The column continues Croakey’s strong focus this week on children’s health and wellbeing, and also covers a raft of gobal and public health news, as well as yet more cuts to regional journalism jobs.
We link readers into a new discussion paper on cultural safety, as well as news of the first Indigenous woman to lead a major political party in Australia, and the crowning of Māori queen Nga Wai Hono i te po Paki.
Thanks to everyone who contributed to Conference Watch, and the long list of upcoming events and conferences.
The quotable?
We – and especially our children – should be able to walk into a store or a gym or a school and assume the air is clean to breathe. Like water from the faucet, regulations should ensure our air is safe.”
Children under threat
When Catherine Russell, executive director of UNICEF, addressed the organisation’s executive board meeting on 3 September, she noted how much had changed in the world over the past year.
“It is sobering to consider how much the world has changed since we met at this time last year, the war in Gaza, famine in Sudan, advancements in artificial intelligence, wildfires, storms and warming seas, disease outbreaks, and groundbreaking vaccines,” she said.
“All of this continues to have profound implications for the world’s children, and more changes are sure to come before the year is out.”
Russell noted that in November, it will be 35 years since the 1989 adoption of the Convention on the Rights of the Child – and outlined how these rights are not being upheld in many countries around the world.
She called for cost-effective, evidence-based policy solutions to the root causes of inequality, generating benefits for children’s overall wellbeing.
“We know that when we invest in systems that lift up children, communities flourish, and economies thrive,” she said.
Her presentation gives a devastating overview of the threats facing millions of children, from Gaza to Sudan, Myanmar, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and the Pacific region.
COVID updates
This study identified several key strategies across four countries – Australia, the USA, Canada, and Guatemala – in 17 papers. These included understanding communities’ needs, collaborating with communities, tailored messaging, addressing underlying systemic traumas and social health gaps, and early logistics planning.
The researchers concluded that inclusion of First Nations-centred strategies to reduce COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy is essential to delivering an equitable pandemic response. “Implementation of these strategies in the continued effort to vaccinate against COVID-19 and in future pandemics is integral to ensure that First Nations peoples are not disproportionately affected by disease.”
The Journal of Hospital Infection: Admission screening testing of patients and staff N95 respirators are cost-effective in reducing COVID-19 hospital-acquired infections
In acute care settings, staff N95 respirators and admission screening testing of patients can reduce hospital-acquired COVID-19 and COVID-19 deaths, and are cost saving because of reduced patient bed-days and staff replacement needs.
Scientific American: Kids Are Headed Back to School. Are They Breathing Clean Air?
This article says that four years into a viral pandemic that everyone now knows spreads through the air, most schools in the United States have done little to nothing to make sure their students will breathe safely (would it be much different across Australia?).
“We – and especially our children – should be able to walk into a store or a gym or a school and assume the air is clean to breathe. Like water from the faucet, regulations should ensure our air is safe,” the article says.
The COVID-causing virus SARS-CoV-2 is far from the only airborne risk in schools. There are also other respiratory viruses, smoke from wildfires, mold spores, off-gassing from plastics and other compounds, air pollution from traffic and industry, and allergens that worsen asthma and add to sick days.
First Nations health and wellbeing
Some powerful truth-telling has been taking place at the Yoorrook Justice Commission in Victoria.
Lowitja Institute: Cultural Safety in Australia: Discussion Paper
The Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights’ Inquiry into compulsory income management found the compulsory SmartCard increased hardship, was discriminatory towards First Nations people, and made it harder for women to flee violent and abusive relationships.
Menopause Care Clinician Toolkit
#AusPol
The National Indigenous Times reports that Selena Uibo, a former schoolteacher, will become the first female Indigenous leader of a major party in Australia’s history after she was announced as the leader of Northern Territory Labor, replacing the outgoing Chief Minister Eva Lawler, who lost her seat in the party’s election wipeout last month.
The MP for Arnhem, Ms Uibo’s mother is a Nunggubuyu woman from Numbulwar and Wanindilyakwa from Groote Eylandt, whilst her father is a second-generation Australian of Estonian and South African origin, born in Sydney.
She will lead a party with only four seats – the majority from the bush – after the election defeat. All the Labor MPs who retained their seats – Ms Uibo, Chansey Paech, Dheran Young, and Manuel Brown – are Indigenous.
Conference Watch
Global health
Public health
Read more: https://wentwest.com.au/wentwest-receives-highly-commended-in-health-2024-core-values-award/
#CroakeyREAD
Media matters
Awards and appointments
Lowitja Institute welcomes Michael Newman as new deputy chief executive officer
Michael is a Galari Gibir (Lachlan River man) of the Wiradjuri Nation, the people of the Three Rivers. Born in Orange, he enjoys familial and cultural links to the Central West, Capital Country, and Riverina-Murray areas of New South Wales.
For the past four years, Michael was chief operations officer with Orange Aboriginal Medical Service (OAMS) where he played a pivotal role in expanding funding, workforce, and services for the community. His leadership in the community-controlled sector builds on a distinguished career in the NSW Public Service, where he contributed to Education, Communities and Justice, NSW Police Force, Aboriginal Affairs, and TAFE NSW.
Events upcoming
