Indigenous health 3
Track 19
| Sunday, October 29, 2023 |
| 10:35 AM - 12:30 PM |
| Meeting Room C4.11 |
Speaker
Dr Jason Agostino
Medical Advisor
National Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation (NACCHO)
What happens when Aboriginal health is in Aboriginal hands
10:35 AM - 11:30 AMSummary
This session, presented by three leaders from the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community-controlled health sector – Donnella Mills, Dawn Casey and Jason Agostino – will show how a model of primary health care, developed by a small Aboriginal community in response to systemic racism in the 1960s, has now become a best-practice model for the mainstream.
The success has been demonstrated in the recent pandemic. While First Nations populations in other countries experienced the highest death rates in the world, deaths among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people were far less than their share of the population, despite significantly higher co-morbidities and 2.3-times the burden of disease
In 1971, Redfern set up its own health service. Similar Aboriginal community-controlled health organisations (ACCHOs) sprang up around the country. These developments even predated Medibank in 1975. There are now 145 ACCHOs operating 550 clinics, Australia-wide. Collectively, they employ over 7,000 staff (54 per cent are Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islanders), which makes them the third largest employer of Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander people in the country.
The primary health care approach developed at Redfern was innovative. It mirrored international aspirations at the time for accessible, effective and comprehensive health care with a focus on prevention and social justice. It even influenced the WHO Alma-Ata Declaration on Primary Health Care in 1978. This model continues to develop to meet the needs of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community, through multi-disciplinary team based care that spans public health, primary care and advocacy.
In a year in which Australia is stumbling towards a referendum to consider a Voice to Parliament and constitutional recognition for its First Nations peoples, it is all the more important to demonstrate what happens when Aboriginal health is in Aboriginal hands.
The success has been demonstrated in the recent pandemic. While First Nations populations in other countries experienced the highest death rates in the world, deaths among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people were far less than their share of the population, despite significantly higher co-morbidities and 2.3-times the burden of disease
In 1971, Redfern set up its own health service. Similar Aboriginal community-controlled health organisations (ACCHOs) sprang up around the country. These developments even predated Medibank in 1975. There are now 145 ACCHOs operating 550 clinics, Australia-wide. Collectively, they employ over 7,000 staff (54 per cent are Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islanders), which makes them the third largest employer of Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander people in the country.
The primary health care approach developed at Redfern was innovative. It mirrored international aspirations at the time for accessible, effective and comprehensive health care with a focus on prevention and social justice. It even influenced the WHO Alma-Ata Declaration on Primary Health Care in 1978. This model continues to develop to meet the needs of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community, through multi-disciplinary team based care that spans public health, primary care and advocacy.
In a year in which Australia is stumbling towards a referendum to consider a Voice to Parliament and constitutional recognition for its First Nations peoples, it is all the more important to demonstrate what happens when Aboriginal health is in Aboriginal hands.
Takeaways
1. Discuss the role of self-determination in delivering care to First Nations peoples
2. Describe the models of care implemented in Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisations
3. Describe how the Aboriginal Community Controlled Health model led responses to the COVID-19 pandemic
2. Describe the models of care implemented in Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisations
3. Describe how the Aboriginal Community Controlled Health model led responses to the COVID-19 pandemic
Biography
Jason is a GP and an epidemiologist with a focus on the health of Australia's First Nations peoples. He is the senior medical advisor at the National Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation and is a GP in the Aboriginal community of Yarrabah in far north Queensland.
Dr Karen McFadyen
Southern Cross University
iSISTAQUIT: culturally-specific training for health care professionals to support pregnant Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women quit smoking.
11:35 AM - 12:30 PMSummary
Around 44% of Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander women smoke during pregnancy compared to 12% of their general population counterparts. Evidence-based quit smoking advice received from health care professionals (HCPs) can increase smoking cessation rates. However, HCPs lack culturally appropriate smoking cessation training, which is a major barrier to provision of smoking cessation care for this population. There are several cultural aspects related to smoking that may be important for HCPs to understand when helping Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women quit. The aim of the iSISTAQUIT program is to provide HCP’s with culturally-specific smoking cessation training. The online iSISTAQUIT training comprises 14 e-Learning modules that takes around 4 hours to complete. This proposed skill building session will be a condensed version of the online training designed for face-to-face delivery and for small group workshopping. The primary goal of this skill building session will be to encourage participants to further engage with the culturally-specific online training which was an RACGP Accredited CPD (Cat. 1) Activity for for the 2020-2022 triennium. HCPs will have increased knowledge, skills and confidence to provide effective smoking cessation care of pregnant Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander women. From the skill building session it is anticipated that participants will be able to: 1. Understand the psychosocial and cultural context of smoking among pregnant Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women; 2. Apply culturally safe smoking cessation practices that support Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people; 3. Make a quit plan and; 4. Conduct a risk/benefit assessment on the safe use of NRT in pregnancy.
Takeaways
1. Understand the psychosocial and cultural context of smoking among pregnant Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women. 2. Apply culturally safe smoking cessation practices that support Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. 3. Conduct a risk/benefit assessment on the safe use of NRT in pregnancy and make a quit plan.
Biography
Nicole Ryan (PhD) is a diversified researcher and project manager with a suite of research, project management and teaching skills that have been successfully transferred between positions in medical education and research disciplines. Since 2018 Nicole has worked in the field of behaviour change therapy through the SISTAQUIT and iSISTAQUIT programs that train and support health professionals in their smoking cessation care of pregnant Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women. The team have also developed a healthy lifestyle app to further support Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women to have healthy pregnancies and healthy bubs. Nicole held an NHMRC Early Career Fellowship in Toxicology. Nicole’s other interests have been in the project management of a GP Certificate that supports GPs in their clinical supervision of MD students and registrars and the mentoring of students through supervision of research projects or in the classroom for problem based learning and research methods.
