Category NACCHO AGM Members Conference

30 October 2023

Feature tile: image of Walter McGuire giving Welcome to Country; text 'NACCHO Members' Conference 2023 lives up to theme: Working Together, we are Stronger'

The image in the feature tile is of Walter McGuire giving the Welcome to Country on Day 1 of the 2023 NACCHO Members’ Conference. Walter McGuire is a descendent of several tribal groups in the SW of WA and a Traditional Owner of Noongar Boodjar which includes the Whadjuk lands on which Perth City stands.

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.

It’s a wrap – 2023 NACCHO Members’ Conference

A record-breaking year, the 2023 NACCHO Members’ Conference saw more than 800 delegates come together on Noongar Boodjar (Perth). Surrounding the theme Working Together, we are Stronger, the conference did just that – with feedback from delegates reporting the collaborative nature of the conference was invaluable. Members and affiliates attended numerous sessions on topics spanning from cancer screening to syphilis outbreak response in ACCHOs, prison health care, and many more. The sessions saw the sector celebrate successes, provide advice and guidance, and advocate for community-developed health solutions that contribute to the quality of life and improved health outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

In her address to the conference, NACCHO Chair Donnella Mills touched on the referendum result and the role of the sector moving forward, “If anyone can lead us out of a crisis, a crisis of division, it is this sector. In the context of our disappointment in the wake of the 14 October result, we now, more than ever, need to build a stronger NACCHO and get a stronger commitment from the nine governments to the Coalition of Peaks National Agreement on Closing the Gap,” she said.

Breaking out in song and even a booty boogie, Health and Aged Care Minister Mark Butler performed his rendition of Burning Love, available here, by Elvis Presley on karaoke night. However, when addressing the conference the minister opted for a more serious tone, praising the leadership that NACCHO and ACCHOs around the country played in rallying the health sector behind the Yes vote.

“The theme of this conference is timely: ‘Working Together, we are Stronger,’” he said. “Working together, we are stronger. Because if ever there was a time to come together, to work together, to be stronger together, it is right now.”

The NACCHO Youth Conference saw more than 80 young people from across the country yarn about youth leadership, their place in the community-controlled health sector, and their unique position of being able to learn from Elders and determine what the future looks like. AHCWA Youth Committee member, Soleil White said her main takeaway from the Youth Conference was “just the whole room, you’re bringing youth from all around the country together and that’s really powerful, and it just empowers me to go home and to keep fighting the battles and to keep moving ahead so that we can have a voice for our youth and that we can have better outcomes for our First Nations people.”

A sincere thank you from NACCHO to all who attended and contributed to making it a deadly week.

NACCHO 2023 Members' Conference Smoking Ceremony

2023 NACCHO Members’ Conference Day 1.

Helping mob live healthy and prevent cancer

The Cancer Institute NSW has released a new Helping Mob Live Healthy and Prevent Cancer toolkit – a free online resource that provides culturally tailored, strengths-based information on cancer screening and prevention for the Aboriginal health workforce.

The toolkit features:

  • cancer screening information – breast, cervical and bowel cancer screening + tips on testing for other cancers
  • cancer prevention tips about healthy living and being smoke- and vape-free
  • social and emotional wellbeing information and links to trusted resources and support services
  • downloadable resources which can be used to support yarns with your clients about the benefits of taking part in cancer screening and healthy living. They include tailored checklists for men’s and women’s business and templates to support local promotion of screening and prevention programs
  • a resource directory featuring links to a range of tailored cancer screening and healthy living resources from trusted Australian health and cancer organisations.

All resources have been developed in consultation with Aboriginal health organisations, workers and community members.

Please explore the toolkit here and help spread the word by sharing it with your networks.

For more information, please contact the Cancer Institute NSW using this email link.

You can also view the NSW Government Cancer Institute webpage NSW Promote this toolkit with your networks here.

NSW Government Cancer Institute NSW tile text 'New online toolkit for the Aboriginal health workforce' with image of relevant webpage to toolkit resources

Image source: social media tile from NSW Government Cancer Institute NSW webpage: Promote this toolkit with your networks.

“Our work continues as it has always done”

Less than 14 days after the resounding rejection of the Voice, Indigenous leaders and thinkers are already in talks with each other and with the government in order to find a new path for better outcomes and social justice. In response to the referendum result, and after a week of silence, a 12-point open letter, drafted by up to 85 Indigenous leaders from various fields, was sent to the PM and every member of the House of Representatives and the Senate. In stark contrast to the Uluru Statement from the Heart, the letter was no humble offering on a united way forward.

The letter offered no pragmatic resolution or new beginning. Instead, it gave an early, detailed synopsis of what had just happened and why. It acknowledged the shock and grief at the result and the rejection both of First Nations people and their good-faith attempts at reconciliation. “The truth is that the majority of Australians have committed a shameful act whether knowingly or not,” the letter reads, “and there is nothing positive to be interpreted from it. We needed truth to be told to the Australian people.”

The letter continued, “We want to talk with our people and our supporters about establishing – independent of the Constitution or legislation – an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice to take up the cause of justice for our people. Rejection of constitutional recognition will not deter us from speaking up to governments, parliaments and to the Australian people. We have an agenda for justice in pursuit of our First Nations rights that sorely need a Voice – we will continue to follow our law and our ways, as our Elders and Ancestors have done. We will regather in due course and develop a plan for our future direction. While this moment will be etched into Australia’s history forever, today we think of our children, and our children’s children. Our work continues as it has always done. We will continue to fight to seek justice for our peoples.”

To view The Saturday Paper article The ‘Yes’ case responds: ‘It’s a white flag from Labor’ by Yorta Yorta man and award-winning writer and broadcaster Daniel James in full click here.

stacks of Indigenous VTP ballot papers

Australia has voted against enshrining an Indigenous Voice to Parliament, with the results being called early. Photo: Con Chronis, AAP. Image source: NITV.

Dedication, empathy and leadership

In a ceremony that took place on Gadigal Land last week, inspirational GPs received awards from Dr Karen Nicholls, Chair of the RACGP Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Faculty, and RACGP President Dr Nicole Higgins.

Duel winners of the Standing Strong Together Award were:

  • Dr Kali Hayward – Dr Nicholls paid tribute to Warnman woman Dr Hayward, describing her as ‘an outstanding mentor’, and a ‘shining example of dedication, empathy and leadership, both regionally and nationally’ whose ‘unwavering commitment’ to quality healthcare and raising awareness of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture has led to ‘more respectful, inclusive healthcare services’ as well as improved patient satisfaction and outcomes.
  • Dr Mark Daley – Dr Nicholls described Dr Daley, a GP at the First People’s Health and Wellbeing clinic in NSW, as “passionate and committed to providing the highest quality of culturally safe, trauma-informed care to his patients, many of whom have some of the toughest and most complex health, social and emotional wellbeing issues as a result of colonisation, and the impacts of intergenerational trauma, dispossession and discrimination.”

The Growing Strong Award, which goes to a GP in training, went to Dr Patrick McNamara, who is one of only two Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander doctors in the Australian Defence Force. “He continuously strives to provide the highest care for Defence Force personnel, and goes above and beyond to ensure that healthcare received by Indigenous soldiers is safe and culturally appropriate,” Dr Nicholls said.

This year’s Medical Student Bursary went to Loyala Wills, a Torres Strait Islander woman and final year Flinders University medical student who runs an online platform called Med School Made Colourful, which offers medical education support to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students.

To view the RACGP newsGP article ‘A shining example of dedication, empathy and leadership’ in full click here.

RACGP ATSI Health awards 2023 4 images clockwise from top left: Dr Karen Nicholls; Dr Nicole Higgins with Dr Kali Hayward; Associate Professor Brad Murphy; Dr Mark Daley

Clockwise from top left: Dr Karen Nicholls; Dr Nicole Higgins with Dr Kali Hayward; Associate Professor Brad Murphy; Dr Mark Daley. Image source: RACGP newsGP.

Vaping resources for young mob

Together with the Tackling Indigenous Smoking team, Na Joomelah and National Best Practice Unit (NBPU), Lung Foundation Australia has developed new vaping resources for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young people. The resources include three short animations and an accompanying fact sheet covering key topics in vaping and helping empower young people to choose to be vape free.

You can watch the animations, including the one below, and download the factsheet by visiting the Lung Foundation Australia First Nations e-cigarettes and vaping webpage here.

If you have any questions please contact Paige Preston from Lung Foundation Australia using this email link.

Concerns on handling of public drunkenness

Melbourne’s new sobering up centre will have capacity for 140 people a week when public drunkenness is decriminalised next month, but the state’s new system for handling intoxicated Victorians could quickly be tested. The centre’s capacity could be strained if the changes lead to major diversions of low-risk patients away from hospitals. The state government has used 2019 crime statistics for the public intoxication offence to predict that the new sobering-up centre would handle at least 3,700 people a year. But the documents warn that estimate may drastically understate the total demand.

From November 7, the offence of public drunkenness will be abolished and health services will take charge of many cases typically handed by police or paramedics. The reform was legislated in 2021 following the death of Yorta Yorta woman Tanya Day, who suffered a fall while in custody. Intoxicated people who commit crimes, are dangerous or need serious medical support will still be handled by emergency services, but people who are merely drunk in public and need help will be treated by support workers from different providers cross the state. Call-outs for Aboriginal Victorians in Melbourne will be handled separately and have been estimated to be in the range of 330 per year.

Victorian Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation CEO Jill Gallagher said repealing public drunkenness was vital to improving safety for First Peoples. “For the same behaviour, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in Victoria have faced inordinately higher rates of incarceration for public drunkenness than non-Aboriginal Victorians face,” she said. “Alcohol misuse is a public health issue, not a crime, and therefore should be treated as such.”

The above has been extracted from an article Sobering concerns on new handling of public drunkenness published in The Sydney Morning Herald on 29 October 2023. A related article Melbourne sobering centre facing delays ahead of Victorian public drunkenness overhaul published by ABC News yesterday can be view in full here.

location of Melbourne's sobering-up centre in Collingwood

The location of the Victorian Government’s first sobering-up centre in Collingwood. Photo: Joe Armao. Image source: The Sydney Morning Herald.

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.

28 September 2023

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

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

Everything you need for the NACCHO 2023 Members’ Conference

The NACCHO 2023 Members’ Conference website is now live with everything you need to know in one spot! Head on over to see the program, check out the presenters and sponsors and register if you haven’t already!

Conference ticket prices increase from 1 October 2023.

This year’s conference is in beautiful Noongar Boodja and include three deadly events:

  • NACCHO Youth Conference – 23 October
  • NACCHO AGM and EGM – 24 October
  • NACCHO Members’ Conference – 25-26 October

The Conference is an annual gathering of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health sector leaders from across the country. With over 400 delegates expected each year, the conference brings opportunities for attendees to network, learn, influence and celebrate our ongoing drive to self-determination.

Visit the NACCHO Conference website for more information and to register here.

AWAHS sets breast screening record

Across NSW only 35% of Aboriginal women aged 40-74 participate in breast screening every two years as recommended, but now in Albury the results are at an all-time high of 80%, the highest in the state. It comes after a mobile clinic was stationed at Albury Wodonga Aboriginal Health Service (AWAHS) for three days in August, offering Aboriginal women a convenient location to have their mammogram. AWAHS also provided a free bra fitting and bra giveaway event, resulting in more participation of Aboriginal women being screened for breast cancer in three days than over the previous 12 months.

AWAHS Acting CEO, Catherine Coysh said many women who screened for the first time were scared that screening would be painful, however left the mobile van smiling and relieved.

“We are pleased that this event has encouraged so many Aboriginal women to screen for the first time and hopefully they’ve overcome their concerns and will continue to screen every two years,” she said.

BreastScreen NSW Director, Veronica Scriven said of the 89 women who screened at the event, 64 were screening for the first time, with the majority of women who had been screened before overdue for their two-yearly breast screen.

“When breast cancer is found early, it’s easier to treat and most women recover and get back to their normal lives.

“We want to ensure Aboriginal women are supported in accessing breast screening and are thrilled to see so many women access this life-saving service,” Miss Coysh said.

Read the full National Indigenous Times article here.

Representatives from Support the Girls, AWAHS and BreastScreen NSW. Image source: BreastScreen NSW.

Growing awareness about risks of drinking alcohol while pregnant and breastfeeding

Red Shoes Rock, a global awareness campaign giving voice and support to those affected by prenatal alcohol exposure, has been making a high-visibility splash across Australia this past month. Many activities across FASD Awareness Month have highlighted the progress that is being made to prevent Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD). The Red Shoes Rock campaign was started a decade ago by RJ Formanek, an adult with FASD living in Canada. He decided to wear red shoes to stand out and start a conversation about his invisible disability. Now, the movement has spread across the globe, including Australia, with people wearing red shoes and cities lighting up monuments to help raise awareness.

Foundation of Alcohol Research & Education (FARE) CEO, Caterina Giorgi writes: caused by prenatal alcohol exposure, FASD is a lifelong disability. People with FASD can experience challenges such as developmental delay; impaired speech and language development; learning problems; and difficulty controlling behaviour. This is why the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) recommends that people should not drink any alcohol when pregnant or planning a pregnancy.

September has been an opportunity to raise awareness of FASD and the need to create supportive communities for alcohol-free pregnancies. However, it is also an opportunity to acknowledge progress that has been made in preventing and diagnosing FASD. Providing support, as well as the need to continue to take action. This includes NACCHO’s Strong Born communications campaign, designed to raise awareness of FASD among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

Read the full article here.

Image source: FARE.

MyMedicare Webinar for ACCHOs

On Friday 29 September, NACCHO is hosting a webinar with the Department of Health and Aged Care for information on the MyMedicare practice and patient registration process. This aims to go into greater detail on how aspects of MyMedicare specific to the ACCHO sector.

MyMedicare is a new voluntary patient registration model that will formalise the relationship between patients, their ACCHO or general practice, general practitioner (GP) and primary care teams. MyMedicare will give patients and their care team access to new MBS items and new blended funding.

Registration in MyMedicare is voluntary for patients, practices and providers. MyMedicare patient registration opens on 1 October 2023 and will be available to patients with a Medicare card or Department of Veterans’ Affairs Veteran Card. ACCHOs and Aboriginal Medical Services can register in MyMedicare as a practice to be ready for patient registration from 1 October.

In this webinar the department will provide information to be MyMedicare ready and will answer your questions. There will be a focus on issues that impact the ACCHO sector including hub and spoke practice registration and the interaction of MyMedicare registration with the Practice Incentive Payment – Indigenous Health Incentive (PIP – IHI).

Register here.

Further information about MyMedicare can be found here.

Calls to Protect the human rights of people with disability

With the final report of the Royal Commission into Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation of People with Disability being delivered today, Thursday 28 September, the Federal Government is being urged by People with Disability Australia (PWDA) to enact national human rights legislation to address long-standing inequalities. In a statement, President of PWDA, Nicole Lee said, “our laws must change so that disabled people have equal access to human rights just like everyone else.”

Once released, First Peoples Disability Network Australia said they will address the report and advocate for necessary actions.

“Our experiences as First Nations people with disability deserve full representation in the DRC’s final report. Unfortunately, there hasn’t been enough – we need to be heard.”

PWDA has outlines 10 actions Australian governments must take in response to the DRC, including:

  1. Address the drivers of and end segregation of people with disability in all settings and contexts.
  2. Ensure all people with disability enjoy legal capacity and equality before the law.
  3. End all forms of forced treatments and restrictive practices, including seclusion and restraint.
  4. Ensure people with disability, particularly women and girls, enjoy their sexual and reproductive rights on an equal basis as others.
  5. Urgently address indefinite detention and deprivation of liberty of people with disability, particularly First Nations people with disability, people with intellectual disability, and people with psychosocial disability.
  6. End discrimination against migrants and refugees with disability
  7. Urgently address the over-representation of people with disability living in poverty and ensure an adequate standard of living and social protection.
  8. Ensure full participation of people with disability, including through their representative organisations, in all matters that affect them.
  9. Implement a full Disability Royal Commission Redress and Reparation Scheme.
  10. Undertake reform of Commonwealth, State/Territory laws to ensure compliance with the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

Read the full Croakey Health Media article here.

Image source: Unspalsh.

Digital inclusion crucial for access to services and informed decision-making

Research by RMIT University has found a significant gap in digital inclusion for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, compared with other Australians. According to The Mapping the Digital Gap 2023 Outcomes Report, about 43% of the 1,545 First Nationals communities across Australia have no mobile services, some with only a shared public photo or no telecommunications access. Nationally, the gap in digital access between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and other Australians is 7.5 points out of 100. The gap widens significantly to 24.5 points for remote communities.

Lead investigator and Senior Research Fellow, Dr Daniel Featherstone said with government and other services increasingly moving online, it is crucial that all Australians can effectively access and use digital technologies.

“We use these technologies to access essential services for health, welfare, finance, and education, participate in social and cultural activities, follow news and media, as well as connect with family, friends, and the wider world.

“Improving digital inclusion and access to services is critically important to ensure informed decision-making and agency among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.”

Read more here.

Gangan co-researcher Djamika Ganambarr uses public phone which the primary means of phone communication for most Gangan residents. Image source: RMIT University.

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.

21 October 2022

The image in the feature tile is of Jadlyn David De Bush and Daniel Rosedal presenting feedback from the 76 delegates at the NACCHO Youth Conference 2022 to the 500 delegates at the NACCHO Members’ Conference 2022. Image source: NACCHO Australia Twitter post, 20 October 2022.

NACCHO CEO reflects on successful conference

In closing the NACCHO Members’ Conference 2022, NACCHO CEO Pat Turner AM said it had been a wonderful event, with it being “great to be able connect to people face-to-face rather than the virtual connections we’ve had over the last 3 years with COVID-19 preventing us from being able to get together like this.”

Ms Turner said the NACCHO Members’ Conference is not only an opportunity to strengthen our network and get to know each other better but to hear about the amazing work that is being done right around the country, saying it was a testimony to the strength of the sector to come together, noting it was a long way for many and expensive.

Ms Turner said she hoped attendees at the conference had been inspired to pick up on good ideas and best practice shared at the conference and that they would be used to continue to strengthen the delivery of health services to our people. Ms Turner said we have got to be able to get the governments to understand the importance of the environments our people live in and what a negative effect overcrowded housing and unhealthy environments have on our people’s health, “as part of the comprehensive primary health care model its our job at every level to advocate for our communities in those areas as well.”

Housing shortage potentially “life-threatening”

Preston Mapuyu is on a public housing waitlist that on average takes more than half a decade to see any movement – but due to a chronic lung condition, he may not have that long to wait. Nurses in remote north-east Arnhem Land say a housing shortage has become potentially “life-threatening for patients” such as Mr Mapuyu, and is simultaneously burdening the health system.

Mr Mapuyu’s inability to access public housing has meant he’s been forced to rely on the kindness of relatives for accommodation, often overcrowded and unsuitable for someone with his condition. He and his wife, Serena Munyarryun, were living on a remote homeland 100km from the nearest hospital, where access via dirt road is seasonal and emergency planes can only land during the day. “If we call emergency for ambulance to get here, sometimes it takes them three to four hours to get here,” Ms Munyarryun said.

The pair has applied to access public housing in the nearest township of Nhulunbuy but, given a Territory-wide public housing shortage, they’re up against it. NT government data shows there is an average wait of six to eight years for applicants in Nhulunbuy. That stretches up to a decade for those seeking housing in hubs like Alice Springs. Across the NT there are nearly 6,000 applications for housing, but only 162 homes listed as vacant.

To view the ABC News article NT government’s years-long public housing waitlist putting a strain on remote health system in full click here.

Serena Munyarryun and Preston Mapuyu could be forced to wait years for public housing. Photo: Michael Franchi, ABC News.

RHD landmark study makes inroads

An entirely preventable “killer” disease plaguing remote communities in the NT will never end unless Aboriginal workers become the backbone of prevention, an Indigenous health organisation warns. Sunrise Health chairperson Anne-Marie Lee is the co-author of a four-year, landmark study – published in the International Journal of Environmental Research Public Health – which was conducted in three Aboriginal communities where it is not uncommon to see children under 10 bearing the vertical, long scars of open-heart surgery.

“Nothing can work in Indigenous communities unless you employ local people,” Ms Lee said. “Rheumatic heart disease (RHD) is a killer. It’s a killer, and it’s killing a lot of my young ones.” RHD is mostly eradicated in first world countries and is only found in the most disadvantaged areas of developing countries. But in Australia, rates in remote Aboriginal communities beset by social disadvantage are among the highest in the world.

Studies to date have largely focused on secondary and tertiary prevention once somebody’s already been diagnosed, instead of the root causes, such as addressing severe overcrowding in houses and a lack of effective education. Ms Lee said in her community of Barunga, about an hour’s drive from Katherine, there was not enough suitable information about the disease for families. She lamented the notion that short-term fly-in-fly-out health workers could make meaningful inroads. “We need more of me … because they trust us,” Ms Lee said.

To view the ABC News article Rheumatic heart disease still killing Australian children but a landmark study makes inroads in full click here.

Anne-Marie Lee [L] says rates of RHD fell in her community during the study. Photo: Menzies School of Health. Image source: ABC News.

Improving health for people with intellectual disability

The Australian Government is investing more than $5 million in four research projects to improve the long-term health outcomes of people with intellectual disability. Funded by the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC), the research will develop the evidence base for future policies, interventions and other initiatives to improve the quality of life of people with an intellectual disability. A key factor in each of the projects is the involvement of people with intellectual disability, their families and carers in the design of the research and implementation.

Professor Sandra Eades from the University of Melbourne has received $792,020 to undertake a research project: Equitable access to health and disability services for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children with intellectual disability.

This project will improve the health and wellbeing of Indigenous children with intellectual disability by recommending effective models of care to ensure appropriate, timely diagnoses and access to high-quality health and disability services. National Disability Insurance Scheme data and interviews with families, adolescents with intellectual disability, and healthcare and disability services will be analysed to identify barriers and facilitators to meeting the healthcare needs of Indigenous children with intellectual disability.

To view Minister Butler’s media release Improving long-term health outcomes for people with intellectual disability in full click here.

Image source: Supporting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families of children with disabilities webpage of Community Early Learning Australia website.

Urapunga Store’s sugar cut success

Remote residents of Urapunga in the NT have reduced consumption of sugary drinks by 43% in the past year, due to a range of sugar-reduction measures implemented at their local grocery store. Urapunga Store, operated by the Urapunga Aboriginal Corporation and serviced by Outback Stores, has restricted the size of soft drinks sold, and implemented “Sugar-Free Wednesdays” – a day in which no full-sugar soft drinks are available for purchase.

“We knew the community was drinking too much sugar, so we came up with a plan to start changing that,” said Antonella Pascoe, board member of Urapunga Aboriginal Corporation. “As directors of the store, we felt like we could make a positive change.”

In the first six months, the proportion of sugary drinks sold has fallen by 4.7% which equates to 1,921 litres, or twelve bathtubs less of full-sugar soft drink consumed in the community. “We know that the community is now drinking less sugar,” says Ms Pascoe. “One of the best things is the way it has made the community think about what they are drinking, even on days when they can buy sugary drinks.

To view the Retail World article Urapunga Store’s sugar cut success in full click here.

Photo: Isabella Higgins, ABC News.

Sax Institute, a community-led research pioneer

The Sax Institute are pioneers of the community-led research model and have been building strong relationships with Aboriginal health organisations since 2003. These partnerships have been critical to enabling the design and conduct of health research that is most likely to meet the needs of Aboriginal communities and policy makers. The Sax Institute says these partnerships are an essential part of how they work and central to their success.

In 2003, Sax Institute formed a partnership with the Aboriginal Health and Medical Research Council (AH&MRC) to set up the Coalition for Research to Improve Aboriginal Health (CRIAH) as a vehicle for bringing together Aboriginal communities and leading research expertise to support better health outcomes.

Over the past 15 years, the Sax Institute has worked with a number of ACCHOs across NSW to improve the health and wellbeing of Aboriginal people. Through these partnerships, ACCHOs nominate their research priorities, control how the research is conducted and take the lead in determining what works for them and their communities.

Four ACCHOs – Tharawal Aboriginal Corporation, Riverina Medical and Dental Aboriginal Corporation, Awabakal and Greater Western Aboriginal Health Service – have been cornerstone partners with the Institute in developing the Study of Environment on Aboriginal Resilience and Child Health (SEARCH), Australia’s largest long-term study of the health and wellbeing of urban Aboriginal children.

You can find more information on the Partnerships – How we work webpage of the Sax Institute website here.

Image source: Sax Institute 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.

Children’s Week 2022

Saturday marked the beginning of Children’s Week 2022 (22-30 October). Children’s Week is an annual event celebrated in Australia held around the fourth Wednesday in October. A diverse range of events and activities at national, state and local levels focus the attention of the wider community on children, their rights and achievements. Children’s Week celebrates the right of children to enjoy childhood.

Children’s Week promotes the Rights of the Child as proclaimed by the United Nations in 1954. It also exists to remind us of our responsibility to advocate for children as citizens and their right to a positive childhood.

The 2022 Children’s Week theme All Children have the right to a standard of living that supports their wellbeing and healthy development aligns with Article 27 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.

For more information about Children’s Week click here.

Logo: ClipartMax. Photo: The North West Star. Image source: The Pulse.

19 October 2022

The Core Services and Outcomes Framework artwork in the feature tile was created by Kamilaroi artist, Ethan French. The diagram is a visual representation of the Core Services and Outcomes Framework foundations for community-controlled primary health care. At the centre of the diagram is a meeting place which represents members of the community being the heart of this document. Each ring and section of the diagram represents each component of the Core Services and Outcomes Framework, with culture surrounding the whole diagram and foundations, which is a representation showing that culture is involved in all aspects of the Core Services and Outcomes Framework.

Day 1 NACCHO Members’ Conference 2022

On Day 1 of the NACCHO Members’ Conference 2002 NACCHO’s Deputy CEO, Dr Dawn Casey launched a new resource for the sector, the Core Services and Outcomes Framework. Dr Casey explained that in 2019, the NACCHO Board decided it was time for the sector as a whole to communicate their ways of working by producing a Core Services Framework. This proved to be a challenge when attempted by the Department of Health and Aged Care within the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Plan that commenced in 2013.

When the NACCHO Board instructed NACCHO to address the vacuum NACCHO enlisted expertise from within the sector and obtained extensive feedback from key allies and partner organisations. In its final endorsed form, the Framework shows how the sector integrates community priorities and health care needs in a unique model, combining population health and clinical approaches. The Framework shows how culture wraps around the way community-controlled primary care is directed and the service delivery models used on the ground.

The Core Services and Outcomes Framework is already being used to calculate how to fund the sector to respond to the population it serves, its burden of disease, disadvantage and location.

The Core Services and Outcomes Framework can be accessed via the following:

 

Artwork: Core Services and Outcomes Framework Model

The Core Services and Outcomes Framework artwork was created by Kamilaroi artist, Ethan French.

The diagram is a visual representation of the Core Services and Outcomes Framework foundations for community-controlled primary health care. At the centre of the diagram is a meeting place which represents members of the community being the heart of this document. Each ring and section of the diagram represents each component of the Core Services and Outcomes Framework, with culture surrounding the whole diagram and foundations, which is a representation showing that culture is involved in all aspects of the Core Services and Outcomes Framework.

A new Board with big agenda ahead

Hon Mark Butler, Minister for Health – representing the Prime Minister – opened the NACCHO Members’ Conference yesterday in Canberra.

Over 500 delegates from Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisations (ACCHOs) are coming together over three days in Canberra. It is the first major gathering for the sector since the pandemic.

They re-elected Donnella Mills as Chairperson of NACCHO. Ms Mills, a Torres Strait Islander woman, is also the Chair of Wuchopperen Health Service in Cairns and works as a Senior Associate at King & Wood Mallesons, an international law firm. She said, ‘I was honoured to be elected for a second term by our deadly ACCHOs across the country for another term.’ She, along with her Broome-based Deputy, Chris Bin Kali, will lead a Board of 16 directors in addressing a big agenda in front of them.

‘We have a challenging agenda ahead. I took the opportunity to say to Minister Butler that, while we understand that the new Government has a thankless task ahead of itself in repairing the Budget and guiding the country through a period of fiscal restraint, we still need to ensure that the health funding gap for First Nations communities does not widen. Our health funding cannot slip further behind.’

‘So, our challenge – when the Budget well is dry – is threefold. First, we must maximise what funding we do have to best effect. Second, we must get a fairer share of existing mainstream funding. Third, we need to implement structural reform in line with the priority reforms of the new National Agreement on Closing the Gap’.

NACCHO commissioned Equity Economics earlier this year to estimate the health funding gap. They found in their report that the gap is a staggering $4.4b per year. That is, over $5,000 per year for every Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander person in Australia. Ms Mills said, ‘We have the data. The gap is real. Yet dangerous myths prevail that Aboriginal programs are over-funded.’

The next two days will be spent at the NACCHO conference by delegates from most of the major Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities in Australia. They will hear presentations from experts in the Pilbara, the west coast of SA, and Ballina NSW (on the impact of the floods). There will also be presentations from the Kimberley, the Northern Territory and Yarrabah on efforts against acute rheumatic fever as well as by experts and leaders ranging from Pat Anderson, Fran Baum, Mary Belfrage, Alex Brown, Kelvin Kong, Tamara Mackean, Seth Westhead, and many more. The event is being MC-ed by Dan Bourchier.

To read NACCHO’s media release A new NACCHO board with a big agenda ahead in full click here.

Donnella Mills at the 2022 NACCHO Members’ Conference yesterday.

Health Minister opens NACCHO Member’s Conference 2022

Yesterday, Minister for Health and Aged Care, the Hon. Mark Butler officially opened the NACCHO Members’ Conference 2022. Minister Butler’s opening remarks included:

National Convention Centre Canberra, 18 October 2022

  • Good afternoon. Thank you Donnella and Pat for welcoming me here today.
  • I would like to acknowledge we meet today on the land of the Ngunnawal and Ngambri people and pay my respects to the elders, past, present and to our emerging leaders.
  • It is a pleasure to be here on behalf of the Prime Minister who was regrettably unable to attend this event.
  • Many of those emerging First Nations leaders have attended your youth conference here over the past day. I hope they found this opportunity to be beneficial and formed new connections.
  • It is great to see our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander youth participating in these forums and interacting with each other and sharing their unique cultural learnings and understandings; bringing forward their culture and their identity to be part of a better and informed future.

Picture: Gary Ramage NACCHO Chair Donnella Mills with Minister for Health and Aged Care, the Hon. Mark Butler at the NACCHO Members’ Conference 2022.

Health Ministers’ Meeting

  • Just over a week ago, it was great to be able to reconvene what we call the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander roundtable for health – bringing together all the Health Ministers from States and Territories and the Commonwealth along with representatives from across the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community-controlled and health sector leadership.
  • The Roundtable has been unable to meet recently, and it was a priority for this government to convene it as quickly as possible following our election.
  • The Roundtable was important for highlighting the challenges in workforce, in service delivery, in embedding culturally safe practices across the health system.
  • All health ministers have prioritised this work, including the Commonwealth through myself and Assistant Minister Malarndirri McCarthy.

Puggy Hunter

  • One way that the Commonwealth Government can lead in this work is to take real steps to implement the letter and the spirit of the Coalition of Peaks Priority Reforms.
  • Priority Reform 2 emphasises the role of the community-controlled health sector, and the role of governments in building and strengthening the sector.
  • This is a critical area for this government to build and grow. The work of ACCHOs around the country isn’t just a model for First Nations health, it’s a model for the whole health sector.
  • It’s why I have directed the Commonwealth Department of Health and Aged Care to audit all programs delivering services to First Nations communities that are not currently being delivered by First Nations organisations.
  • It’s why I announced last week that the Puggy Hunter Scholarship Scheme – our leading program encouraging entry-level Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health students to complete their studies and join the health workforce – needed to be handed over to First Nations control.
  • For me, there couldn’t be a more important first step in this process. Dr Arnold ‘Puggy’ Hunter was of course an incredible health leader and Chair of NACCHO.
  • Our ambition is to transition more programs to First Nations control over the course of this government.

You can download Minister Butler’s speech in full here.

17 October 2022

NACCHO’s Youth Conference – it’s started!

The National Youth Conference, being held today, Monday 17 October 2022 at the National Convention Centre, Canberra, has brought together almost 100 youth from around Australia to gain experience and exposure to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander sector on a national level. During the conference the youth will engage in discussion, share their experience and learn from other peers from across the country. The conference will allow the youth to learn about informing policy, influencing change and provide a pathway so their voices are heard and represented by NACCHO throughout the sector.

For further information about the NACCHO Youth Conference click here. Below is a short video of about the 2019 NACCHO Youth Conference.

Health Literacy Strategy Framework

The National Health Literacy Strategy Framework Paper is now open for public consultation, with feedback being sought on the framework’s content and design.

The document is now live on the Australian Governments Department of Health and Aged Care Consultation Hub here and will be available online for comment for a four-week period and will close at 11:59 pm on Wednesday 9 November 2022.

You can access the strategy and online survey below:

Consultation Paper – Development of the National Health Literacy Strategy

National Health Literacy Strategy Framework Consultation Survey Questions

National Health Literacy Strategy Consultation Online Survey, available here.

Image source: Australian Commission of Safety and Quality in Health Care.

First care standard on stillbirth

You are invited to join the online launch of the first national Stillbirth Clinical Care Standard, developed by the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care. The event will be streamed live from the Annual National Stillbirth Forum being held from 3–4 November 2022.

Stillbirth is a tragic and profound experience that affects more than 2,000 families in Australia every year. Despite being the most common form of perinatal death in Australia, the experience of stillbirth can be hidden due to stigma, taboo and a culture of silence.

At the launch of the Stillbirth Clinical Care Standard from12:30 PM – 1:30 PM AEDT Friday 4 November 2022 you can hear leading experts discuss best practice in preventing stillbirth, investigations after stillbirth and the importance of bereavement care after perinatal loss. This event is relevant to all healthcare professionals involved in providing care during pregnancy, and after stillbirth or other forms of perinatal loss.

Click here to register.

Supporting child health in remote Australia

An article Needs and strengths: supporting child health in remote Australia published in the InSight+ newsletter today begins with words from Ms June Oscar AO, a senior Bunuba woman from the Fitzroy Valley and Australia’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner:

“The failure to close the gaps in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health inequality, and other measures of social and economic disadvantage, cannot be justified by more rhetoric or data in another report. For us, the harrowing failure to close the gap is felt through sorry business, the countless funerals of family and friends, the hospital visits and the coronial inquiries that we continue to painfully endure. So many of our losses were and are preventable – that is the failure and pain we carry. A sensible way of doing business is long overdue as, apart from small gains, the attempts to close the gaps in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander life expectancy, health and education have failed.”

The article outlines the poor health and wellbeing of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children, the reasons for such poor health and efforts to date to support child and family health. The authors review strategies to improve health care for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and what is needed to successfully implement those strategies.

To view the article in full click here.

Photo: Getty Images. Image source: BBC.

Overcrowding reduced by only 3.2%

The NT government has spent $2.65bn over the past 15 years to improve the quality of housing in remote Indigenous communities, but overcrowding remains a problem and many houses need repairs. Under the national partnership for remote housing NT policy, the government was supposed to improve housing conditions and reduce overcrowding in 73 remote communities and 17 town camps around Alice Springs. But the most recent data on overcrowding in remote communities managed by the national partnership reveals it has only been reduced by 3.2% in five years.

None of this is new to Miriam Charlie. Since 2015, the Yanyuwa Garrwa artist has been capturing the state of housing across all four town camps at Borroloola, with her Polaroid camera. “All them houses, they’re too small, overcrowded,” she says. “So I went around and took photos of everybody’s houses. What part wasn’t fixed and what part was fixed.”

NACCHO CEO, Pat Turner, said in an interview with The Australian in March this year, the standard of housing in remote communities underpinned several targets in Closing the Gap and outlined that if the targets are not achieved, it would be because governments had not “invested the necessary resources in programs and services to support our people”.

To view The Guardian article ‘Waiting for too long’: Why Miriam Charlie photographs overcrowded Indigenous housing in full click here.

Miriam Charlie photographing her eldest daughter, Jade, and other family at Yanyuwa camp. Image source: The Guardian.

Videos to tackle men’s mental health

In the Central Australian desert, there’s a growing and often silent, crisis of male suicide in Aboriginal town camps. But a group of men is speaking out for change. You can watch a short video about the Tangentyere Men’s Family Safety Group, a group town camp leaders, who are focused on improving safety and wellbeing in their community. They have written, performed and directed a series of videos in English and in language hoping to shatter stigma around mental health and suicide. For these men it has been a deeply personal project.

You can view the short video in full here.

Free tool to measure LGBTQ inclusive care

Pride in Health + Wellbeing runs a national annual index (Health + Wellbeing Equality Index) that is FREE and open to every organisation to measure their LGBTQ inclusive across their service delivery and internal workforce.

This benchmarking index has been designed based on international best practice standards for LGBTQ inclusive care and can assist service providers to baseline their current LGBTQ inclusion work, benchmark across the sector and identify gaps and areas for improvement as well as year-on-year growth. Individualised reports are sent to participating services and participation can be anonymous, and you don’t have to be a member to take part.

The HWEI also has optional staff and service user surveys. These allow services to not only measure what they are doing organisationally but see how well supported staff feel within their workplace, as well as their understanding, tools and comfort levels in providing LGBTQ inclusive care. The service user survey can then also be used to match your inclusion work to experience, to see if the inclusion initiatives are improving the quality of care being received.

For more details visit the Pride in Health + Wellbeing website here. You can register your interest to take part in the HWEI 2023 here.

Image source: Edith Cowan University 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.

14 September 2021

feature tile text 'NACCHO receives additional funding to help vaccinate mob' & image of young Aboriginal woman receiving covid-19 vaccination

Additional funding to help vaccinate mob

All Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who aren’t vaccinated are prioritised under new funding to cover all Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisations (ACCHOs). An extra $7 million will be provided to NACCHO, with some of the funding to be used to hire more staff, who will liaise directly with communities to assist with the rollout of vaccinations.

Lieutenant General John Frewen who leads the national COVID-19 vaccine taskforce said:

“In some of the bigger communities, we’ll be doing things like super clinics, you know, a sort of blitz effort to get large numbers of people through. In other areas we’ll be doing very close community consultation, with an information campaign to get the community ready to accept vaccination and then we’ll provide the vaccinations there.”

There is also funding for First Nations Media Australia, which has been asked to produce new advertising material that can be shared among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples about the vaccine rollout, to address vaccine hesitancy.

Note: image in feature tile –  Aboriginal health service, Wellington, NSW. Photo: Louise Austin. Image source: ABC News.

Super clinics are being planned for Indigenous communities to speed up vaccination rates. Image source: Unsplash/ ABC News.

Super clinics are being planned for Indigenous communities to speed up vaccination rates. Image source: Unsplash/ ABC News.

 

Bathurst gets walk-in vax clinic

A good number of people received their COVID-19 shot at the Kelso Community Hub, Bathurst on its first day as a pop-up vaccination clinic. The Kelso Community Hub is a walk-in clinic, meaning no appointments are needed, and around 200 people per day will be able to be vaccinated.

The clinic is being led by the Orange Aboriginal Medical Service and CEO Jamie Newman said it is about making the vaccine more accessible to people in the community.

“We’ve got to be mindful that a lot of our people who live in low socioeconomic areas do not have transport, so to get into town would be difficult for them. We encountered the same thing in Orange. We need to be able to sometimes bring the mountain to Mohamed, so having it here right in the heart of Kelso allows for walking distance for community members here,” he said.

You can read the story in the Western Advocate here.

Orange Aboriginal Medical Service CEO Jamie Newman and staff at the Kelso Community Hub. Photos: Rachel Chamberlain.

Orange Aboriginal Medical Service CEO Jamie Newman and staff at the Kelso Community Hub. Photos: Rachel Chamberlain.

 

Communities rallying to get mob vaccinated

Katherine West health service pushes to get Yarralin residents vaccinated against COVID-19.
In the Aboriginal community of Yarralin, in the remote Northern Territory, health workers are encouraging remote residents to get vaccinated through door-knocking and cook-ups, however they are grappling with misinformation and staff shortages. Lorraine Johns is an Aboriginal health worker who has worked at the local clinic in Yarralin for more than two decades.

“We’ve saved a lot of lives in this clinic, me, the nurses and the doctors,” she said.

“They should believe us rather than whatever they see on Facebook.”

You can read the story in the ABC News here.

Aboriginal communities around Redfern in inner-Sydney are rallying to stop the spread of COVID after a spike in infections over the past week. As of last Thursday 9 September 2021, there were 74 active cases in Redfern and 105 in the Waterloo and Zetland area, with NSW Health authorities urging residents to come forward and get vaccinated.

Prominent local leader Shane Phillips, who was born and raised in the area, told NITV News of the concern within the community.

“Some people are really ill, lots of our own family and some of our own people I work with at Tribal [Warrior] are down with COVID,” he said.

To ramp up vaccination and testing rates, the AMS has teamed up with the Sydney Local Health District. Specialist teams are heading to targeted buildings and areas to provide testing and support, while a Pfizer clinic was run at the National Centre of Indigenous Excellence over the weekend.

You can read the article in SBS News NITV here.

Katherine West Health Board, Yarralin. ABC News Kate Ashton.

Katherine West Health Board, Yarralin. ABC News Kate Ashton.

 

Vaccination rates must increase before reopening country

Seventeen of the 20 least vaccinated regions of Aboriginal people are in WA and QLD. Traditional Owners in the WA outback are the least vaccinated of any area in Australia, with just nine per cent of those living in the Southern Outback region having received both doses of the vaccineMichael Small is a Maths and Statistics Professor at the University of Western Australia; his modelling shows that if WA was to experience a NSW-style outbreak, the State would only have 30 days before the virus made its way to remote communities.

“The modelling showed that until the vaccination rate is at around 80 or 90 percent, then these communities are at great risk of local transmission within about a month [of the virus arriving in the State],” he said.

You can read the article in the National Indigenous Times here.

In a related article in Croakey Health Media, grave concerns have been raised about the implications for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples’ health of the “Roadmap to Freedom” released by the NSW Government.

Under the plan, stay-at-home orders for adults who have received both doses of the COVID-19 vaccine will be lifted from the Monday after NSW passes the 70 percent double vaccination target. NSW hits the 80 percent double dose target, the Government intends to ease further restrictions around international travel, community sport, major events and other areas.

Aboriginal health leaders in NSW, the Northern Territory and other jurisdictions are calling for public health orders to remain in place until at least 90 percent of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are vaccinated.

You can read the article in Croakey Health Media here.
Image source: National Indigenous Times.

Image source: National Indigenous Times.

 

Lock-down of remote communities with low jab rates

In an article in The Australian (that requires a subscription to read), Western Australia is working on plans to lock down remote Aboriginal communities with low vaccination rates when it lifts state and international borders, with health officials concerned American evangelists were scaring residents into refusing inoculations.

WA Health Minister Roger Cook confirmed he had spoken to his federal counterpart, Greg Hunt, to request support to lock down communities with low Covid-19 vaccination rates once border restrictions were relaxed.

Health authorities in the state are particularly concerned about hostility towards the vaccination program in the far northern communities of Noonkanbah, Looma and Ringer Soak, although Mr Cook said he was aware of at least one community further south where local leaders were also ­agitating against inoculations.

The most recent publicly available vaccination data for WA’s northern outback region, released last Monday, shows just 28 per cent of adults have had one dose compared with 53 per cent across the entire state on the same day. Only 17 per cent were fully ­vaccinated.

Mr Cook said a small number of communities were simply turning away healthcare workers ­because “religious opposition (was) just too overwhelming … Those communities are now saying, ‘Look, we’ve heard you. We’re not going to take the vaccine ­because it’s against god’s will, and so just don’t come back,’ ” he said.

“I think we have to concede that there are some communities that simply will not participate in the … program.” Mr Cook said it may be necessary to restrict movement in and out of remote communities that remain largely unvaccinated in 2022 when international and interstate travel ­resumed.

Mr Cook said some communities had been turned against the vaccine after streaming YouTube videos from US evangelists.

“But just because you’re of a strong religious belief doesn’t mean that you’re anti-vax, it’s simply an interpretation of some of the churches.”

Mr Cook said the debate about when to open-up must include a proviso about the vaccination rate of Aboriginal people. “If you’ve got 80 per cent of mainstream WA vaccinated but only 20 per cent of the Aboriginal community vaccinated, you still can’t open up,” he said.

Noonkanbah Sports Festival 2018. Image source: Garnduwa.

Noonkanbah Sports Festival 2018. Image source: Garnduwa.

 

Healthcare workers at increased risk of mental ill-health during pandemic

There is increasing concern about rising rates of mental ill-health and suicide among doctors.

A recent review led by the Black Dog Institute and UNSW Sydney that was published in The Lancet has revealed doctors are at increased risk of suicide and, in their early years of training, one-quarter to one-third reported significant mental ill-health. The researchers said while this was an increasing issue even before the COVID-19 pandemic, there is emerging evidence that the impact of the pandemic is creating even more mental health problems.

The review suggested female doctors appeared to be at particular risk, with a suicide rate that is significantly higher than women in the general population.

“The acute nature of the COVID-19 pandemic in many parts of Australia at the moment highlights the importance of this issue. The mental health of doctors, along with other healthcare staff, is something we are all depending on,” said the lead author of the study Professor Samuel Harvey, who runs the Workplace Mental Health Research Program at the Black Dog Institute and UNSW.

You can read the article in the UNSW Sydney Newsroom here.

Healthcare worker in PPE at door of clinic. Image source: ABC News.

Healthcare worker in PPE at door of clinic. Image source: ABC News.

 

Suicide intervention training saving lives

A training program to build Indigenous Australians’ skills in preventing suicides has brought national acclaim for a University of Queensland researcher. Associate Professor Maree Toombs said the I-ASIST program was developed in partnership with LivingWorks Australia over four years of consultation and collaboration.

Dr Toombs, a Euralie and Kooma woman, is the UQ Faculty of Medicine’s Associate Dean of Indigenous Engagement. On World Suicide Prevention Day (10 September 2021), she received the Suicide Prevention Australia’s LIFE Impact Award.

“I-ASIST trains friends, family and outreach services to identify people early who are at risk of suicide, and to use their skills to address the situation immediately,” she said.

“It provides employment for Indigenous trainers, either through organisations or as sole traders, to deliver suicide first-aid skills to their local communities. It develops capacity and sustainability for evidence-based training.

“Now we need people who are embedded and trusted in their communities to be trained deliver this program, especially in Indigenous communities,” she said.

Ken Wyatt, the Minister for Indigenous Australians, will officially launch I-ASIST in November.

You can read more about the program here.

SPA_LifeAwards_Associate Professor Maree Toombs

 

NACCHO Conference postponed

📢 IMPORTANT NOTICE: As the COVID-19 situation and impacts continue, a decision has been taken to postpone our Conference until next year. NACCHO will review the situation in December including when we can convene the conference.

For any queries please email: conference@naccho.org.au.

NACCHO Conference 2021 - Postponed.

 

New process for job advertising

NACCHO have introduced a new system for the advertising of job adverts via the NACCHO website and you can find the sector job listings here.

Click here to go to the NACCHO website where you can complete a form with job vacancy details – it will then be approved for posting and go live on the NACCHO website.


dice spelling JOBS resting on keyboard

 

5 August 2021

NACCHO Member’s Conference 2021

The 2021 NACCHO Youth Conference, Members’ Conference and Annual General Meeting has been confirmed to run from Monday 22 November to Thursday 25 November 2021. The conference will be held at the National Convention Centre Canberra.

The NACCHO Annual Members’ Conference, Youth Conference, EGM and AGM will be a COVID-safe event. The health and wellbeing of our members and stakeholders are of utmost priority and hence we will monitor constantly the Australian Government regulations and guidelines around COVID-19 and evolve our plans based on the current direction for the venue state ACT and across Australia.

Due to the developing COVID-19 situation across Australia and the ongoing uncertainty about travel restrictions, the event may get postponed to later date due to the unforeseen COVID-19 restrictions.

You can access the NACCHO National Conference Prospectus Package 2021 here.

PM thanks Coalition of Peaks 

PM Scott Morrison delivered the annual Closing the Gap (CTG) statement to Parliament, yesterday announcing a $1 billion plan to reduce disadvantage among Indigenous Australians.

You can watch video footage of the PM speaking to the media from Parliament House yesterday after announcing the plan. The PM thanks head of the Coalition of Peaks (CoP) Pat Turner for “bringing together over 50 organisations who serve Indigenous Australians all around the country with the passion, professionalism and dedication” here. You can also read a transcript of the entire press conference here and Pat Turner’s speech extracted here.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Coalition of Peaks head Pat Turner at a press conference in Parliament House

Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Coalition of Peaks head Pat Turner at a press conference in Parliament House. Photo: AAP. Image source: SBS News.

Organisations welcome CTG funding

A range of organisations have welcomed the PM’s announcement of more than $1 billion in new measures committed over the next five years towards Closing the Gap outcomes. Below is a sample of some of the statements made:

Australian Human Rights Commission Executive Officer Dr Joe Tighe said that “while Close the Gap Campaign members are acutely aware of the depth of the needs to be met, it is important to pause and acknowledge the tireless work of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander leaders who enable significant steps forward such as this.”

Suicide Prevention Australia said in its media release the focus on supporting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children with $160 million for the Healthy Mums and Healthy Bubs program, the Community Child Care Fund, the Connected Beginnings Program and the Early Years Education Program.

Central Land Council chief executive Lesley Turner said in its media release the new funding is a good start, “This is a welcome step forward to improve the lives of Aboriginal people and communities through a whole-of-government approach in consultation with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community-controlled partners.”

Oxfam Australia Chief Executive Lyn Morgain said in her media release “It’s pleasing to see significant contributions to support critical improvements in key areas, such as more than $250 million to support Aboriginal medical clinics, $75 million to support remote education and $7.6 million to create a Justice Policy Partnership to drive national action to reduce incarceration rates. This new level of policy focus, engagement and action marks a big step forward.”

SNAICC welcomed the announcement of $120 million of new federal government investments to improve access to quality early childhood education. An additional $81.8 million will expand the Connected Beginnings program in 27 new sites across the country, a program that aims to support the integration of early childhood education, health, development and family support programs for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children. In a media release SNAICC CEO Catherine Liddle said “This major new investment is critical for supporting our young children and families. Under the new National Agreement on Closing the Gap, we have an opportunity to work differently to achieve the best outcomes for our kids.”

Early Childhood Australia CEO Samantha Page said in a media release the funding will enable many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children to access high-quality early childhood education and care, providing a strong foundation for lifelong learning, health and wellbeing, “We know that 2 in 5 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children are developmentally vulnerable when they start school. This investment will ensure that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children, particularly in rural and remote areas, won’t miss out on the critical benefits of early learning.”

Thrive by Five CEO Jay Weatherill said in a media release the announcement of $120 in programs to improve access to preschool for Indigenous children in regional and remote Australia as part of the Closing the Gap implementation plan was recognition of the importance of high quality and universally accessible early learning. “We know that high quality early childhood education sets children up for life. When children attend high quality early learning they start school ready to learn and have greater opportunities to fulfil their potential in later life.”

The initial funding breakdown and the Commonwealth Plan can be accessed here.

Image source: AbSec website.

CTG plan ignores housing crisis

Some advocates are already warning the Federal Government’s plan for the new Closing the Gap targets lacks any significant commitment on one key issue: remote housing. John Patterson, CEO of the Aboriginal Medical Services Alliance of the Northern Territory and NT Representative on the Closing the Gap Council You was interviewed on ABC Radio National about his concerns. You can listen to the interview here.

housing in Arnhem Land, tents, run down building

Housing in Arnhem Land. Photo: Lucy Marks. Image source: ABC RN Breakfast with Fran Kelly.

On the same day as this interview the Social Policy and Legal Affairs Standing Committee – Final report: Inquiry into homelessness in Australia. You can access the report here. The report calls for Australian government to work together to establish a ten-year national strategy on homelessness. In a media release, the Chair of the Committee, Mr Andrew Wallace MP, highlighted that a coordinated national approach is needed to bring down the number of people who are experiencing or at risk of homelessness.

Truth of Australia’s incarceration

Every day, thousands of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples across Australia wake up behind the bars of Australian prisons. Children live out their childhood in juvenile detention centres, hundreds of kilometres away from their family. Families continue to fight for justice and accountability for the deaths of their once imprisoned relatives, while the calls for solutions which empower Indigenous Australians to drive the change needed become louder. Incarceration Nation lays bare the story of the continued systemic injustice and inequality experienced by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples on their own land, told by Indigenous Australians, experts and academics. Premiering on free to air television on Sunday 29 August at 8:30pm, National Indigenous Television (NITV) is proud to bring this important documentary to Australian screens.

You can view the NITV media release here.

painting of Aboriginal fist in shackles with text 'incarceration nation'

Addressing health inequity research

The latest issue of the Australian Health Review, the academic journal of the Australian Healthcare and Hospitals Association (AHHA), shines a light on a deep problem in healthcare – health inequity experienced by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples – and focuses on some of the key issues which can be addressed to improve the health outcomes,’ says Editor-in-Chief, Professor Sonĵ Hall.

‘In a policy reflection, Dr Janine Mohamed, CEO of Lowitja Institute, highlights the importance of strengthening the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander workforce. ‘Dr Mohamed’s message of strengthening the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander workforce to improve the care outcomes of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples is one that is echoed in a perspectives piece by Dr Chris Bourke, Andrew McAuliffe and Prof Lisa Jamieson.

You can access the article in full here.

Image source: American College of Health Care Executives.

Cultural Determinants of Health webinar

If you haven’t registered already, we’d love for you to join us live for the fourth webinar in our Cultural Determinants of Health webinar series. We will be live on

12:00pm – 1:30pm – Friday 13 August

This webinar will focus on connection to family, kinship and community the cohesive forces that bind Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people together. Topics we’ll be covering include:

  • Aboriginal social structures and how these are different to Western societies
  • Whole identity relationships and bonds across Nations and Clans
  • Aboriginal kinship systems and how they operate
  • Potential conflict in working with people from differing cultural backgrounds
  • Cultural load and leadership in the community
  • Family structures and the sets of rights and obligations underlying them

You can register for the webinar here.logo text 'Centre for healthcare Knowledge & Innovation - Collaborate - Learn - Advance] blue circle overlaid with small red blue gold circles

New process for job advertising

NACCHO have introduced a new system for the advertising of job adverts via the NACCHO website and you can find the sector job listings here.

Click here to go to the NACCHO website where you can complete a form with job vacancy details – it will then be approved for posting and go live on the NACCHO website.
dice spelling JOBS resting on keyboard

International Day of World’s Indigenous Peoples

The United Nations’ (UN) International Day of the World’s Indigenous People is observed on annually on 9 August to promote and protect the rights of the world’s Indigenous population. The day is needed, as across the world, Indigenous peoples are often among the poorest ethnic groups in society. According to the UN, indigenous people make up less than 5% of the world’s population but account for 15% of the poorest. They speak an overwhelming majority of the world’s estimated 7,000 languages and represent 5,000 different cultures.

To learn more about International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples click here.

On this day, Monday 9 August 2021, UN Women will be calling for a new social contract to rebuild our world in a way that is forward-looking, equitable and targeted to the most marginalized. An ongoing legacy of exclusionary polices, underrepresentation in decision-making and corruption in land and natural resource management in many countries means that indigenous peoples often face a lifetime of poverty, exclusion and discrimination. For indigenous women and girls experiencing multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination, the effects can span generations and be exacerbated by the COVID-19 crisis.

To view the UN Women’s statement click here.

logo text 'International Day of the World's Indigenous Peoples - 9 August' banner lines yellow, red, green, brown, cream background

NACCHO Members’ Conference 2021

NACCHO have announced the date of their Members’ Conference, Youth Conference, EGM and AGM for 2021 – Monday 22 – Thursday 25 November 2021, Canberra.

NACCHO Aboriginal Health #NACCHOAgm19 #NACCHOYouth19 : Transcript of doorstop media interview with Minister Greg Hunt NACCHO and Chair Donnella Mills at the NACCHO Conference in Darwin

” It’s just a privilege to be here at the NACCHO Conference with Donnella, with Pat, with Senator Sam McMahon.

We’ve made an announcement today of a new funding model agreed by and with NACCHO and Indigenous Australia.

They’ve had deep input. They went through an early draft and had a huge involvement in redrafting, redesigning.

And I’m delighted that we’ll be adding an additional $90 million to help produce better Indigenous health outcomes. That will be supporting our Aboriginal community controlled health organisations, our Aboriginal medical services, 145 of them around the country.

And in particular, it will help as we pursue the goals of ending avoidable Indigenous blindness, avoidable Indigenous deafness and ending rheumatic heart disease and making a difference (inaudible) Donnella, you want to say a couple of words and then? ”

Introduction at media event from Health Minister Greg Hunt at NACCHO Members Conference Darwin

DONNELLA MILLS:

Yes. Just as- as the Acting Chair of the National Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation, we really welcome this announcement.

And I just want to make particular mention with Minister Hunt that we’ve really moved forward on building a genuine partnership.

What we know as Aboriginal and Torres Islander peoples, we are the experts in delivering comprehensive primary health care to our people.

So I look forward to continuing to work with the Australian Government. And again, we welcome this announcement. Pat?

GREG HUNT:

Great. Happy to take any questions.

JOURNALIST:

Minister, can you talk us through the major enhancements to the way the funding is distributed? What are the changes that the organisations will see?

GREG HUNT:

So firstly, it’s a three-year funding. Secondly, there’s a guarantee that every organisation will maintain its existing funding and then that additional funding will be based on a combination of need, cost, and complexity.

And so it’s been designed by and with the Aboriginal community controlled health organisations and services.

And thirdly, the other element that’s there, which is really important, is the indexation of wages. And it’s a fair point to ask whether that should or shouldn’t have been built in previously, but it will be now.

JOURNALIST:

Labor has brought up, I suppose, questions about the timing of these Ministerial visits the past few days, because there’s a public inquiry on- or a Senate inquiry on in Darwin. Was it timed to match with that?

GREG HUNT:

No. This conference was established by NACCHO, their time, their watch.

And I, in fact, adjusted my diary to be here for their conference. And so sort of a little bit embarrassing, I think, for them to be trying to downplay a really important health breakthrough. And as Donnella said, a health partnership.

The timing was set, as it should have been, by Indigenous Australia for Indigenous Australia. And I was privileged to join them on their time, on their watch as part of their conference.

JOURNALIST:

How committed is the Coalition Government to developing Northern Australia? I mean it was- it’s been, you know, years since they- Tony Abbott first announced the White Paper into Developing Northern Australia.

The rhetoric gets brought up election after election, but really is there- is there much of a difference being made on the ground in regional and especially north Australia?

GREG HUNT:

Look, I think the Northern Australia Infrastructure Fund has very real possibilities. One of the things which is available under that- we might well be able to support some of the very services that we outlined today.

So the physical infrastructure for Aboriginal community controlled health services does qualify under the NAIF, and that could make a real difference.

Sam, you’ve been very involved in northern development, your thoughts?

SAM MCMAHON:

Yeah. I mean, look, it has been slower to be rolled out and it has been slower in uptake than we would have liked. And you possibly heard Minister Canavan say that yesterday.

But he and the Coalition Government and myself are very committed to making sure that that gets rolled out.

And not only the NAIF, but some other infrastructure, other things such as health infrastructure. We are very committed to making sure that that northern Australia is taken care of.

GREG HUNT:

Okay. Thank you. So look, ultimately, today is about saving lives and protecting lives in Indigenous Australia, and a partnership that we hope will last the next 20 years. Thank you.

JOURNALIST:

Minister, what are you doing- what’s the Government doing to address the sickness outbreak that has now seen more than three-hundred to three-thousand people affected from Queensland right the way through to Western Australia?

GREG HUNT:

So the Chief Medical Officer has led discussions and led talks with states on- and the territories on precisely that issue.

So we’ve been investing additional funds. The Chief Medical Officer is leading a coordinated national plan with the states and territories on that issue.

And then the third element of course is the AMS, the Aboriginal Medical Services, and their capacity to make that impact on the ground.

JOURNALIST:

Does there need to be a national centre for disease control, do you think?

GREG HUNT:

Well I think what we do have, which is run out of the Health Department, is precisely that.

We have a national approach to disease coordination and emergency management, which comes from the Federal Health Department, it’s actually embedded within.

JOURNALIST:

Was the Government too slow to act on this issue given that that outbreak started in Queensland I think right back in 2014, perhaps even earlier?

GREG HUNT:

Look, we’ve stepped in because some of the states and territories have not done their work. So primarily, the population health control responsibilities rests with the states and territories.

But where there is an issue, which comes because in some cases they may not have stepped up, then it’s our time and our turn and our watch, and we’ll deal with that.

JOURNALIST:

Any state and territory in particular that dropped the ball on this one?

GREG HUNT:         

Oh, I think this was most significantly the issue in Queensland. They were notified, they were warned, and they were very slow to act. Okay, thank you very much.

National #NACCHOYouth19 Conference and Members’ Conference #NACCHOAgm2019 :Because of Them, We Must! Improving health outcomes for 0-to-29-year-olds

“For thousands of years, our Elders have shown great resolve thriving on this vast continent and the youth delegates who attended the conference have instilled confidence in us for the continuation of this into the future.

The NACCHO Youth and Members Conference included engaging workshops and enlightening presentations from our members – the Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisations (ACCHOs), clinicians, academicians, medical experts and Aboriginal Health Practitioners.”

NACCHO has been commissioned by the Department of Health to produce a ‘Core Services and Outcomes Framework’ by May 2020.

An important project for our sector that will bring together a comprehensive set of core primary health care functions that apply to our services in remote, regional and metropolitan Australia “

NACCHO Acting Chair, Donnella Mills photo 2 above with Minister Greg Hunt  : Photo 1 above Darwin Larrakia-Belyen dancers for the welcome to country

“The biggest thing that we’re all getting from it is that even though they’re really doing some good things in their space, they can actually do more,

More that’s going to not only benefit their communities, but also make things a little bit easier on themselves. I think that’s what these events are all about – being able to come together and share what we’re doing and what we can all gain from it.”

Preston Campbell told NITV  see Part 2

More than 400 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people; youth, health service workers and policy makers gathered at the Darwin Convention Centre from 4 – 7 November to discuss initiatives to improve health outcomes of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people aged 0-to-29-year-old.

Delegates included Professor Tom Calma , Dr Mark Wenitong from Apunipima ACCHO Cape York and James Ward SAHMRI

The National Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation’s (NACCHO) annual Members’ Conference kicked off with the Youth Conference, attended by 60 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander emerging leaders from the health sector.

The delegates were inspired by a range of speakers in the areas of self-determination, mental health and wellbeing, resilience, and social media. They engaged in discussions around raising the voices of the youth, undertaking genuine leadership roles and getting a seat at the table in decision making and policy development.

Safe-sex superheroes Condoman and Lubelicious – part of the successful sexual health community education and engagement campaign by Queensland Aids Council with our deadly youth delegates.

The NACCHO Youth Conference set the tone for the Members’ Conference with 40 outstanding speakers and panellists.

Some of the key highlights included:

The Government in partnership with NACCHO and the Australian Medical Association (AMA) has developed a revised funding model for ACCHOs, investing an additional $90 million over three years under the Indigenous Australians’ Health Programme (IAHP). NACCHO welcomes this new funding that will further support the delivery of culturally appropriate, comprehensive primary healthcare.

See full Minister Greg Hunt Press Release HERE

Presentation by Dr Kelvin Kong, an Aboriginal ear, nose and throat (ENT) specialist with great insight around his research on ear issues affecting up to 70% of children in remote communities.

Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between NACCHO and the Royal Australian College of GPs (RACGP) to a five-year program to champion community control and self-determination; improving cultural competency, eliminating racism in the healthcare system and further developing an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health workforce.

CEO of NACCHO, Ms Pat Turner AM and Co-Chair of the END RHD alliance along with Professor Jonathan Carapetis AM, presented a sneak peek into the soon-to-be launched RHD Endgame Strategy aimed at eliminating rheumatic heart disease (RHD) in Australia by 2031.

They were accompanied by Raychelle and Noeletta McKenzie, who shared their personal experiences of RHD and their work to empower communities as part of RHDAustralia’s Champions4change program.

Hey you mob?! Did you hear that SA took out the Karaoke cup last night – back in its rightful home

Part 2 First Nations youth are at the forefront of this year’s National Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation (NACCHO) Conference

A stellar line-up of inspiring young speakers has focused on mental health at the 2019 National Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation (NACCHO) Youth Conference in Darwin this week.

Themed as ‘healthy youth, healthy future’, about 100 young people from across the country gathered on balmy Larrakia country on Monday to discuss issues important to each of their communities over the next three days.

See Full Report HERE 

Notable speakers included mental health youth worker Brooke Blurton (pictured above with NACCHO Staff Oliver Tye Left and Brendan Dunn Right ) and former NRL champion and mental health advocate Preston Campbell, who shared his own experiences with the young delegates.

“The biggest thing that we’re all getting from it is that even though they’re really doing some good things in their space, they can actually do more,” Mr Campbell told NITV News.

 

“More that’s going to not only benefit their communities, but also make things a little bit easier on themselves. I think that’s what these events are all about – being able to come together and share what we’re doing and what we can all gain from it.”

The attendees are now able to take home the skills, knowledge and inspiration of their peers to their communities to grow themselves and continue their important work

NACCHO Aboriginal Youth Health #ClosingtheGap #HaveYourSayCTG : The #NACCHOYouth19 Conference kicks off today in Darwin with a great line up of inspirational speakers

“Young people make up 54 per cent of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander population and look up to the example set by generations past and present to navigate ever-changing and complex social and health issues.

We are thrilled to announce an illustrious line-up of speakers at the NACCHO Youth Conference and are expecting to host around 100 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander youth delegates from across the country.

The conference will provide opportunities to explore and discuss issues of importance to young people, their families and communities, and help shape our youth towards becoming tomorrow’s leader.”

NACCHO Acting Chair, Donnella Mills.

The National Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation (NACCHO) will today host its annual National Youth Conference, Members’ Conference and AGM from 4–7 November 2019 at the Darwin Convention Centre, commencing with the Youth Conference on 4 November.

The 2019 theme for the Members’ Conference is Because of Them, We Must! Improving health outcomes for people aged 0-to-29-year-olds. In line with the theme follows the central focus on building resilience for the NACCHO Youth Conference Healthy youth, healthy future.

NACCHO is thrilled to announce some of the featured speakers for the 2019 Youth Conference which include:

Preston Campbell, Former NRL star, community leader and founder of the Preston Campbell Foundation;

Brooke Blurton, Noongar-Yamatji woman, social media influencer and youth advocate;

Jarlyn Spinks and Katy Crawford of the Kimberley Aboriginal Medical Service (KAMS) team for the campaign ‘Her Rules Her Game’ which celebrates the strength of Aboriginal women playing football in the Kimberley region;

Marlee Silva, Gamilaroi-Dunghutti woman and Co-Founder of #tiddas4tiddas, an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women’s empowerment social media initiative;

Brendan Dunn of the Coalition of Peaks Secretariat in Canberra;

Dr.Mangatjay Mcgregor, Yolgnu man from Milingimbi and intern doctor at the Royal Darwin Hospital;

Oliver Tye, Noongar man based on Ngunnawal Country in the ACT and Policy Officer at NACCHO.

Part 2 Closing the Gap / Have your say about youth issues 

Deadline extended to Friday, 8 November 2019.

 

The engagements are now in full swing across Australia and this is generating more interest than we had anticipated in our survey on Closing the Gap.

The Coalition of Peaks has had requests from a number of organisations across Australia seeking, some Coalition of Peak members and some governments for more time to promote and complete the survey.

We want to make sure everyone has the opportunity to have their say on what should be included in a new agreement on Closing the Gap so it is agreed to extend the deadline for the survey to Friday, 8 November 2019.

This will help build further understanding and support for the new agreement and will not impact our timeframes for negotiating with government as we were advised at the most recent Partnership Working Group meeting that COAG will not meet until early 2020.

There is a discussion booklet that has background information on Closing the Gap and sets out what will be talked about in the survey.

The survey will take a little bit of time to complete. It would be great if you can answer all the questions, but you can also just focus on the issues that you care about most.

To help you prepare your answers, you can look at a full copy here

The survey is open to everyone and can be accessed here:

https://www.naccho.org.au/programmes/coalition-of-peaks/have-your-say/