*** Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised that this article contains images and details of someone who has passed ***
Introduction by Croakey: Cultural safety, health of people in prison, #JustJustice and successful hepatitis C treatments were some of the wide-ranging topics discussed when Professor Megan Williams recently guest tweeted for Croakey’s rotated, curated X/Twitter account @WePublicHealth while in Tkaronto (Toronto) for the Canadian Network of Hepatitis C’s annual meeting and symposium.
“It’s always useful to hear what other nations are doing, not only about jurisdictions in Australia,” Williams told Croakey when reflecting on her trip.
One of the key take home points is that Canada does not have private prisons, she said. A recent report by the Victorian Ombudsman discusses risks and problems related to private prisons and healthcare.
Below is a summary of Williams’s tweets including Indigenous evaluation resources, and links to latest research and updates on hepatitis C and prison health.
In reflecting upon the various stages of her career, Williams says: “Health research has been a fulfilling, challenging work/life world. It’s numbers, stories, actions, rights, creativity, reflection. Highly recommend to Indigenous people.”
Megan Williams writes:
I attended an annual meeting and the 13th Canadian Symposium on Hepatitis C virus in Tkaronto (Toronto) which was part of the Canadian Digestive Diseases Week and Canadian Liver Meeting 2024 joint gathering.
My role with CanHepC – Canadian Network on Hepatitis C – is as an International Advisory Board member.
CanHepC often discuss prison health issues and research including hepatitis C but broader, to be about wellbeing and health service access.
Here are some guides to Tkaronto: The Indigenous History of Tkaronto
Annual meeting discussions
Link to sources mentioned above:
- Addressing inequities in access to care among Indigenous peoples with chronic hepatitis C in Alberta, Canada, in The Lancet
- The Lancet Series on racism, xenophobia, discrimination, and health
Read article: ‘Controlled human infection model for hepatitis C virus vaccine development’ here, as discussed by Dr Jordan Feld, from University Health Network.
Read article here.
Ancestors and Waniska and CAAN – Canadian Aboriginal AIDS Network – partners honoured for guidance in hepatitis C research, and using Mentimeter to get to know where people in the room are gathering from, including Traditional Owners of territories, polling at 86 responses! Beautiful to be naming.
Indigenous platform of @CanHEPC is for 1) leadership and participation by First Peoples and 2) addressing systemic barriers and unconscious bias.
Actions include presentations, content in training, collaboration and co-design with communities, implementation science, reviewing, playing with theory and frameworks.
The challenge of pan-Indigenous approaches! Balancing rigour, common sense, addressing barriers, being in communities.
On engagement, of 58 responses, 61 percent said they had not engaged with Indigenous communities in research.
When asked if we @canhepc have been involved in training on Indigenous health research, approximately 25 said yes and 25 no…
When asked where training was from, several said OCAP (Ownership, Control, Access, Possession). I added @UniMelb Prof Cert.
Data sovereignty, ethics, engagement…these and many other desired and necessary training topics, cc @LowitjaInstitut and your Cert IV.
Link to CAAN website here.
Hepatitis C
Link to Hepatitis Australia website here.
HCC incidence after hepatitis C cure among patients with advanced fibrosis or cirrhosis: a meta-analysis, by Ian Lockart and colleagues in Hepatology Journal
Editorial: How does the risk of hepatocellular carcinoma change over time in patients with a hepatitis C cure? by Hamish Innes at Glasgow Caledonian University
How/whether to covert liver cancer risk into a model for surveillance benefits and what factors to take into account? Some points here.
This paper talks about other cancers among people with HCV by @canhepC speaker Dahn Jeong: Chronic hepatitis C infection is associated with higher incidence of extrahepatic cancers in a Canadian population based cohort, in Frontiers in Oncology journal.
Solid use of admin data here for British Columbia study on treatment of HCV with direct-acting antivirus and mortality.
People in prison
Link to AIHW report on ‘The health of people in Australia’s prisons 2022, Hepatitis C treatment‘ here.
Links to readings:
More than half of all Australian prisoners report mental health diagnosis
Mental health, poverty, family history and unemployment key factors in incarceration – new report
Visit the International Network on Health and Hepatitis in Substance Users website – “a special interest group of INHSU for members who would like to participate in scientific knowledge and information exchange, knowledge translation, and advocacy for enhanced hepatitis care in custodial settings”.
Work memory lane
#JustJustice
Resources, events, networks and surveys
Ngaa-bi-nya Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander program evaluation framework
Complete the Drug Policy Survey here.
Join the network here.
Friendships solidified
• Professor Megan Williams is Principal of Yulang Indigenous Evaluation, an Aboriginal-led business that reviews and develops policies to reduce discrimination against and uphold the rights of Aboriginal people, and carries out cultural safety reviews of organisations and services, and also a director and member of Croakey Health Media.
See previous editions of @WePublicHealth here
