Alwin Chong, University of South Australia and Fiona Arney, University of South Australia
New reports show a widespread lack of care for the cultural needs of many of the 19,000 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children in child protection and out-of-home care.
The facilities were poor and some inmates were subjected to unsuccessful experimentation with a “vaccine” that used arsenic compounds.
Hospital Ward Dorre Island/State library of Western Australia
The lock hospitals inflicted incalculable traumas on Aboriginal people, wrenching them away from families and country.
In the SBS documentary series Who Do You Think You Are?, Peter Garrett traces the history of his grandmother, who worked in the “lock hospitals” as a nurse.
Screenshot/Who Do You Think You Are/ SBS
Hundreds of Aboriginal people were incarcerated on Dorre and Bernier islands for “venereal disease” between 1908 and 1919. The lock hospitals were penal rather than therapeutic institutions.
Chair of the Prime Minister’s Indigenous Advisory Council, Warren Mundine, speaking on Q&A, August 29, 2016.
Q&A
Chair of the Prime Minister’s Indigenous Advisory Council, Warren Mundine, told Q&A that $30 billion is spent every year on 500,000 Indigenous people in Australia. Is that right?
Of 1082 Indigenous specific.
programs identified in the report,
92% have never been evaluated to see if they are achieving their objectives.
AAP/Dan Peled
A new report highlights how little we know about what works and what doesn’t when it comes to publicly-funded Indigenous programs. It’s a similar story in other policy areas – but we can do better.
Indigenous women who smoke are well aware of the risks for their babies and want to do something about it.
Ray Kelly
Almost half of pregnant Indigenous women smoke compared to one in eight in the non-Indigenous population. This means 7,000-9,000 Indigenous babies every year are exposed to smoking in the womb.
Birthing on country generally refers to an Aboriginal mother giving birth to her child on the lands of their ancestors.
Skylines/Shutterstock
Where birthing on country is not offered, women leave their families weeks before birth. Or she can choose to give birth in her community without skilled birth attendants, which is risky.
Aboriginal Victorians are nearly eight times more likely to be involved in a family violence incident than non-Indigenous Victorians.
PROMichael Coghlan/Flickr
Mainstream family violence services must also become culturally sensitive and responsive so they too can provide services to Indigenous community members.
Aboriginal groups need to play an active part in Aboriginal health to ensure we get it right.
Dan Peled/AAP
How can primary health networks work closely with Aboriginal services to ensure health care is appropriate and culturally competent?
To improve Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander nutrition and health we need real community consultation, improved public governance and political will.
Gina Lyons, Irrunytju WA. Photo by Suzanne Bryce, NPY Women’s Council.
After years of neglect and a notable absence in last week’s Closing the Gap report, nutrition is finally being recognised as integral to closing the gap on Indigenous disadvantage.
Early support could save lives and allow Aboriginal people with mental and cognitive disability to live with dignity in their communities.
Yasmeen/Flickr
Aboriginal people with mental and cognitive disability are managed mostly by police, courts, prison and hospitals. It’s costing us millions, when kinder and cheaper alternatives exist.
Aboriginal people with mental and cognitive disability are ‘managed’ by police, courts and prisons due to a lack of appropriate community-based services.
Kate Ausburn/flickr
Australia’s high rates of imprisonment and re-imprisonment of Aboriginal people with mental and cognitive disabilities is not only shameful, it is entirely predictable and preventable.
Professor Pat Dudgeon and Tony Jones, speaking on Q&A, October 5, 2015.
Q&A
Q&A presenter Tony Jones asked psychologist and research fellow Pat Dudgeon if Indigenous youth suicide rates across the top half of Australia are the highest in the world. We check the research evidence.
Syphilis outbreaks tend to occur in marginalised populations where there is a lack of affordable, appropriate and culturally acceptable health care.
yaruman5/Flickr
James Ward, South Australian Health & Medical Research Institute; Donna B Mak, University of Notre Dame Australia; Johanna Dups, Australian National University, and Nathan Ryder, University of Newcastle
The syphilis outbreak in Central Australia is not about child abuse. But it highlights the urgent need for investment in sexual health services for Aboriginal Australians living in remote areas.
The Northern Territory’s Alcohol Mandatory Treatment Act is disproportionately applied to Aboriginal people.
Terry Trewin/AAP
In the Northern Territory, public drunkenness can force someone into an alcohol treatment centre for three months. The policy has no basis in evidence and discriminates against Aboriginal people.
Smoking is estimated to cause one in five Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander deaths.
Dave Hunt/AAP
Aeron Hurt, WHO Collaborating Centre for Reference and Research on Influenza
It’s that time of year again when scientists and doctors make predictions about the impending flu season and we must decide whether to go out and get the flu vaccine.
Nutrition is one of the most important determinants of health, but has been neglected in policy.
Jason Brackins/Flickr
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have significantly poorer health and lower life expectancy than other Australians. But while reducing these inequalities is a priority for governments, national…
Many Indigenous families fear the welfare system.
AAP Image/Neda Vanovac
In some jurisdictions of Australia, the rate of Indigenous children in foster, kinship and residential care on any one night has reached almost one in ten. This rate is almost ten times higher than non-Aboriginal…
Independent journalist and health writer; Adjunct Senior Lecturer, Sydney School of Public Health, University of Sydney; Founder of Croakey.org. PhD candidate, University of Canberra