Final Agenda Leading the Way in Aboriginal Health 2012

AHCWA Model of Care Document

AHCWA Strength & Needs Analysis

AHCWA WACHS ALO WORKSHOP REPORT

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Outreach Workers National Workshop Report

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Outreach Workers National Workshop Report

AHCWA 2011 State Conference Report (1.43 MB)
AHCWA 2011 Planning Day Report (533.67 kB)
MedicareLocalsMeetingsReport 1415 April 2011 (361.77 kB)
ABORIGINAL Sexual Health and Blood-borne Virus Research Meeting Report (2.86 MB)
ahcwa-funding-media-release-april13,-2011
AHCWA FEDERAL OPAL FUEL and funding media release 130411

AHCWA – Annual State Sector Conference Presentations
Presentation slides from AHCWA’s Annual State Sector Conference 12th – 13th April 2011 are now available on our website via the following link: Conference Presentations

Ernie Dingo for ACHWA state conference

AHCWA-MEMBERS PLANNING DAY AT THE VINES

AHCWA media statement on 031110

AHCWA media statement Launch on 04 11 10

In our case it is quality improvement of Aboriginal Medical Health Services and OATSIHS funded services such as Non – Government Alcohol and Other Drug (AOD) Services and Emotional – Social Well-Being services. It focuses on standards within the different models (AGPAL, QIC & ISO) on accreditation and how adhering to these standards can make services better and more productive for our clients/customers and staff involved in delivering services.

This will be achieved through:

• The promotion and awareness raising on the need for accreditation and the value of quality improvement programs;
• Partnership role with WANADA to provide the above with AOD services, Emotional – Social Well-Being services and ACCHS;
• Provide on-going monitoring and reporting to OATSIHS on the progress of services in achieving accreditation;
• Facilitate AGPAL, QIC & ISO training for Aboriginal health service staff, emotional social well-being staff and AOD staff across the different regions..

At this time we have visited quite a few sites across the State from Kununurra – Wyndham through to Kalgoorlie and advised and supported AOD services and Associate members in what is needed for accreditation. Other services such as the Broome Dialysis Unit at KAMSC has achieved accreditation and the process is now underway for others to re-do their accreditation standards. AHCWA has just signed an agreement with WANADA who are the peak body for non government AOD services to work with us in achieving accreditation for their member services.

Grant application guidelines for Accreditation Support Grants are available on the website and can be downloaded from www.health.gov.au/OATSIHaccreditation

The first ASG funding round has now closed. Should any Health Organisation wish to submit an application ‘out-of-round’ please forward submissions to OATSIHqualityenquiries@health.gov.au or contact OATSIH on 1800 723 676 for further advice.

Contact AHCWA

Phone: (08) 9227 1631

Fax: (08) 9228 1099

to enable service delivery to better meet the needs of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community by providing culturally appropriate training and development.

Our Courses will start in February 2011, dates are as follows:

 Certificate III in ATSI Primary Health Care 8^th February 2011

 Certificate IV in ATSI primary Health Care 9^th February 2011

For more information please visit AHCWA’s Training and Development website www.ahcwatraining.com.au

Under a plan put forward by a Darwin psychiatrist, the national college of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health would for the first time take charge of the credentialling, education and championing of Aboriginal health workers, who work in many communities in a variety of nursing and paramedical roles.

But the proposed body would also encompass all others working to improve the health of indigenous people — including those with experience rather than formal qualifications. Among the college’s key roles would be the setting of standards and ethics codes, establishment of training programs, defending its members’ interests, conducting research and advising governments and policy institutes.

In a paper published yesterday in the Medical Journal of Australia, psychiatrist Robert Parker says that while many organisations have some role in indigenous health, none seem to offer any mechanism for ensuring that health workers are delivering culturally appropriate services.

“Membership of a college could help to ensure that care provided to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in a range of localities is of a consistently high standard,” writes Dr Parker, associate professor of psychiatry at James Cook University in Darwin. “A national college of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health could contribute to the long-term strategy necessary to address the health disadvantages faced by indigenous Australians.”

Dr Parker told The Australian that consistency was lacking in government policy, which was characterised by short-termism and changes in direction.

A new college could improve that by advocating more forcefully for an evidence-based approach. In addition, it could improve standards by effective credentialling.

“No one has really got a clue whether they (Aboriginal health workers) are qualified or not, and what level of service is provided,” Dr Parker said.

However, in order to be inclusive, he said any new college would not follow the model of other medical colleges — which keep a tight lid on numbers by means of a difficult exam — but instead allow tiers of membership according to the nature of a health professional’s qualifications or experience.

Indigenous health leaders reacted to Dr Parker’s ideas with cautious approval.

Ted Wilkes, a professorial fellow working at the National Drug Research Institute at Curtin University, said Dr Parker was “saying all the right things”.

Mick Gooda, chief executive of the Co-operative Research Centre for Aboriginal Health in Darwin, said the college was “something that we would support” but it had to … suit the needs of indigenous people.

The Australian Indigenous Doctors’ Association (AIDA) says Aboriginal children need better education so they can become health workers and doctors.

The association says Indigenous people have a deeper understanding of health issues in their communities and bring traditional healing techniques passed down through generations to the medical profession.

The president of AIDA, Dr Tamara Mackean, says governments need to make sure Indigenous children have good teachers and a strong curriculum to address historical disadvantages, so they can move on to higher study and professional careers.

“As for individual families, there’s lots of really positive stories of families that have their own histories of healing, and a lot of good stories of people drawing together both Western-style medicine and traditional medicine,” she said.

Dr Mackean says there is over 100 Indigenous medical students in the Australian education system at the moment, but governments need to encourage more.

“We’re really about comprehensive robust education systems in primary and secondary school, but also getting kids to start to see and experience what life could be like as a doctor,” she said.

“That’s a lot of the work that AIDA does when it goes and visits schools, or interacts with local communities.”

Dr Mackean also says Indigenous health professionals often have a good rapport with Indigenous patients and can significantly bolster the numbers of people in the communities who go to clinics for medical help.

“There’s critical things that Indigenous doctors can do that can make people feel more comfortable, feel like they’re going to be understood, feel like they don’t have to repeat themselves, or have to go into details that they don’t necessarily want to go into details about,” she said.

The Australian Nurses Federation is calling on the Federal Government to protect nurses’ wages and conditions by creating a single award for the profession.

In a submission to the Australian Industrial Relations Commission, the Federation has asked for the current award system to be consolidated and to provide minimum entitlements for nurses across all health sectors.

Secretary Ged Kearney says the Federal Government should not move nurses to separate industry-based awards.

Ms Kearney says it would force more nurses out of lower-paid sectors, such as aged care.

“There’s about 300,000 nurses in this country and we would like to see all nurses no matter where they work, what health sector, what hospital, to be confident that their terms and conditions, their career structure their safety net is the same wherever they move,” she said.

The Australian – Sydney, Australia
… oversaw dramatic improvements in student attendance and achievement,
said the quality of education in remote Aboriginal schools had been ignored…