This page records the details of the weekly Croakey e-bulletin (subscribe here), and some of the wider impacts of our work. See our readership figures here.
See our comprehensive list of Twitter lists to follow for news on Indigenous health, climate and health, COVID, public health and more.
2022
We record our social media analytics using Buffer and Twitter Analytics. The figures below are for total impressions across Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn.
January to July: 6,669,968 impressions
Impact Reports
2022
September
Week ending 29 September: Communities are in focus in our bulletin this week as a recent groundbreaking victory for Torres Strait Islander people highlights the power of community action against climate change.
A United Nations finding that Australia has failed to adequately protect Torres Strait Islander people against the impacts of climate change also opens new pathways for Indigenous communities to defend their rights.
Our preview of the upcoming Greening the Healthcare Sector Forum highlights a growing community of health workers who are passionate about creating healthier, more sustainable health services.
We also report on a new online community for Long COVID patients. Alison Barrett’s preview of health issues in focus for the Victorian election in November highlights the importance of stepping up investment in communities and community health services. Join us in using the hashtag #VicVotesHealth2022.
The first Parliamentary speeches of new MPs bring deep insights into their stories and motivations, as well as highlighting important issues affecting the health and wellbeing of diverse communities.
We also examine the commercial determinants of health and challenges for public health, with accounts of data breaches, interference by Big Tobacco, alarm bells about vaping, and the harmful power of Big Alcohol. We’ve also compiled a massive Twitter wrap from the Population Health Congress.
Don’t miss Joe Ball’s insightful and important discussion about the challenges of collecting effective and inclusive data for LGBTIQA+ communities.
Also read Marie McInerney’s latest report from the Rethink Addiction conference, urging political courage to reform alcohol, gambling and drug laws.
Charles Maskell-Knight and Winthrop Professor Marc Tennant offer an in-depth analysis of policy options to improve equity and access to dental care.
Don’t miss the wealth of resources on sexual and reproductive health shared by sex educator Brenna Bernadino while guest tweeting for @WePublicHealth. She also gives many examples of communities fighting against restrictions on their rights to healthcare.
Week ending 22 September:
Future generations should be at the heart of every decision, and we must provide them with an environment and a planet where they can continue to grow, to love and to become whoever they want to be.
These words were spoken by Wiradjuri man Dr Gordon Reid when he stood to deliver his first speech to the 47th Parliament. They feature in a report by Cate Carrigan this week examining the health priorities revealed by the first speeches of recently elected MPs.
Our bulletin highlights the work of many people and organisations who are working towards such a vision, including Traditional Owners who have fought long and hard to protect Country from fracking.
Sadly, we also bring stories of systems and services that harm health and wellbeing, with many accounts of racism, discrimination, injustice and human rights violations.
We recommend spending some time with Jasmin Wilson’s insightful story about how legal and health systems fail people with addictions, following her recent presentation to the Rethink Addiction conference.
Also read the challenge from public health leader Adjunct Professor Tarun Weeramanthri to delegates at the Population Health Congress to work for justice and a redistribution of power. He also advocates for greater transparency and accountability around COVID policymaking.
Don’t miss Adjunct Associate Professor Lesley Russell’s latest edition of The Health Wrap as well as her in-depth analysis examining concerns about the Government’s decision to stop funding NPS MedicineWise.
We also bring reports on the overwhelming power of Big Tech and challenges in delivering the benefits of digital mental healthcare.
Check the ICYMI column to find the source of this quote: “Spending $1.93 billion on fossil fuel subsidies in a climate crisis and a budget crisis would have to be the dumbest thing you could do.”
Week ending 15 September: In focus this week are courageous and skilful storytellers who challenge and re-write harmful, dominant narratives.
We share tributes to a much-loved storyteller, the late Uncle Jack Charles – a Boon Wurrung, Dja Dja Wurrung, Woiwurrung and Yorta Yorta survivor of the Stolen Generations, an Elder, writer, musician, actor and activist.
Meanwhile, the Rethink Addiction conference in Canberra provided a powerful opportunity for story-sharing by people with lived experience of addictions. They showcased courage, strength and commitment – as well as the need to change narratives around addiction, Marie McInerney reports for the Croakey Conference News Service.
We also hear from one of the pandemic’s master storytellers, Pulitzer Prize-winning science journalist Ed Yong, who says COVID has exposed a crisis of values, with individualistic framing of a collective problem “as much of a misinformation problem as a lot of the other things that typically fall under the banner”.
As the World Health Organization releases new COVID policy briefs, some contributors suggest that ageism may help explain some of Australia’s COVID policy outcomes.
We also report concerns about the demise of NPS MedicineWise, an organisation whose work over the past 24 years has helped to rewrite the once dominant narrative that more medicine is always better.
Our thanks to guest tweeters at @WePublicHealth for reports from the International Evaluation Conference and the 13th National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Environmental Health Conference. Make sure to download your copy of our report from the recent National Nursing Forum.
We also bring the latest on global health and the climate crisis, and investigate Australia’s slow implementation of the Optional Protocol to the Convention Against Torture (OPCAT), which is important for peoples’ health in many settings.
Week ending 8 September: The false economy of governments spending billions on subsidising life-destroying fossil fuel industries while failing to ensure that all Australians have a liveable income, secure housing, and access to quality healthcare, disability services and other social support is highlighted by many of our stories this week.
The wide-ranging impacts of poverty on people’s health and wellbeing are detailed in an investigation by freelance journalist Felicity Nelson showing that the current JobSeeker payment is not enough to cover food, let alone medical treatment.
On similar themes, we hear how rising costs of living contribute to food insecurity for Australian families. Calls for investment in disease prevention and the structures that cause disease are central to many stories. The harmful impacts of the commercial determinants of health are also highlighted in Marie McInerney’s preview of the Rethink Addiction national convention on 12-14 September. On Twitter follow #RethinkAddiction for more news from the Croakey Conference News Service.
As climate change legislation is discussed in Parliament this week, Cate Carrigan reports from the Better Futures Forum where the importance of respectfully listening to the voices of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people about climate action matters was stressed.
We also bring updates on global security risks, COVID costs and misinformation in the ICYMI column. As an antidote to the overwhelming climate change news, read Croakey director Claire O’Rourke’s Twitter wrap of her new book ‘Together We Can’.
Colleagues and friends pay tribute to public health leader Professor Charles Kerr.
Don’t miss Dr Amy Coopes sharing her story about a life-changing diagnosis of ADHD. She will be in conversation with Dr Lisa Pryor and Dr Norman Swan at the Antidote Festival this Sunday, 11 September.
August
Week ending 1 September: As a climate change-fuelled “monsoon on steroids” engulfs Pakistan, claiming more than 1,100 lives and affecting more than 33 million people, our bulletin this week makes the case for big-picture thinking at the Jobs and Skills Summit.
Dr Miriam Vandenberg presents a vision for health equity at the Summit, highlighting the need to future proof Australia for the impacts of climate change, disease pandemics and natural disasters, while other contributors focus on the gathering’s import for pressing health and aged care workforce issues.
As health leaders call for transparency on National Cabinet decision-making on COVID, Dr Jennifer Lacy-Nicholls argues that political transparency and integrity reforms are core business for health advocates, and we bring you Thomas Mayor’s Vincent Lingiari Memorial Lecture.
The Lowitja Institute reports on a new discussion paper, ‘Indigenous Nation Building and the Political Determinants of Health and Wellbeing’, and The Health Wrap is another must-read.
We publish our final Croakey Conference News Service stories from the National Nursing Forum, including insights from an award-winning mobile outreach health service for people experiencing homelessness.
And don’t miss Croakey editor Dr Amy Coopes in conversation with Dr Lisa Pryor and Dr Norman Swan on journalism, medicine and ‘A Higher Calling’ at the Sydney Opera House on 11 September as part of the 2022 Antidote Festival.
This article also featured in the AHHA bulletin.
Other activities
Croakey’s Editor-in-Chief Dr Melissa Sweet joined representatives of more than 50 other charities at a consultation with Dr Andrew Leigh, the Assistant Minister for Competition, Charities and Treasury, in Hobart on 29 August. She highlighted the importance of developing a policy framework to better support non-profit journalism in Australia.
Week ending 25 August: Our bulletin leads with a wide-ranging profile of Kamilaroi man Dr Brad Murphy, a GP in the regional Queensland city of Bundaberg who is making an historic tilt at the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners presidency. He describes the legacy of his grandmother, and how mainstream health services can learn from models of care in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities.
On similar themes, don’t miss the article from the National Health Leadership Forum, a peak body representing the views of 12 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander organisations, which outlines a timely vision for the future, based upon self-determination and transformational change across all aspects of government and public policy.
Also advocating for seismic shifts in public policy is Professor Sir Michael Marmot, who urges a focus on education and lifelong learning, environmental sustainability, and tackling discrimination. Indeed, racism is a thread running through many of our stories this week – as well as efforts to address it.
In the ICYMI column, see highlights from the Congress of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Nursing and Midwives (CATSINaM) 25-year conference, including an important apology from the Council of Deans of Nursing and Midwifery for harm caused by their professions to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
Adjunct Associate Professor Lesley Russell provides a detailed report on an evaluation of the Health Care Homes trial. “It makes for fascinating reading,” she says, “and there is much to learn about how to implement future health reform initiatives.”
We also bring updates on COVID, #AusPol, climate action and heatwave health. As China reels from extreme temperatures, we explore the impacts of flooding in New South Wales and Aotearoa New Zealand, and highlight the need for Indigenous knowledge and representation in emergency preparedness and responses. Meanwhile, a new book on critical disaster studies stresses the importance of supporting women’s leadership and creating space for young people to contribute to planning and preparedness.
The Croakey Conference News Service has compiled a massive Twitter wrap from the recent National Nursing Forum. Make sure to follow @WePublicHealth this week where Claire O’Rourke is tweeting about her new book, Together We Can.
In the news
Croakey editor Dr Amy Coopes talked about health reform issues on ABC TV’s The Drum.
Announcement by Croakey contributing editor Dr Summer May Finlay
Croakey Professional Services
An article sponsored by the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care – ‘New standard tackles the toll from inappropriate prescribing of opioids’ – was circulated in the Twitter stream of #ACE22TAS, an anaesthesia conference.
Week ending 18 August: Burnout, moral injury, trauma and critical healthcare staff shortages are some common experiences reported in this week’s bulletin.
As several hundred nurses gather on Larrakia Country in Darwin for the National Nursing Forum this week, the profession is sharing lessons and experiences from the pandemic, climate emergencies and the frontlines of care.
From Central Australia, health leaders are warning of the impact of COVID on services, and calling for wide-ranging responses, including greater efforts to check COVID transmission, and investment in the Aboriginal health workforce.
Amid competing views and agendas on health reform, Jennifer Doggett and colleagues offer some ways forward, based on an appreciation of the importance of addressing health inequities, the needs of patients, and strengthening critical relationships.
At a time when waits for public dental services are blowing out to well over a year in many jurisdictions, Charles Maskell-Knight shares some lessons from an examination of the “dental policy turbulence of the last twenty years”.
The Health Wrap brings updates on monkeypox, long COVID and the success of South Australia’s model to break the cycle of homelessness, while the ICYMI column puts a focus on youth justice, and change-making by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
The World Federation of Public Health Associations has a firm message for the Albanese Government – no new fossil fuels projects – and we also have an update on what state and territory governments are doing on climate and health.
On Twitter, make sure to follow #CATSINAM25years over coming days, as the Congress of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Nurses and Midwives (CATSINaM) celebrates a special anniversary, and hears a landmark apology.
In the news
The Australian Healthcare & Hospitals Association newsletter profiled Croakey stories.
Week ending 11 August: The leadership provided by women and women’s health rights are themes threading through many of our stories this week.
The important roles of Indigenous women in preserving and sharing Indigenous knowledges were honoured as part of the International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples on 9 August.
We also profile women’s leadership across climate health and rural health; don’t miss the article by GP Dr Kate Wylie, who diagnoses a critical gap in the Strengthening Medicare Taskforce’s agenda, and a rousing speech by Independent MP Helen Haines.
In other reports from the 16th National Rural Health Conference, Dr Amy Coopes investigates “chilling” inequities in access to abortion services in rural, regional and remote communities.
Award winning climate journalist Lyndal Rowlands discusses the health benefits of low-emissions foods, including traditional Indigenous foods, and argues that we should discourage production of highly processed foods, which are damaging to both human and planetary health.
Dr Fei Sim, National President of the Pharmaceutical Society of Australia, summarises a new report highlighting an urgent need to address medication safety as part of disability care, while Jennifer Doggett investigates the breadth of challenges facing aged care reform.
More advice for the Strengthening Medicare Taskforce comes from a primary healthcare summit held in May, which recommended strategies such as voluntary patient registration, workforce incentive programs and integrated healthcare neighbourhoods.
Amongst other things, the ICYMI column covers the great mask-giveaway in Victoria, the latest reports on monkeypox, and climate and health, and also brings a Ministerial tribute for Olivia Newton-John, “a fierce and inspirational advocate for breast cancer research and early detection”.
Croakey Professional Services is supporting the 25-year anniversary campaign of the Congress of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Nurses and Midwives; don’t miss the preview of a new exhibition, ‘In Our Own Right: Black Australian Nurses and Midwives Stories’. It charts the activist history of CATSINaM’s trailblazing women and men.
Speaking of activism, our bulletin leads with a strong call for doctors and other health professionals to do much, much more to tackle the climate health emergency.
This article below, published in May, is still being shared
Croakey Conference News Services
Coverage of the 16th National Rural Health Conference continued.
In the news
Thanks to the Australian Healthcare and Hospitals Association for including Croakey articles – from the National Rural Health Conference, and on the climate health crisis – in the 12 August Healthcare in Brief bulletin
Meanwhile, Maelor Himbury’s daily email on climate news included three Croakey articles on 17 August.
Croakey Professional Services
