Tag Archives: adrian carson

May 12 2020

Aboriginal Health #CoronaVirus News Alert No 59 : May 12 #KeepOurMobSafe #OurJobProtectOurMob : Adrian Carson CEO @IUIH_ @DeadlyChoices The importance of health promotion and prevention during the #covid-19 pandemic

” The COVID-19 pandemic highlights more than ever, the need for a robust, agile and culturally relevant health promotion and prevention strategy, particularly for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

While traditional public health promotion[1] has delivered important messaging and education to mainstream Australians, it has failed to reach and have meaning to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.  This is due to a range of factors including: use of language and terminology that is foreign, lower health literacy, and stigmatisation through ‘failure’ to change lifestyle choices.[2]

The dispersed geographic spread of our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities also presents a challenge in ensuring that key health promotion and prevention messages are delivered through a range of appropriate channels and multi-media formats. ”

Adrian Carson has over 28 years’ experience in the Indigenous Health sector, working within government and non-government organisations.

As CEO of the Institute for Urban Indigenous Health Ltd, he leads the development and integration of health and wellbeing services to Australia’s largest and fastest growing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander population in South East Queensland.

He has served as Chief Executive Officer of the Queensland Aboriginal and Islander Health Council and on numerous other Aboriginal health organisations.

Originally published HERE 

While many Australians may believe that the majority of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders live in remote and very remote regions, the majority (79%) in fact live in urban areas. [3]

South East Queensland has recorded the largest and equal fastest growing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander population in the country.[4]  It is estimated that the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander population will grow to 133,000 by 2031. [5]

To address the growing population and demand for health services in the region, the Institute for Urban Indigenous Health (IUIH) was established in 2009 to assist the four member Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Services (ACCHSs) with regional planning, development and delivery of comprehensive primary health care services.

Deadly Choices was established as the flagship preventative health and community engagement brand of IUIH.  “Deadly” meaning good to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, Deadly Choices is a strengths-based approach that uses cultural identity to define what it means to make healthy choices and reinforces our people as leaders and health promoters.[6]

Deadly Choices is considered one of Australia’s most recognizable Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander brands, with over 30 Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisations ACCHOS and 16 NRL and AFL clubs nationally already delivering Deadly Choices licensed activities across the country.

Behind the brand is a suite of health education, behaviour change programs and social marketing that have increased the number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders taking control of their health by accessing their local health services, completing regular Health Checks, and engaging in physical activity, nutrition, quit smoking and other healthy lifestyle programs – all critical determinants of better health outcomes.

Since 2010-11, Deadly Choices has contributed to:

  • 762% increase in health checks completed in SEQ[7]
  • 33,000 new patients reached
  • 576% increase in GP Management Plans

In 2018-19 alone, there were 38,000 active clients in SEQ and over 23,000 health checks completed.[8]

An external evaluation of Deadly Choices multimedia campaign[9] found very strong campaign recognition (73%), call to action was very high (85% indicated starting some health change after seeing the campaign) and exceptional Net Promoter Score[10] – 59 compared to best industry score of 27.

The emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic in Australia and increasing restrictions on group assembly and social distancing necessitated a rethinking of the structure and delivery of Deadly Choices programs and activities.

Building on the recognition and experience with highly engaged Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people on social media[11], Deadly Choices dramatically increased our offerings.

Important COVID-19 awareness, education and prevention messaging was developed for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander audiences.  Social media platforms (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok) continued to carry these new messages along with existing physical activity, nutrition, quit smoking and competitions.

During the first week of trialing the increased online presence, Deadly Choices achieved a massive 31,683 reach and 876 reactions to our Facebook post on “We Can Control the Spread of Coronavirus – it’s up to us.”  Similarly, the “Deadly Guide to social distancing” reached 16,293 with 244 reactions.

Live streaming of our DCFit physical activity program and Good Quick Tukka (GQT) cooking program commenced in week two.  Current engagement of the first series sits at over 4,300 views of the DCFit session and over 5,400 views of the GQT program.  In week three, the second series of DCFit sits at over 4,000 views and GQT sits at over 1,800 within one hour of live streaming.

VIEW HERE 

There is appetite within our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities for health promotion, prevention and education that is a cultural fit and engages with our people in a positive way.

Deadly Choices is well positioned to ensure that our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities are informed and up to date, not just about healthy lifestyles, but also prevention and recognition of COVID-19 symptoms.

The disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic has presented a rapid opportunity to rethink our traditional messaging and methods of health promotion.  This is something which can be shared with mainstream public health promotion.

Further investment and flexibility of funding to allow such innovation by ACCHSs is needed.  This will ensure that appropriate and timely health promotion and prevention messages reach our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities.

References:

Australian Bureau of Statistics 2017, Census of Population and Housing: Reflecting Australia – Stories from the Census, 2016; Cat No. 20171.0

Deadly Choices 2020, Deadly Choices ROI & statistics, Deadly Choices website: https://deadlychoices.com.au/licensees/roi-and-statistics/

Hefler, M; Kerrigan, V; Henryks, J; Freeman, B & D. Thomas 2018, ‘Social media and health information sharing among Australian Indigenous people’ in Health Promotion International, 2019; 34; 706-715.

IUIH 2019, IUIH Annual Report 2018-19, IUIH, Brisbane.

Markham, F & N. Biddle 2017, Indigenous Population Change in the 2016 Census, Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy Research (CAEPR), Australian National University (ANU), Canberra.

McPhail-Bell, K (2014), Deadly Choices: better ways of doing health promotion, downloaded 8 April 2020, accessible at https://eprints.qut.edu.au/76238/

McPhail-Bell, K; Appo, N; Haymes, A; Bond, C; Brough, M & B. Fredericks (2018), ‘Deadly Choices empowering Indigenous Australians through social networking sites’, in Health Promotion International, 2018; 33; pp 770-780.

Pollinate 2019, Evaluation of Deadly Choices Statewide Campaign, Pollinate, Melbourne.

World Health Organisation 1986, Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion, First International Conference on Health Promotion, Ottawa, 21 November 1986

[1] The Ottawa Charter (WHO 1986) defines health promotion as ‘the process of enabling people to increase control over the determinants of health and thereby improve their health’.

[2] McPhail-Bell 2014, Deadly Choices: better ways of doing health promotion, QUT, Brisbane.

[3] Australian Bureau of Statistics 2017, Census of Population and Housing: Reflecting Australia – Stories from the Census, 2016; Cat No. 20171.0

[4] Australian Bureau of Statistics 2017, Census of Population and Housing: Reflecting Australia – Stories from the Census, 2016; Cat No. 20171.0

[5] Markham & Biddle 2017, Indigenous Population Change in the 2016 Census, CAEPR, ANU.

[6] McPhail-Bell, K; Appo, N; Haymes, A; Bond, C; Brough, M & B. Fredericks (2018), ‘Deadly Choices empowering Indigenous Australians through social networking sites’, in Health Promotion International, 2018; 33; pp 770-780.

[7] Deadly Choices 2020, Deadly Choices ROI & statistics, Deadly Choices website: https://deadlychoices.com.au/licensees/roi-and-statistics/

[8] IUIH 2019, IUIH Annual Report, IUIH, Brisbane.

[9] Pollinate 2019, Evaluation of Deadly Choices Statewide Campaign, Pollinate, Melbourne.

[10] Net Promotor Score (NPS) measures customer loyalty to brand

[11] Hefler, et al 2018 found that social media use is higher among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people than the general Australian population.

Oct 12 2017

Aboriginal Maternity Health Program : #CATSINaM17 @IUIH_ Million-dollar boost for groundbreaking #Indigenous maternity program

“It is informed by Indigenous knowledge and community control with a redesigned health service to provide 24/7 continuity of midwifery care and birthing in an Indigenous birth centre,

“With Indigenous leadership and a team with expertise in Indigenous health and research we can translate what we know works in other settings, and other countries, into practice here in Australia.”

Institute for Urban Indigenous Health CEO Adrian Carson said a key component of the project was the Indigenous control and governance of services.

A maternity program designed to achieve better health outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women and their babies has received a $1.1 million grant from the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC).

The project, led by The University of Queensland’s Professor Sue Kildea and researchers from the University of Sydney and the Institute for Urban Indigenous Health, will implement Birthing on Country on a number of sites with a view to an Australia-wide roll out.

The NHMRC grant will help determine the sustainability of a Birthing on Country service model in each community, along with the impact on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women, their communities and health services.

“The Birthing On Country program has a strong emphasis on culturally and clinically safe care, strengthened support for families, growing a culturally capable workforce and the Indigenous maternal and infant workforce,” Professor Kildea said.

“This program focuses on the year before and the year after birth, as the most important time in life.

“It also allows us to review the effect on three of the most costly health outcomes across the lifespan for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples: preterm birth, low birth weight and hospital admissions in the first year of life.”

Professor Kildea said the project team was calling on all Australian governments and health organisations to work with them to implement Birthing On Country programs.

“After two decades of research, including consultation with Indigenous elders and communities, we can now enact State and Federal health policy and put into practice national and international evidence of the safety, benefits and cost-effectiveness of culturally safe care,” she said.

“With Indigenous leadership and a team with a wealth of cross-disciplinary expertise in Indigenous and health services, we can translate what we know works in other settings and other countries into practice here in Australia.”

The project, entitled ‘Building on Our Strengths (BOOSt): Developing and Evaluating Birthing On Country Primary Maternity Units’, also includes the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Community Health Service (ATSICHS) Brisbane, the Waminda South Coast Women’s Health and Welfare Aboriginal Corporation, the Australian College of Midwives, the Congress of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Nurses and Midwives, and the Rhodanthe Lipsett Indigenous Midwifery Charitable Fund.

The NHMRC grant builds on previous funding from the Ian Potter Foundation in Melbourne, the Institute for Urban Indigenous Health, ATSICHS Brisbane, the Mater Health Service, Queensland Health and an earlier NHMRC grant.

 

Aug 18 2016

NACCHO Eye Health News : Fred Hollows Foundation partners with Aboriginal community Controlled Health sector for workforce initiative

TFHF Cadetship_L-R Brian Doolan (TFHF) John Brumby (TFHF) Lauren Hutchinson (student) Gabi Hollows (TFHF) Adrian Carson (IUIH)

“We know that 94 per cent of vision loss among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people is preventable or treatable, yet more than one-third of adults have never had an eye exam,

“We think having Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people as health professionals will reduce this figure – there really is a point of difference when it’s an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander person looking at your eyes, or taking care of your health,”

Jaki Adams-Barton, Manager of the Indigenous Australia Program at The Fred Hollows Foundation, said the new Workforce Initiative is key to filling the gap for Aboriginal health professionals in eye heath

“We have a great team here at IUIH and Lauren will have the ability to connect with a number of health professionals, giving her a more holistic look at the patient journey. She will experience first-hand the eye health conditions that affect our people here in south-east Queensland, including the huge impact diabetes is having on the eyes,”

Adrian Carson, CEO, Institute of Urban Indigenous Health, says Lauren will be able to expand her clinical knowledge during her time with the organisation.

A new $40,000 partnership between The Fred Hollows Foundation and the Institute for Urban Indigenous Health (IUIH) will provide optometry student Lauren Hutchinson with hands-on experience in communities in Brisbane in October, and the chance to visit rural communities in south east Queensland later on.

Photo caption: L-R: Brian Doolan (CEO, The Fred Hollows Foundation), John Brumby (Chair of Board, TFHF), Lauren Hutchinson (student), Gabi Hollows (Board Member, TFHF), Adrian Carson (CEO, IUIH)

Ms Hutchinson holds a Bachelor in Visual Science and is a Masters student in optometry at the Queensland University of Technology. A Wiradjuri woman, she was born in Molong NSW and attended St Joseph’s Primary School and Molong Central School (for High School).

Ms Hutchinson will spend three months training with the Aboriginal Community Controlled Health sector, learning on-the-job and through mentoring with the IUIH Regional Eye Health Unit and optometry clinics, as part of a team working in a multidisciplinary Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health organisation.

Optometry is a great career that can really make a difference to people’s lives, Ms Hutchinson said. “I’m really looking forward to working with IUIH. It will be such an invaluable opportunity to get some practical experience working with people in their local areas, as well as chance to work alongside some of the leading professionals in Indigenous eye health,” she said.

The Workforce Initiative will support practical placement across the IUIH’s 17 eye health clinics in optometry services and the ophthalmology clinic. As part of the program, Ms Hutchinson will learn about service delivery in rural and remote parts of Queensland.

 

Oct 21 2013

NACCHO health conference alert: Health Workforce National Conference to discuss Close the Gap initiatives and supporting workforce

Image for newsletters

National initiatives to close the gap in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander life expectancy and to build the supporting health workforce will be discussed and debated at Health Workforce Australia’s (HWA) 2013 national conference in November.

Information and registrations here

The life expectancy of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people is more than 10 years less than other Australians. In 2008, the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) agreed to close the gap in life expectancy within a generation by 2031.

This commitment affects all health professionals and the way care is provided.

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Greg Craven, Deputy Chair of the COAG Reform Council and Adrian Carson (pictured above ), Chief Executive Officer of the Institute for Urban Indigenous Health, will take part in a panel discussion at HWA’s conference, Skilled and Flexible – The health workforce for Australia’s future.

The session will feature a discussion on the progress made to improve health outcomes to close this gap and how Australia is tracking against its commitment. Mr Craven will also focus on flexible service delivery and funding.

“Any effort to close the gap must acknowledge that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Workers make an invaluable contribution,” HWA Acting Chief Executive Ian Crettenden said.

“They are often the first point of contact because Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people find it easier to access healthcare services from someone who they can relate to, who understands them and their culture.”

Janine Headshot

Romlie Mokak, Chief Executive of the Australian Indigenous Doctor’s Association, and Janine Milera (pictured above) , Chief Executive of the Congress of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Nurses and Midwives, will reveal initiatives underway to help increase the numbers of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health professionals in the Australian health workforce.

Murra Mullangari – Pathways Alive and Well is a national Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health careers development program, established by the Australian Indigenous Doctors’ Association to encourage Indigenous senior secondary school students to remain in school and pursue health careers.

Ms Milera will describe initiatives to overcome the challenge of many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people being uncomfortable using mainstream healthcare services.

More than 50 local and international speakers will explore the latest ideas on leadership, innovation and workforce reform at the event at the Adelaide Convention Centre from 18 to 20 November.

Registrations are now open for this year’s conference.

Concession tickets cost $350 and full price tickets are $600.

To attend the conference and find out more visit www.hwa.gov.au/2013conference

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