progress or success of the Closing the Gap Strategy as the individual failures of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. But it is in fact systemic political, institutional and policy failures. It is the continual development of poor policies, pursued and implemented by successive Governments, that consistently fail Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and communities. This has real and often detrimental consequences. It is felt in our lived experiences, it is visible in our exclusion, and it is crippling this nation’s ability to pursue justice, equity, and equality for all. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and communities know when policy is harmful instead of helpful, and we know what our own communities need to thrive.

To view the Law Society Journal article The Voice is necessary if we want to close the gap in full click here.

portrait shots of Closing the Gap co-chairs Karl Briscoe & June Oscar

Closing the Gap co-hairs Karl Briscoe (image source: Law Society of NSW Journal) and June Oscar (Image source: IndigenousX website).

Mob must be central to LGBTQIA+ plans and policy

Yesterday Dameyon Bonson was a guest on the podcast Joy 94.9 Radio Drive with Warren, discussing why Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people must be central to LGBTQIA+ plans and policies. Dameyon has extensive experience working in and with remote Indigenous communities in suicide prevention and is the founder of Black Rainbow, Australia’s first and only national Indigenous LGBTIQA suicide prevention charity organisation.

Mr Bonson hopes data that has come out of the recent Walkern Katatdjin: Rainbow Knowledge survey will mobilise work that should have been happening decades ago. He explained that until now there has been no data, and when there is no data there is no policy and when there is no policy there is no funding. To date, Mr Bonson said, there has been no formal recognition of First Nations LGBTQIA+ people in any policy across the country, particularly at a Commonwealth level, that one we exist as a population group but also our needs, because as the report stresses the issue is not just about suicidality it is also around mental ill health, homelessness, and drug and alcohol usage. Mr Bonson wants investment in First Nations LGBTQIA+ led work in this space.

To listen to the Joy Drive 94.9 Radio Drive with Warren podcast episode Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people must be central to LGBTQIA+ plans and policies click here. You can also read an ABC News article Walkern Katatdjin: Rainbow Knowledge survey shines spotlight on mental health issues faced by Indigenous LGBTIQA+ youth about the report referred to in the podcast here.

banner JOY 94.9 Radio DRIVE with Warren & image of Dameyon Bonson

Banner from Joy Media website. Dameyon Bonson is the founder of Australia’s first Indigenous LGBTI support group. Photo: Anthony Pancia, ABC South West.

Lowitja Institute on health and climate strategy

The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health and research sectors must be resourced appropriately to respond to climate change, according to the Lowitja Institute’s submission to the National Health and Climate Strategy consultation. The Lowitja Institute said their submission to the National Health and Climate Strategy consultation could be summarised under the following nine themes.

strengths-based
governance matters
resource services
emissions reduction
building the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander mitigation and adaptation workforce
dedicated research funding
human rights and climate justice
terminology matters
acknowledgements

You can access the National Health and Climate Strategy consultation paper here and read the Croakey Health Media article Nine key messages for the National Health and Climate Strategy: Lowitja Institute in full click here.

Understanding the toll of everyday racism

Everyday racism is a familiar experience for many Indigenous people in Australia. Its impact on wellbeing has been understood anecdotally, but a long-term study has recently been able to demonstrate this with data. In an epsiode of BLA.C.K Medicine, Dr Mikayala Couch chatted with Kirsty Nichols about Mayi Kuwayu, a ground-breaking research project tracking Indigenous health over time. The Mayi Kuwayu Study is a large-scale project tracking 12,000 participants over time, providing data for Indigenous-led research projects.

One project that developed from the study was to determine how much psychological distress is caused by everyday racism. Two thirds of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander adult population have experienced the eight types of everyday discrimination included in the study. Examples of everyday racism include being treated with less respect than other people or being given worse service. People reported being insulted or yelled at, being treated as stupid, or dangerous, or followed around in shops. The study demonstrated that for those with high or very high psychological stress, up to half of it was caused by everyday racism. If we eliminated everyday racial discrimination, we could hypothetically half the gap in the prevalence of high to very high psychological distress.

The study aims to provide data for research that can address Indigenous health from an Indigenous perspective. People can apply to access data from the study to develop research projects that align with Indigenous needs. These strategies need to be Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander identified and led. We can no longer afford for anything we do to improve health to be implemented through the white lens. And also, the white savior complex that these western institutional changes are born out of needs to stop.

You can listen to the SBS BLA.C.K Medicine podcast episode Understanding the toll of everyday racism here.

banner for BLA.C.K. Medicine podcast episode Understanding the toll of everyday racism & image of ATSI woman Kirsty Nichols

Kirsty Nichols (pictured left) is a Muran and Kungarakun woman who works in health service policy, public health, system planning and delivery. Image source: SBS.

Too Deadly for Diabetes funding boost

A successful program supporting people living with Type 2 diabetes in Aboriginal communities will benefit from a funding boost so that more people will be able to access the service. NSW Minister for Regional Health, Ryan Park has pledged $40,000 to Too Deadly for Diabetes to work with the Walhallow Aboriginal Health Corporation to expand its community-based lifestyle programs. Too Deadly for Diabetes is a research-based lifestyle program developed by Gomeroi man Ray Kelly, and is run primarily through local Aboriginal Medical Services.

“I was so impressed to see this initiative in action through the Coonamble Aboriginal Health Service and the incredibly positive impact it’s having on the local community,” Mr Park said. “We know that communities are achieving great health results, and with the right support they can accomplish even more. I’m pleased to be able to help this program expand into other communities where it can make a big difference. This funding will allow Too Deadly for Diabetes to expand into more regional communities, including Quirindi, Caroona, and for the first time Werris Creek.”

Minister for Aboriginal Affairs and Treaty, David Harris, welcomed the funding that would improve health outcomes for Aboriginal people, particularly in rural and regional areas. “The further you get from major centres in NSW, the worse your health outcomes are. This is particularly the case for chronic disease in our Aboriginal communities,” Mr Harris said. “This funding boost shows our commitment to closing the gap in health outcomes.”

To view the NSW Health media release Too Deadly for Diabetes given funding boost in full click here. You can also find more information about the Too Deadly for Diabetes program, including videos like the one below on the Too Deadly for Diabetes website here.

Sector Jobs

Sector Jobs – you can see sector job listings on the NACCHO website here.

Jul 26 2023

NACCHO Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Health News: Governments failing to share decision-making

Governments failing to share decision-making
Mental health issues for LGBTIQA+ youth
Rural GPs on climate change front line
Students spend day in the life of a physio
BRAMS funded to pilot Kids Club program
Study backs tax on sugar-sweetened beverages
Sector Jobs

The image in the feature tile is from on a NAIDOC march in Melbourne earlier this month. The image appeared in The Conversation article Governments are failing to share decision-making with Indigenous people, Productivity Commission finds published this morning, Wednesday 26 July 2023.

We also share a curated selection of news stories that are of likely interest to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health sector, broadly.

Governments failing to share decision-making

Governments have failed to properly share decision-making with Indigenous people to accelerate Closing the Gap, despite formally undertaking to do so, according to a scathing indictment by the Productivity Commission. The commission says too many government agencies consult Indigenous people “on a pre-determined solution, rather than collaborating on the problem and co-designing a solution”.

The broad-ranging criticism is contained in the commission’s first review, available here, of the 2020 “National Agreement on Closing the Gap”. The Albanese government will use the findings to reinforce its pitch for the Voice – which is that Indigenous people are not being properly heard on what needs to be done to tackle the problems in health, housing, employment, education and other areas of disadvantage.

The review says: “There appears to be an assumption that ‘governments know best’, which is contrary to the principle of shared decision-making in the Agreement.” The national agreement was put in place in negotiations with the Coalition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peak Organisations. Federal, state, territory and local governments and the Coalition of Peaks share accountability for the agreement’s implementation. Then-prime minister Scott Morrison lauded it as a new collaborative way forward. But Productivity Commission chair Michael Brennan says while the agreement holds significant promise, “so far we are seeing too much business as usual and too little transformation”.

To view The Conversation article Governments are failing to share decision-making with Indigenous people, Productivity Commission finds in full click here.

Mental health issues for LGBTIQA+ youth

Nearly one in two young Indigenous LGBTIQA+ Australians have attempted suicide at some point in their life, new research has found. More than 600 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, aged between 14–25 and who also identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer or asexual, were surveyed as part of a national study. The findings, published today, show nearly one in five of the participants had tried to take their own life in the past year.

The Walkern Katatdjin: Rainbow Knowledge survey — the first of its kind — also found more than 90% of those surveyed experienced high or very high levels of psychological distress in the prior two weeks.

Lead author of the report Shakara Liddelow-Hunt said the extent of the poor mental health among the Indigenous, LGBTIQA+ youth was “shocking” but not unexpected, saying “Our findings confirm what our communities have known for a long time. But capturing these statistics through the survey was an important step.”

To view the ABC News article Walkern Katatdjin: Rainbow Knowledge survey shines spotlight on mental health issues faced by Indigenous LGBTIQA+ youth in full click here.

James Hill is a queer Ngarrindjeri man who took part in the survey. Photo: Daryna Zadvirna, ABC News.

Rural GPs on climate change front line

A heavy burden of responsibility for responding to climate-induced health impacts will likely fall to rural GPs, so our National Health and Climate Strategy should reflect this, says the Australian College of Rural and Remote Medicine (ACRRM). “Rural generalists are uniquely placed to lead the response to the burden of disease resulting from climate change, including mental illness, and to provide high quality care and keep people healthy and out of hospital,” ACRRM says in its response to the strategy.

Noting the intertwined health disparities of rural and Indigenous Australians, ACCRRM’s submission highlights the need to defer to Indigenous traditional knowledge of the environment and empower Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities to lead climate action planning. “Best practice principles to facilitate this will include place-based adaptation and mitigation strategies, leveraging valuable biocultural knowledge and sustainable resourcing, all as outlined in the recent Lowitja Institute discussion paper,” the college says.

ACRRM specifically calls out “one-size-fits-all” approaches outlined by the strategy and highlights the challenges, and higher costs, smaller practices will likely face in implementing the climate change strategies. “The Strategy must recognise that there will be different challenges for different communities, requiring purpose-built solutions. Strong partnerships and a multi-agency approach, which is flexible to adapt to the specific needs of rural and remote communities is required to address health inequity.”

You can access more information on the National Health and Climate Strategy on the Australian Government Department of Health and Aged Care website here.

To read the Medical Republic article Rural GPs on the Climate Change front line in full click here.

Aboriginal town camps Town camp housing typically lacks simple features to keep cool, such as insulation and wide awnings. Photo: Mike Bowers. Image source: The Guardian.

Students spend day in the life of a physio

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students from across SEQueensland have experienced a day in the life of a physiotherapist thanks to a new pilot program at Mater Hospital Brisbane. The school-based trainees from the Institute for Urban Indigenous Health (IUIH), Pathways Our Way Academy (POWA) were part of The High School Health Adventure program for First Nations students, run by Mater Education, in conjunction with Mater Physiotherapy.

The enthusiastic cohort learned how to strap an ankle injury, assist with movement and baby handling techniques and took part in simulation physiotherapy sessions in a make-shift Intensive Care Unit. Mater physiotherapist Felicity Prebble facilitated the program and said that, according to the Australian Physiotherapy Association, only 0.7% of physiotherapists are recognised as a First Nations person.

“Increasing the representation of this population in healthcare is vital to ensure we are delivering considered and specific healthcare,” Mrs Prebble said. “Research has shown that increasing the involvement of First Nations people within healthcare delivers positive outcomes, helping to close the gap and leading to increased cultural awareness, understanding and exposure.”

To view the Mater article First Nations students inspired to pursue career in healthcare in full click here.

group of 10+ students who took part in the 'day in the life of a physio' Mater program

School-based trainees from the IUIH, Pathways Our Way Academy were part of The High School Health Adventure program for First Nations students, run by Mater Education, in conjunction with Mater Physiotherapy. Image source: Mater News.

BRAMS funded to pilot Kids Club program

Broome Regional Aboriginal Medical Service (BRAMS) will receive more than $230,000 in Cook Government funding through Healthway to pilot the Kids Club program. The program will address health behaviours such as unhealthy eating, lack of physical activity and poor mental and oral health in young children aged 0–16 years and is set to benefit nearly 3,000 Aboriginal children and their families living in and around Broome.

Aboriginal people make up 43% of the Kimberley population with half under the age of 20 years. BRAMS, in conjunction with the community, identified a need for a community-based, early intervention and prevention program to address poor health and social outcomes for young people, which can lead to health issue.

The pilot project which aims to instil lifelong habits and promote the importance of regular health check-ups, vaccinations, and screenings will:

facilitate culturally appropriate relationship building, engagement, and education opportunities for local Aboriginal children on improving health and wellbeing;
develop a youth committee of young Aboriginal people who can support project co-design and provide guidance on health promoting strategies for Aboriginal youth;
develop a ‘Kids Club’ that will utilise birthday incentives, prizes, and culturally appropriate mascots to motivate Aboriginal children and their families to complete annual health checks and engage in healthy lifestyles;
deliver school holiday family activities that provide educational and participation opportunities; and
build capacity of families through educational sessions and appropriate activities during their annual health check.

To view the media statement Keeping Kimberley kids healthy now and into the future released earlier today by Hon. Amber-Jade Sanderson, WA Minister for Health and Mental Health in full click here.

Image source: UNICEF Australia website.

Study backs tax on sugar-sweetened beverages

New research showing more than 500,000 cavities could be prevented over 10 years if a sugar tax was introduced provides yet another reason for the federal government to introduce the AMA’s proposed sugar tax. The research from three Australian Universities has concluded a tax on sugar sweetened beverages would have a major positive impact on dental heath in Australia and save the country millions of dollars.

The Monash University-led collaboration with Deakin University and the University of Melbourne provides important new data for Australia. AMA President Professor Steve Robson said there is now more impetus for the government to adopt a sugar tax which both improves health outcomes and raises revenue. “We’ve known a lot about how high sugar consumption contributes to obesity and chronic disease, but oral health is often excluded from studies.

“This important research deepens our understanding of the impact of sugary drinks on dental health across a wide range of age groups in the Australian context. It’s further evidence a tax on sugary drinks is the right decision for Australia and puts to bed industry arguments there is insufficient evidence to support a sugar tax. We know the government is focusing on ways to prevent chronic disease in Australia and we continue to urge them to implement a sugar tax like more than 85 other jurisdictions across the world.

You can read the AMA’s media release Australian study backs AMA calls for a tax on sugar-sweetened beverages in full here.

Image source: The Conversation.

Sector Jobs

Sector Jobs – you can see sector job listings on the NACCHO website here.

Jul 24 2023

NACCHO Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Health News: Aboriginal-run health services kicking goals

Aboriginal-run health services kicking goals
Culturally-relevant wellbeing resources
Australia’s first wellbeing budget revealed
SEWB Gathering theme ‘Culture First’
Calls for more midwives, shortfall 1,300
Sector Jobs
Key Date – International Self-Care Day – 24 July 2023

The image in the feature tile is of Dr Josh Annand talking to Chronic Care Coordinator Di Spotswood at the Aboriginal Health Service (AHS) reception desk. Dr Anand says the AHS is more collaborative than private practice. The image appeared in the ABC News article Aboriginal-run doctors clinics are succeeding where many other GP services are failing published yesterday, 24 July 2023. Photo: Erin Cooper-Douglas, ABC News.

We also share a curated selection of news stories that are of likely interest to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health sector, broadly.

Aboriginal-run health services kicking goals

“How’s the bowls going, Smokey?” As he’s offered a cuppa, Michael “Smokey” Beeton tells his greeter he “just got beat” on the green on the weekend. You might think he’s at a community house or a friendly barbecue, but you’d be wrong — he’s at the doctors clinic. He’s been walking through these doors for 20 years, and while the staff have changed over that time, they all know Smokey. The 73-year-old has been treated for a range of issues from diabetes, to chronic back pain and even breast cancer.

He thinks many of these things would have gone untreated if it weren’t for the service. “I lived about half an hour out of town and I very rarely went to the doctor — very rarely,” he says. “But they’d come out to do my sugar checks and see if I needed anything, so it became a bit of a habit.” Smokey says it’s because he got to know everyone so well that he keeps coming back. “I used to go to the doctor and you’d be in there for 10 or 15 minutes, they’d give you a prescription, and you’d never hear from them again,” he says. “Here, it’s very special. You’re treated like family.”

This is the Aboriginal Health Service in Launceston, and while the service is norm for patients like Smokey, it’s worlds away from what many Australians experience when going to see a doctor. According to a recent review Challenges for Medicare and universal health care in Australia since 2000, available here, First Nations-run services are achieving better health outcomes for their patients than private general practice. Amid ever-present headlines about the GP crisis, much can be learnt from Aboriginal health services.

To view the ABC News story Aboriginal-run doctors clinics are succeeding where many other GP services are failing in full click here.

Launceston ACCHO patient Michael "Smokey" Beeton

Michael “Smokey” Beeton says visiting the health service feels like visiting his family. Photo: Erin Cooper-Douglas, ABC News.

Culturally-relevant wellbeing resources

For time poor health practitioners, social and emotional wellbeing can often take a back seat to treating physical ailments. But a more holistic approach can produce much better outcomes for Indigenous patients. In the most recent SBS BLA.C.K. Medicine podcast episode Dr Mikayla Couch chats with Uncle Dave and Angela from Wellmob, about the social and emotional wellbeing model of health care, and their mission to make the resources available to all.

The social and emotional wellbeing model emphasises the importance of a holistic approach to healthcare, especially for Indigenous patients. Along with looking after physical and mental health, it promotes measures that address social and emotional needs as well. Uncle Dave said “The social emotional wellbeing model gives a more holistic perspective, as opposed to maybe a non-Indigenous model where those connections to cultures, spirituality, community and kin may not make up such a strong part of someone’s wellbeing.”

But locating culturally-relevant and accessible resources that use this model can be hard. Angela Sheridan said “We found that all these deadly resources were tucked away in the deep dark corners of the internet… So the idea was conceived to host them all in one place and have a one-stop shop of Indigenous-specific online resources.” The Wellmob website, available here, was created to direct time-poor health practitioners to resources that can improve the wellbeing of Indigenous people and help them stay connected to culture; whether it’s a mindfulness app, a video on healing from trauma, or a collection of healthy recipes.

You can listen to the Making mob well: A new way to find culturally-relevant wellbeing resources SBS NITV podcast episode in full here.

banner SBS BLA.C.K. Medicine, text ' Making mob well: A new way to find culturally-relevant wellbeing resources - 16:14 minutes

Image source: SBS NITV Radio website.

Australia’s first wellbeing budget revealed

Australians live longer, are happier in their jobs and trust each other more than they did two decades ago. But more people are also battling chronic diseases, struggling to make ends meet and having bad experiences online. These are some of the findings of the first national wellbeing framework, released by Treasurer Jim Chalmers last Friday 21 July 2023.

So why is the government measuring wellbeing, what does it have to do with the economy, and will this actually mean anything for you? Chalmers first floated the idea of a “wellbeing budget” in 2020 when the Coalition was in power. Wellbeing is a combination of physical, social, economic and emotional factors, and overall quality of life.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), focusing on wellbeing supports the tracking of the equitable distribution of resources, overall thriving and sustainability. Measuring What Matters, Australia’s first national wellbeing framework, uses 50 indicators to track how healthy, secure, sustainable, cohesive and prosperous Australia is. The framework also includes an overall life satisfaction indicator.

To view the SBS News article Australia’s first wellbeing budget has been revealed. What does it mean for you? in full click here.

3 ATSI women in park with arms around each other, smiling

Photo: Bobbi Lockyer / Refinery29 Australia – Getty. Image source: SBS News.

SEWB Gathering’s theme ‘Culture First’

The fourth Social Emotional Wellbeing (SEWB) Gathering is around the corner. It is being held from Monday 31 July to Wednesday 2 August in Darwin. Over three days delegates from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peak bodies, community organisations, leaders, experts across Australia will come together to discuss social and emotional wellbeing topics.

The theme for this year’s SEWB Gathering is ‘Culture First’ with a focus on implementing this idea in the workforce, systems, and services.

Like previous SEWB Gatherings there is likely to be many enriching discussions and transformative insights.

Calls for more midwives, shortfall of1,300

Gabby Petersen is a second-year midwifery student and First Nations woman with Aboriginal, Torres Strait and Samoan heritage. “I’m the eldest of three girls, I have two younger sisters and I think my mum has a little bit of birth trauma, and that inspires me to be that midwife to make sure people have safe experiences,” she said. Ms Petersen said there needed to be changes in the industry to accommodate the different needs of First Nations people. “They’re at this really important, really special moment in their lives and they’re shoved into a hospital room that doesn’t look like home, with white lights and unknown linen and it can be so disorientating,” she said.

Ms Petersen said having more First Nations midwives in the industry could see cultural safety improved. “Having that First Nations background, you have a perspective on cultural safety that some people just don’t and that’s not their fault, you just have that extra consideration for what would make them feel safe because that’s what would make you feel safe,” she said.

There are currently 305 registered First Nations midwives in Australia — making up only 1.3 per cent of the workforce. “So, to reach population parity, we’d need 650 midwives. But if you factor in our higher fertility rate, plus the disparity we see in health outcomes, we’ve estimated that we’d need around 1,300 more,” PhD student and First Nations registered midwife Karel Williams said.

To view the ABC News article Calls for more Indigenous midwives as experts estimate national shortfall to be 1,300 in full click here.

First Nations student Gabby Petersen is in her second year of midwifery studies in Canberra. Photo: Donal Sheil, ABC News.

Sector Jobs

Sector Jobs – you can see sector job listings on the NACCHO website here.

Key Date International Self-Care Day – 24 July 2023

24 June marks the start of Self-Care Month, which ends with Self-Care Day on 24 July. This symbolic day was chosen because self-care can be practiced “24 hours a day/7 days a week”. During the month, people around the world will be celebrating self-care practices and interventions and the difference they can make to everyone’s lives.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) defines self-care as individuals, families and communities’ promoting and maintaining their own health, preventing disease, and coping with illness and disability, with or without the support of a health worker. Self-care interventions are the evidence-based tools that support self-care. They include medicines, counselling, diagnostic kits, and digital technologies. Now is an exciting time with more and more tools being developed. Self-care is about empowering people to be active agents in their own healthcare. Doing so not only puts people at the centre of their own healthcare, but also relieves pressures on health systems.

Self-care interventions give people choice and the option to access healthcare wherever and whenever they want to. Self-care interventions do not replace health systems, they enhance them. They are part of a holistic approach to healthcare which improves Primary Health Care and contributes to Universal Health Coverage. You can find more information about Self-care month on the WHO website here.

You can access a Self-care Toolkit – A healthy happy mob, means a well done job produced by the Aboriginal Health and Medical Research Council of NSW (AH&MRC) here; an Australian Indigenous HealthInfoNet webpage Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Professions – Taking care of yourself here; and a VACCHO produced video Self-care for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Workers below.

Jul 10 2023

NACCHO Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Health News: Environmental Trachoma Health Project helps WA mob

Environmental Trachoma Health Project helps WA mob
Meta to crack down on VTP misinformation
BlaQ CEO on the Voice to Parliament
Health Performance Framework summary report
Best reform for child wellbeing: raising criminal age
Sector Jobs
Key Date – National Diabetes Week 9–15 July 2023

The image in the feature tile is of an Irrungadji resident who is very happy with the new mullet hairstyle given to him by Mrs DeBonde. Photo: Amelia Searson, ABC Pilbara. Image source: ABC News article Environmental Health Trachoma Project helping remote WA communities with health, haircuts and housing published on 9 July 2023.

We also share a curated selection of news stories that are of likely interest to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health sector, broadly.

Environmental Trachoma Project helps WA mob

Tyron Colley usually has to travel hundreds of kilometres to get something as basic as a haircut. He lives in the small Aboriginal community of Irrungadji, in WA’s Pilbara region, where the nearest town with a hairdresser is almost 200 kms away. The lack of accessible basic services in remote Australia extends beyond haircuts to more serious issues, with communities like Irrungadji also facing significant housing and health challenges.

Environmental Health Trachoma Project (EHTP) lead Melissa Stoneham said poor hygiene combined with living conditions and overcrowding can lead to bacterial infections like trachoma – an eye disease that can cause blindness. Australia is the only developed country to still have endemic trachoma, and almost all cases are found in remote Aboriginal communities. In an effort to stop the spread, EHTP is working with the state government, Curtin University and other advocacy groups to take health and housing programs to remote WA communities. The team recently visited Irrungadji to assess its housing situation. Dr Stoneham said a major focus for the team was on plumbing and “anything that helps these people living in their homes with the ability to wash their face, hands, body and clothes”.

Dr Stoneham said health should be approached as a “holistic concept”, with mental and physical wellbeing going hand-in-hand. She said when heading out to remote communities, it was important to provide culturally respectful services that helped people feel taken care of. “We have free haircuts, we have de-licing of hair, we have free clothes that we are giving out,” she said. “Interactions have been great, you know, they’ve been getting a new outfit, a new haircut, they’re feeling fresh and good about themselves.”

To read the ABC News story Environmental Health Trachoma Project helping remote WA communities with health, haircuts and housing in full click here.

Dr Melissa Stoneham - Environmental Health Trachoma Project

r Melissa Stoneham says health should be seen as a “holistic” concept. Photo: Amelia Searson, ABC Pilbara. Image source: ABC News.

Meta to crack down on VTP misinformation

Facebook and Instagram want to be “contributing to democracy” and not exacerbating harms surrounding the Indigenous voice referendum, the company’s Australian policy head has said, as the social media giant beefs up protections on misinformation, abuse and mental health before the national vote. Meta, the parent company of the two apps, has announced it will boost funding to factcheckers monitoring misinformation, activate global teams to locate and respond to potential “threats” to the referendum – including coordinated inauthentic behaviour – and form a partnership with ReachOut for mental health support to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

“We are also coordinating with the government’s election integrity assurance taskforce and security agencies in the lead-up to the referendum,” said Mia Garlick, Meta’s director of public policy for Australia. “We’ve also improved our AI so that we can more effectively detect and block fake accounts, which are often behind this activity. “Meta has been preparing for this year’s voice to parliament referendum for a long time, leaning into expertise from previous elections.”

Meta will tap Australian knowledge to respond to abuse and hate speech. “We have hate speech advisory groups and First Nations advisory groups giving insight and advice on issues they see on the ground,” Ms Garlick said. “Building off our experience with the marriage equality postal survey and elections, unfortunately when a particular group is the focus of debate, vulnerable groups can feel more vulnerable.”

To view The Guardian article Meta vows to crack down on abuse and misinformation surrounding voice to parliament referendum in full click here.

Groups behind the no campaign against the referendum have already had online posts and ads flagged as ‘false information’ by factcheckers. Photo: NurPhoto/Shutterstock. Image source: The Guardian.

BlaQ CEO on the Voice to Parliament

Shane Sturgiss has been the CEO of BlaQ Aboriginal Corporation, a national organisation founded to provide visibility to Queer Indigenous peoples and communities, for 18 months. Asked about what inspires him the most about his role, he said, “I think the idea of seeing people’s lives change, knowing that there’s a better tomorrow, knowing that the work that I’m doing will have an impact– will make a difference.”

According to Sturgiss, the aim of BlaQ Aboriginal Corporation is to “bring visibility and provide a platform to address the intersectionality of our LGBTIQ+SB Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community in order to provide a service where they can identify as their whole authentic self when accessing services.” He added, “To bring a level of comfort, provide safe spaces, and hopefully educate people on how to address intersectionality for our people and provide those safe spaces to create safer communities.”

The biggest challenges facing Queer Indigenous people are disparities in health and education as well as “the lack of awareness and acknowledgement of intersectionality and the idea that we are a homogenous group,” he explained. When it comes to the upcoming Indigenous Voice to Parliament referendum, Sturgiss stressed the point that, for Queer Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, this will be the “second time in six years that they’ve invited the entire nation to vote on their rights as humans, and as people, and as citizens. Regardless of where your vote lies. This is still something that needs to be done with respect and dignity because it does involve people’s lives and the negative fallout from that can be a loss of life.”

To view the Star Observer article Shane Sturgiss, CEO of BlaQ Aboriginal Corporation, On The Indigenous Voice to Parliament in full click here.

Image source: Star Observer.

Health Performance Framework summary report

The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Performance Framework summary report summarises the latest information on how Indigenous Australians are faring, drawing from the Health Performance Framework (HPF) measures.

In 2018, the burden of disease among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people was 2.3 times that of non-Indigenous Australians. Among Indigenous Australians, mental and substance use disorders were the leading contributor to disease burden (24%). Measures of health status, determinants of health, and health system performance drawn from the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Performance Framework (HPF) show mixed results. It is important to note that measures in the 3 tiers are interconnected, and understanding the reasons for progress (or lack thereof) in the health status and outcomes of Indigenous Australians may often be best understood by examining relevant measures in determinants of health and health system performance.

Analysis by the AIHW of ABS survey data indicates that about 34% of the total health gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians is due to social determinants, and 19% due to individual health risk factors (e.g. smoking). It is likely that differences in access to affordable and nearby health services explain a significant proportion of the health gap between the Indigenous and non-Indigenous populations. In many cases, Indigenous Australians have poorer access to health services than non-Indigenous Australians, for a range of reasons including barriers such as availability, cost and a lack of culturally appropriate health services. For Indigenous Australians to have better health outcomes, improvements in the health system are required.

To view the AIHW’s Torres Strait Islander Health Performance Framework Summary report July 2023 in full click here.

Best reform for child wellbeing: raising criminal age

The Australian Medical Association (AMA) President Professor Steve Robson said child incarceration in Australia is a national problem that requires a nationally consistent response. In a submission to an Australian Human Rights Commission investigation into possible reforms to youth justice the AMA has called on Australia’s Attorney-General, Mark Dreyfus, to show leadership by encouraging state and territory attorneys-general to raise the age of criminal responsibility from 10 to 14.

Professor Robson said “The medical evidence is clear, jailing harms children mentally and impairs their physical development and the younger the child is at first contact with the legal system, the higher the rate of recidivism. We cannot accept a stepped approach of raising the age to 12 — let’s remember that children this age are still in primary school — 14 is the absolute minimum age that we should set criminal responsibility. Countries comparable to Australia don’t lock their children up. We really should be ashamed to know that right now there will be around 4,500 children as young as 10 under youth justice supervision in Australia. 10-year-olds are in year four and year five at school, they still have baby teeth, some still need booster seats in the car and at school they have to earn a pen license. They should not be in jail, no matter where they live in Australia or whatever their personal circumstances may be.”

The AMA’s submission also highlights the disproportionate number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children in detention, making up almost half of all the 10–17 years olds in detention (despite making up only 6% of the population in this age group).

To view the AMA media release Best reform for youth justice and child wellbeing is raising the criminal age across Australia in full click here.

tile text '10 year olds are children, not criminals.' drawing of child in jail cell with head & arms on knees

Image source: UNICEF Australia Tweet 30 November 2017.

Sector Jobs

Sector Jobs – you can see sector job listings on the NACCHO website here.

Key Date – National Diabetes Week – 9–15 July 2023

National Diabetes Week runs from Sunday 9 to Friday 15 July 2023. Diabetes Australia want a future where diabetes can do no harm, but say that to achieve this ambition we must act now to change the trajectory of diabetes in Australia and better support people living with or at risk of diabetes.

The Australian Government recently announced an Inquiry into Diabetes in Australia. It is time to amplify the voice of the diabetes community to ensure this Inquiry focusses on the priorities that will change the numbers, change the future, and change lives.

This National Diabetes Week Diabetes Australia are kick-starting Australia’s biggest conversation about the impact of diabetes in this country – a conversation to drive change, and to create hope for the future. No one understands diabetes more than a person who lives with diabetes. Driving change starts with hearing the views and amplifying the voices of the diabetes community.

For more information about National Diabetes Week 2023 click here.

tile text ' National Diabetes Week 2023 - Join the Conversation - Diabetes Australia'

May 9 2023

NACCHO Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Health News: Tues 9.5.23

Gathering has a “necessary First Nations gender lens”
Supporting access to medicines webinar this THURSDAY
Review of funding for mental health services
An Australia without the RFDS is unthinkable
WA prisons mental health emergency
VACCHO backs state’s drug reforms
Sector Jobs

The image in the feature tile is from the Australian Human Rights Commission website Wiyi Yani U Thangani National Summit. We are the change. 9–11 May 2023 webpage.

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.

Gathering has a “necessary First Nations gender lens”

First Nations women have the right to move beyond “holding society together, healing, reducing harms and violence, and guaranteeing cohesion and healthy environments for everyone” and be free to imagine “gender justice”, the social justice commissioner June Oscar says. More than 900 First Nations women are meeting in Canberra this week, the first national gathering of its kind, to bring “a necessary First Nations gender lens” to everything from housing to education, healing and economic development. “There has never been a national action plan or approach to realising the rights of First Nations women and girls,” the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander social justice commissioner Oscar said.

For the past five years, Oscar, a Bunuba woman from the Kimberley, has been developing the Wiyi Yani U Thangani (women’s voices) program. Oscar has consulted more than 2,000 Indigenous women across the nation to identify their greatest needs and aspirations. The Wiyi Yani U Thangani report found that Indigenous women are managing the social health and wellbeing of First Nations communities largely through unpaid and unrecognised work at home, in communities and on country. Without adequate formalised support in place, women are caring for children, elders and those with disabilities, often in overcrowded housing. They are delivering frontline crisis services, supporting family to navigate courts and child protection, as well as maintaining culture.

Oscar says the conference will help design the establishment of the First Nations Gender Justice Institute, based at the Australian National University, to make sure women and girls have a say on the policies and systems that govern their lives and the lives of those they are supporting. “Our vision for the First Nations Gender Justice Institute is that it should be a dedicated independent space for women and girls to talk about issues that affect them and their communities … such as leadership and self-determination, such as women’s knowledges in culture, language, country and water rights, lifting women and their families out of poverty,” Oscar says.

To view The Guardian article National gathering of First Nations women aims to bring ‘gender justice’ to Indigenous issues in full click here. You can watch a livestream of the Wiyi Yani U Thangani National Summit below.

Supporting access to medicines webinar this THURSDAY

All ACCHO sector staff are invited to participate in a free webinar hosted by NACCHO and the Department of Health and Aged Care’s Office of Health Technology Assessment.

Topics include:

How do communities get access to medicines, medical products and services?
Medicines and the Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee (PBAC): How does it work?
Medical products and services and the Medical Services Advisory Committee (MSAC): How does it work?
NACCHO’s consultation and advocacy activities in Health Technology Assessment
How can ACCHOs get more involved in Health Technology Assessment?

Panel members include NACCHO representatives and experts from PBS and MBS committees.

The webinar ‘Have your say on HTA – Getting involved with the funding of medicines and medical services’ was first held on Thursday 4 May.

If you missed it, you can register here for the second webinar being held this:

Thursday 11 May: 12.30pm-1.45pm (AEST)

If you have any questions, please contact Mike Stephens via email here.

Review of funding for mental health services

The Department of Health and Aged Care currently funds mental health and suicide prevention services commissioned through Primary Health Networks (PHNs) and the Integrated Team Care (ITC) program which supports Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who live with complex chronic conditions and is also commissioned through PHNs.

Ninti One and First Nations Co are undertaking a review of sector funding arrangements a service capability for both programs and the purpose of this review is to explore how the government can best align with the National Agreement on Closing the Gap in the delivery of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander mental health and suicide prevention services and the ITC program.

Ninti One and First Nations Co are seeking to learn more from you about your perspectives on current and future commissioning arrangements for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Mental Health and Suicide Prevention Services and the ITC program via a survey response or submission. Your insights will contribute to evidence to inform the review. The survey consists of both multiple choice and free-text and may take approximately 20 minutes to complete, depending on how much information you wish to provide.

You can find out more about the review here and access the survey here.

The survey will remain open until COB Friday 19 May 2023.

An Australia without the RFDS is unthinkable

One of Australia’s most iconic organisations is the Royal Flying Doctor Service (RFDS). The RFDS was founded by Reverend John Flynn in Queensland in 1928 and since then it has been an integral part of the landscape – and skies. Reverend Flynn recognised that vast distances and poor communications created intolerable difficulties for the sick or injured in the regions. Almost 100 years on, and even with exponential advances in technology during that time, the RFDS continues to serve a unique purpose – the ability to bring medical care to the most remote parts of Australia, by integrating an airline with intensive care medical services.

Growth in the primary health areas of the organisation means the RFDS helps fill the gap of providing basic GP and dental clinics in locations where it is challenging – or almost impossible – to attract medical professionals to live permanently. In 2022, RFDS facilitated a total of 606 GP and nursing clinics and 151 dental clinics in remote WA. This provided accessible primary care to 8,427 patients who may have otherwise found it challenging to access health services, simply because of where they choose to live.

The RFDS is part of Australia’s broad national health system, and works closely with governments, industry, Aboriginal medical services, primary health networks, local hospital districts, GPs and rural and remote communities.

To view the Business News article An Australia without the Royal Flying Doctor Service is unthinkable – let’s keep it flying high click here.

RFDS dental assistant & dentist, ATSI patient & patient's mother

L-R: RFDS dental assistant Wendy Andrews, dentist Vincenzo Figliomeri, Sonya Williams (standing) and patient Chervina Wongawol. Image source: Business News.

WA prisons mental health emergency

Content warning: This article contains reference to suicide. Please refer to the services at the bottom of this article for support.

A series of suicides in WA’s Serco-operated Acacia Prison will be highlighted by human rights lawyers and a bereaved family this week as the WA Coroner examines the death of nineteen-year-old Noongar and Wirlomin man, Stanley Inman Jnr. On 11 July 2020 Mr Inman was found in a critical condition in a prison storeroom and he died in hospital two days later.

His sister has said she attempted to speak to an Aboriginal Liaison Officer about her concerns regarding her brother’s mental health just days before his deaths. In a statement, Mr Inman’s family said on Monday: “We as a family have stood alongside those other families also affected by this great epidemic and injustice against Indigenous men, women, youth, and children of this country. We simply just don’t understand how to others he has just become a statistic.”

National Justice Project chief executive and Principal Solicitor, George Newhouse, has called on the WA Minister for Corrective Services, Bill Johnston, to take urgent action to address the “mental health emergency” unfolding in WA prisons. “How many more suicides will it take before the WA government acts? We need Aboriginal Medical Services available in prisons to provide the culturally safe care that WA prisons are incapable of delivering,” he said.

To view the National Indigenous Times article WA prisons mental health emergency under the microscope at inquest into death of Aboriginal teenager in full click here.

black and white blurred image of person behind bars

Image source: ABC News.

If this article brought up anything for you or someone you love, please reach out to, call or visit the online resources listed below for support:

13YARN – 13 92 76, 13yarn.org.au

Lifeline – 13 11 14, lifeline.org.au

Beyond Blue – 1300 224 636, beyondblue.org.au/forums

MensLine – 1300 789 978

Kids Helpline – 1800 551 800

Suicide Call Back Service – 1300 659 467

VACCHO backs state’s drug reforms

The Victorian Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation (VACCHO) welcomed the passage of the Drugs, Poisons and Controlled Substances Amendment (Medically Supervised Injecting Centre) Bill 2023 last Thursday night. The new law will make the North Richmond Safe Injection Room facility permanent and widen eligibility criteria to provide “vital lifesaving healthcare to vulnerable members of the community”, VACCHO said.

The proposed amendments to the Bill are based on recommendations of an independent review of the facility by renowned public health researcher John Ryan. The Fatal overdose among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people Victoria 2018–2021 report states a majority of the fatal overdoses amongst Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people were unintentional. VACCHO Executive Director of Social and Emotional Wellbeing, Sheree Lowe, said this year’s Coroners Court of Victoria report demonstrated that Aboriginal families in Victoria “continue to be severely impacted by addiction”.

“The North Richmond initiative is one important part of a multifaceted services system to help manage the complex forms of trauma that lead to addiction. This service along with holistic supports are required to provide important life-saving support to community,” Ms Lowe said. VACCHO noted in a statement on Friday that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people experience fatal overdoses at a rate more than three times higher than non-Indigenous people. “In 2023, the significant disparity between Aboriginal and non-Indigenous people should not exist,” the organisation said.

To view the National Indigenous Times article Victorian Aboriginal health peak body backs state’s drug reforms in full click here.

VACCHO HQ Melbourne. Image source: VACCHO 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.

May 2 2023

NACCHO Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Health News: CAAC to deliver Urgent Care Clinic in Alice Springs

CAAC to deliver Urgent Care Clinic in Alice Springs
Reform leads to increased PHC utilisation
Human Experience Week about love, belonging and healing
Effects of Mental Health First Aid training for mob
Health service delays driving families apart
Health Minister to ban disposable vapes
Sector Jobs

The image in the feature tile is of a medical examination being undertaken at a Central Australian Aboriginal Congress (CAAC) health service. Image source: CAAC website.

We also share a curated selection of news stories that are of likely interest to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health sector, broadly.

CAAC to deliver Urgent Care Clinic in Alice Springs

The Commonwealth and NT Governments will establish two new Medicare Urgent Care Clinics (UCCs) in Palmerston and Alice Springs. The NT Government is in advanced stages of negotiations with the Palmerston GP Super Clinic to deliver the Urgent Care Clinic in Darwin and with Central Australian Aboriginal Congress (CAAC) to deliver the Urgent Care Clinic in Alice Springs.

These UCCs will provide bulk billed treatment for urgent but non-life-threatening emergencies. They will be open extended hours, seven days a week. The UCCs will reduce demand pressures on the Territory’s public hospitals and planning is underway in partnership with local primary health providers.

The UCCs will:

Improve access to urgent care in non-hospital settings, particularly for vulnerable groups including people with a disability, First Nations people and people from culturally and linguistically diverse communities.
Reduce the pressure on emergency department presentations in partner hospitals by providing patients with short term, episodic care for urgent conditions that are not immediately life-threatening.
Support integration with existing local health services and complement general practice.

These clinics will be up and running providing urgent care to the local communities by the middle of the year. Category 4 and 5 presentations, non-life-threatening emergencies, make up just over 40% of the total presentations to hospitals in the NT. Medicare UCCs will help make care closer to home possible.

To read the Prime Minister, Chief Minister of the NT and the Minister for Health and Aged Care’s joint media release Medicare urgent care clinics and new cancer treatment for the NT in full click here.

PM Albanese announcing Medicare UCCs in Darwin & Alice Springs

Mr Albanese in Darwin yesterday making the announcement about the new Medicare UCCs. Photo: Matt Garrick, ABC News.

Reform leads to increased PHC utilisation

Globally, Indigenous populations experience poorer health but use less primary healthcare than their non-Indigenous counterparts. In 2010, the Australian government introduced a targeted reform aimed at reducing these disparities. The reform reduced, or abolished prescription medicine co-payments and provided financial incentives for GPs to better manage chronic disease care for Indigenous peoples.

A study has been undertaken to investigate how the reform affected these health disparities in primary and specialist healthcare utilisation using longitudinal administrative data from 75,826 Australians, including 1,896 Indigenous peoples, with cardiovascular disease. The differences-in-differences estimates indicate that the reform increased primary healthcare use among Indigenous peoples, including 12.9% more prescription medicines, 6.6% more GP services, and 34% more chronic disease services, but also reduced specialist attendances by 11.8%. Increases in primary care were larger for those who received the largest co-payment relief and lived in metropolitan regions, whereas the reduction in specialist attendances was concentrated among lower income Indigenous patients.

The study concluded that affirmative action can reduce disparities in healthcare utilisation however careful policy design, and ongoing evidence generation, is required to ensure that reform benefits are equitable, target populations of need, and do not lead to substitution away from valuable, or necessary, care.

To view the research article Does affirmative action reduce disparities in healthcare use by Indigenous peoples? Evidence from Australia’s Indigenous Practice Incentives Program in full click here.

ATSI man having a finger prick test in a health clinic

Image source: Choose Your Own Health Career website.

Human Experience Week about love, belonging and healing

Love, belonging and healing are the cornerstones of this year’s NSW Health Human Experience Week (1–7 May); a week co-designed by NSW Health staff and consumers that promises to immerse attendees in new ideas, innovation, with best practice reinforced and new information introduced. At Westmead Hospital yesterday Darug Nation Local Aboriginal woman, Erin Wilkins, opened the event with a Welcome to Country that reflected on the sensitivities and protocols required to cater to the needs of patients and staff from different cultural backgrounds to improve human experience and inclusion for all.

Western Sydney Local Health District (WSLHD) chief executive, Graeme Loy, conveyed his appreciation for the district to be hosting such a critical NSW Health event and the scope of partnerships that makes up human experience which includes consumers, clinicians, carers, their family members, and staff. Mr Loy said “This morning’s session is underpinned by the impact of healthcare on the Stolen Generation and multiculturalism, which is very important to us in western Sydney, as we have the largest First Nations population in the state.”

WSLHD Aboriginal Health Strategy acting district director, Belinda Cashman, said “At WSLHD, we’re currently hearing what Aboriginal people have to say in our communities; we’re looking at a new maternity model of care; creating advisory communities, holding staff network meetings and engaging in a variety of other programs that we offer to work together to close the gap.”

To view The Pulse article All of Us: The Power of Community – Human Experience Week 2023 kicks off at Westmead Hospital – PART 1 in full click here.

Effects of Mental Health First Aid training for mob

Non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) is a complex issue affecting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in Australia. Researchers have evaluated the effects of an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Mental Health First Aid (AMHFA) training course on assisting an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander person engaging in NSSI, including the effects on stigmatising attitudes, confidence in ability to assist, and intended and actual assisting actions.

Improvements were observed in stigmatising attitudes, with significant changes observed. Participants’ confidence in ability to assist also increased significantly both postcourse and at follow-up. 82.7% of participants who identified as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander rated the course content as very culturally appropriate.

The results of the trial were encouraging, suggesting that over 5 hours of the Talking About Non-Suicidal Self-Injury course was able to improve participants’ attitudes, confidence and intended assisting behaviours, including among those with prior experience and training. Assisting actions recommended during the training were implemented by several participants in the 6 months since participating in the training course, demonstrating immediate benefits for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities.

To view the research article Effects of an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Mental Health First Aid training programme for non-suicidal self-injury on stigmatising attitudes, confidence in ability to assist, and intended and actual assisting actions: an uncontrolled trial with precourse and postcourse measurement and 6-month follow-up published in BMJ Open in full click here.

5 women from Yoorana Gunya Family Healing Centre undertaking ATSI Mental Health First Aid Training

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Mental Health First Aid Training at Yoorana Gunya Family Healing Centre (YGFHC). Image source: YGFHC website.

Health service delays driving families apart

Indigenous parents struggling with substance abuse are being permanently separated from their children due to delays in Victoria’s public health system, a truth-telling inquiry has heard. Under state law, parents battling problems such as addiction are given up to two years to get the help they need before their children can be permanently placed in out-of-home care.

But it often takes longer to access public mental health, drug and alcohol services, putting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander parents at risk of losing their children, the Yoorrook Justice Commission heard. “The current alcohol and other drug service system is under very significant strain at the moment,” Katherine Whetton, deputy secretary, mental health and wellbeing at the Department of Health told the commission yesterday. “I believe there are waiting lists for those services … I would say that there would be people that have trouble getting the care and treatment they need.”

To view the Health Times article Health service delays hit Indigenous parents in full click here.

Brett Moran, a counsellor at Marrin Weejali, sitting on set of his house with wife, Kristy, and 3 children, Shania-Rose, Maddison-Lee and Ivy-Grace

Brett Moran, a counsellor at Marrin Weejali (Sydney’s only Aboriginal-run drug and alcohol counselling centre), with his wife and three daughters. Moran now runs the same groups at the centre he once joined as a client. Photo: Carly Earl, The Guardian.

Health Minister to ban disposable vapes

Disposable vapes used by more than a million Australians will be banned under a major crackdown on vaping that aims to rid convenience store shelves of thousands of products, but the federal government will make it easier for people to vape with a doctor’s prescription. Health Minister Mark Butler laid out the government’s ambitious plans to eliminate a rampant vaping black market in a National Press Club speech today amid concerns that a new generation of young people have become addicted to nicotine.

Nicotine vapes are already illegal without a doctor’s prescription but legal loopholes and weak enforcement at the border and in shops have allowed sales to flourish under the counter as well as online. One in six teenagers between 14 and 17 have vaped and a quarter of 18 to 24–year-olds have vaped, according to a recent study published in the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health, while Butler has previously said there were as many as 2 million vapers in Australia.

Australia will achieve a world first if it successfully winds back the black market – which sources most of its products from China – and limits vaping to people with a doctor’s prescription.

To view the WAtoday article ‘This must end’: Butler to ban disposable vapes as part of black market crackdown in full click here and Minister Butler’s media release Taking Action on Smoking and vaping in full here.

young woman, arms crossed, holding a vape, face obscured by smoke

Image: Getty Creative. Image source: Forbes Health.

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