This is Croakey’s final post from the NACCHO Summit, and it features the work of HITnet, which has 70 interactive kiosks across the country providing on-screen health information for Aboriginal Torres Strait Islander people.
In an interview below, one of the co-founders of HITnet, Julie Gibson, gives a demonstration of how the hubs work.
HITnet kiosks can be found in Aboriginal communities, medical services and in prisons, and there are plans to extend the network to about 300 sites, she tells journalist John Thompson-Mills.
Melbourne is due to get its first HITnet kiosk soon, at the Melbourne Children’s Court. HITnet stands for the Heuristic Interactive Technology network.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9k-o-SrEdqo&feature=youtu.be[/youtube]
HITnet is also mentioned in this article on Indigenous health and social media that I wrote for the Medical Journal of Australia earlier this year, which describes how the kiosks embed health messages in culturally based digital storytelling.
Helen Travers, another of HITnet’s founders, says this has brought wider health benefits, by developing the content-creation skills of communities. “The exciting thing for health promotion is that this kind of work is increasing digital literacy and digital inclusion,” she says.
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Previous Croakey posts from the Summit
• A case study of Twitter power for Aboriginal health advocacy and self-determination
• Addressing lateral violence in the workplace
• Delivering health in a basket for mums and bubs in Cape York
• Call for action on alcohol, drugs, STIs and HIV prevention
• Getting active at Warburton and healthy catering guidelines
• Making Telehealth part of the future
• A call for better support for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Workers
• Improving the lives of disabled people in remote communities: case study from Warburton
• The road to Closing the Gap may be turning a corner
• “Absolutely awesome” tweet reporting from NACCHO Summit
