The column begins with some aspirations for 2024 and brings the latest news in global health and public health. It profiles recent publications by First Nations authors, highlights some recommended books, and previews a stack of upcoming conferences and events.
The quotable?
Keep the Fire Burning! Blak, Loud & Proud.”
Global health
Read the speech by Dr Tedros on the WHO’s 2024 work program
Read: Planning beyond growth: The case for economic democracy within ecological limits.
An extract: “Addressing the aggravating social-ecological crises of our time demands a fundamental rethinking of our economic system. Achieving rapid decarbonization while maintaining high standards of living by overcoming economic growth amounts to a major society-wide social-ecological transformation of the magnitude comparable to that which took place during the Industrial Revolution. Postgrowth and degrowth have emerged as increasingly influential proposals for such radical reorganization of society. The scope and speed in which it needs to happen represents a major challenge and warrants mechanisms of coordination that are decidedly designed for that purpose, especially when viewing it as a democratic and participatory process.”
Read: Undiscovered bird extinctions obscure the true magnitude of human-driven extinction waves, in Nature Communications
Read: Tobacco Use in European Women is Double the Global Average and Decreasing Slowest 
First Nations peoples’ health
On 11 January, the BMJ published ‘Indigenous peoples’ health after Australia’s No vote’, by Professors Catherine Chamberlain, Ian Anderson, Bronwyn Fredericks, Tom Calma and Sandra Eades. The article (mostly behind a paywall) says that a constitutional voice would have increased autonomy, with benefits for health outcomes, and also would have increased political stability for the long term strategies needed to tackle health inequity.
Read more about the new network. It is is co-chaired by Euahlayi woman Kristy Crooks (Hunter New England Local Health District, NSW Health).
Read: Improving economic access to healthy diets in First Nations communities in high-income, colonised countries: a systematic scoping review
Promising initiatives were: providing a box of food and vouchers for fresh produce; prescriptions for fresh produce; provision/promotion of subsidised healthy meals and snacks in community stores; direct funds transfer for food for children; offering discounted healthy foods from a mobile van; and programs increasing access to traditional foods.
Least effective was providing subsidies directly to retail stores, suppliers and producers.
Identified enablers of effective programs included community co-design and empowerment; optimal promotion of the program; and targeting a wide range of healthy foods, particularly traditional foods where possible. Common barriers in the least successful programs included inadequate study duration; inadequate subsidies; lack of supporting resources and infrastructure for cooking, food preparation and storage; and imposition of the program on communities.
Public health
Read: Public values to guide childhood vaccination mandates: A report on four Australian community juries 
Read: Oral health and healthy ageing: a scoping review
An extract: “There is currently a gap in information and research around effective oral health care treatments and programs in geriatric dental care. Efforts must be invested in developing guidelines to assist both dental and medical healthcare professionals in integrating good oral health as part of healthy ageing. Further research is warranted in assessing the effectiveness of interventions in improving the oral health status of the elderly and informing approaches to assist the integration of oral health into geriatric care.”
Read: Understanding how whānau-centred initiatives can improve Māori health in Aotearoa New Zealand
Abstract: “This article highlights the significance of prioritizing Indigenous voices and knowledge systems, using whānau-centred initiatives (a concept that encompasses the broader family and community) as a foundation for health promotion within an Indigenous context. Tū Kahikatea, a conceptual framework, is used to demonstrate the relationship between the values underpinning different whānau-centred initiatives and their corresponding outcomes. The framework highlights the capacity of whānau-centred initiatives to support whānau in attaining mana motuhake, which represents collective self-determination and the ability to exercise control over their own future. By doing so, these initiatives contribute to the improvement of whānau health outcomes.
“With recent changes to Aotearoa New Zealand’s health system, the findings underscore the benefits and potential of whānau-centred initiatives in enhancing whānau health outcomes, and advocate for continued strengths-based practices in Aotearoa New Zealand’s health system. By bridging the gap between academia and grassroots community action, the article demonstrates the potential of whānau-centred initiatives and contributes to a global call for integrating Indigenous viewpoints and practices into Westernized healthcare, in order to improve Indigenous health outcomes.”
Read: Data shows improvements in Alice Springs following alcohol restrictions 
Read: Cycling deaths on the decline, but not in all age groups 
#AusPol
#CroakeyREAD
Events
