The Telethon Kids Institute is one of the largest, and most successful medical research institutes in Australia, comprising a dedicated and diverse team of more than 500 staff and students.
Established in 1990 by Founding Director Professor Fiona Stanley, the Institute was among the first to adopt a multidisciplinary approach to major health issues: clinical research, laboratory sciences and epidemiologists all under the one roof, to tackle complex diseases and issues in a number of ways.
Based on closely following outbreaks in schools and early learning centres across Australia throughout 2020, we have enough evidence to show how students can return to school safely.
Rather than continually focusing on the "gap" between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians, we should look at pathways to success within First Nations communities.
Children are among those most at risk from the indirect effects of coronavirus. It is time we prioritised the well-being of young people as a nation-building commitment.
More evidence has come in and confirmed what the government has been saying for some time. Children do get infected much less than adults with COVID-19 and when they do, they hardly spread it.
Large households, poor health literacy, not enough soap and vaccines, scepticism of mainstream services. These are some of the reasons urban Aboriginal people face increased risks.
Family violence issues are likely to be exacerbated by the COVID-10 pandemic. Lockdown can especially affect women and children who may wish to escape an abusive relationship or receive support.
Children who get the coronavirus often show mild symptoms and some have none at all. But they can still carry and transmit the virus.
Rates of resistance to the bacteria commonly known as golden staph are at least double in remote Indigenous communities what they are in Australia’s major cities.
Lucy Hughes Jones/AAP
Asha Bowen, Telethon Kids Institute and Steven Tong, The Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity
Antibiotic resistance is one of the greatest health challenges of the modern day. It's especially prevalent, and must be acted on, in Australia's remote Indigenous communities.
Lung disease can often be prevented with culturally appropriate health care and information.
Pamela Larid
Lung infections are the most common reason for Aboriginal children to be hospitalised. But many cases can be prevented by seeking treatment for wet coughs that last for four weeks or more.
The theory is that if therapies are started early enough, it might be possible to alter the trajectory of autism.
Shutterstock
Children with autism don't usually begin therapy until they're given a diagnosis, which rarely occurs before the age of two. But new research shows there's benefit to starting early.
Australia’s first Aboriginal Brain Injury Coordinator, Rebecca Clinch, with brain injury survivor Justin Kickett.
Edith Cowan University
The absence of Indigenous Australians in rehabilitation services has created the belief they don't want therapy. The reality is they want services which better meet their cultural needs.
The antibiotics commonly used to treat school sores, a skin infection affecting thousands of Aboriginal kids, are out of stock.
Terry Trewin/AAP
Almost half of Aboriginal kids living remotely will have a school sore at any one time. But there aren't enough of the right antibiotics to treat them.
Health education needs to lift spirits and give optimism, such as this image of Peter Parmbuk and Marcus Kinthari washing their hands at the Gerry the Germ area of the Wadeye Health Centre in 2010.
Clive Hyde/AAP
The disempowering effect of lack of knowledge, and the downstream impacts on health behaviours and outcomes, underpins the disadvantage of First Nations people.
The community environment clearly has a large influence on child development, but exactly which factors are most important?
Tracey Nearmy/AAP
Research has started to identify the key factors in creating communities that promote good early childhood development.
If youths with brain impairment had been identified and supported early, their entry into the justice system could have been avoided entirely.
from shutterstock.com
New research assessing young people in WA detention found 89% were severely impaired in at least one area of brain function. One in three had fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD).
While death rates from heart and kidney disease have dropped among Indigenous people, death rates from cancer are on the rise.
from shutterstock.com
Politicians make sweeping statements on how to close the gap. But here's advice from people working directly with Indigenous communities who have evidence for what actually works.
Impetigo happens when itching causes the skin to break and let in disease-causing bacteria.
from shutterstock.com
While school sores – or impetigo – is a treatable condition, if left untreated it can lead to much more serious illness such as kidney and heart disease.
The ruling comes as a relief to many in the trans community.
www.shutterstock.com
Until now, Australia was the only country that required youth with gender dysphoria to seek approval from the Family Court for the second stage of hormone treatments.