2018 Archive

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Weeks of 10 and 17 December

Croakey’s managing editor, Melissa Sweet, looked back at the events of 2018 through the eyes of @WePublicHealth guest tweeters. A warm thanks to all who contributed.

[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]3 December

Croakey contributing editor Summer May Finlay – @SummerMayFinlay – tweeted for Croakey Professional Services, on behalf of the Centre of Best Practice in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Suicide Prevention. She shared discussions from the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Suicide Prevention Conference and the World Indigenous Suicide Prevention Conference, held in Perth the previous week, as well as findings from a Senate inquiry, Accessibility and quality of mental health services in rural and remote Australia.

[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]26 November

Corie Gray and Carl Heslop – @coriegray_  and @CarlosDenWA from @AHPA_AU – shared discussions about World AIDS Day (Dec 1), and all things HIV, sexual health and public health. [/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]19 November

This week, the @CroakeyNews team is RT-ing from conferences: #ACEM18; #ATSISPC18; #WISPC18; and #FoodFutures2018.

#WISPC18

#ATSISPC18

#FoodFutures2018

#ACEM18

[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]12 November

Kylie Taylor – @Kylie07 –  is a proud Gomeroi Murri Woman. She belongs to the Gomeroi people from the Walhallow area northwest New South Wales. Kylie is an Aboriginal Health Worker with Hunter New England Population Health. She has worked in Population Health for over 21 years and her background is in Communicable Diseases and Environmental Health. Kylie previously worked as a CEO for her Local Aboriginal Land Council and also has experience in community development, society and culture. In her current role Kylie works with community, AMS’s and health services to provide expert input into the development of acceptable ways of working with families and community affected by communicable diseases. She also respectfully consults and engages with AMS’s and Hunter New England Aboriginal Health and local communities in the development of operational research projects for communicable diseases research projects. Kylie is also actively involved in ensuring workplaces more culturally responsive and respectful through the implementation of strong cultural governance and employment processes. Through her career, qualifications, education and lived experience Kylie has developed a great wealth of knowledge and understanding of the health issues that impact on Aboriginal people and communities. [/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]5 November

Sara Deroy – @sara_deroy – is a young non-Indigenous woman passionate about Indigenous health and the health disparities faced in Australia. Sara currently works as a data analyst and health promotion assistant at an Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation on the south coast of New South Wales. In 2016 Sara completed her Bachelor of Public Health with distinction, with a Health Promotion major and Indigenous Health Studies minor. In 2018, she completed her Bachelor of Public Health Honours degree at the University of Wollongong. This involved an independent research project, where Sara examined the factors contributing to health and wellbeing worker retention rates in Aboriginal health services. While her thesis was underway, she also presented preliminary findings at various conferences around Australia and internationally. Sara looks forward to continue sharing her work through future conference presentations and publications. At @WePublicHealth, Sara plans to share articles, news, resources, personal experiences and interesting evidence from her journey of completing a Public Health Honours thesis. Her focus will be on recruitment and retention of Aboriginal staff in Aboriginal health services, particularly Aboriginal Health Workers. To understand why this is important, she will also share information regarding staff stress, turnover and what it means to become burnt out. Her research focused around identifying positive, successful strategies for minimising staff burnout. She plans on sharing strengths-based evidence that may promote and raise awareness of ways that have been seen to improve workplace culture, job satisfaction, and therefore retain staff. [/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]29 October

This week, the Croakey News team re-tweeted from the #NDISMentalHealth conference. See also our stories from it.

[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]22 October

The Healing Foundation – @HealingOurWay – covered the national apology to the victims of institutional child abuse, and the release of a related report, Looking Where the Light Is: creating and restoring safety and healing. [/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]15 October

Bill Bellew – @billbellew – covered the 7th International Society for Physical Activity and Health Congress in London – #ISPAH2018. An adjunct professor at the Sydney School of Public Health at the University of Sydney, Bill grew up in Ireland, then England, and now is growing up in Australia (work in progress). He has been a public health person for 25+ years – NCD prevention at population level, and has worked in many countries including India, Philippines, Pacific Island nations. Government, Non-gov, Freelance at various points.  Read more here and here about the Twitter analytics from the conference, with Bill and @WePublicHealth making their mark. [/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]8 October

A tag-team from the Australian Healthcare & Hospitals Association or @AusHealthcare reported the news from the  #IHFBrisbane2018 World Hospital Congress, where there were over 150 speakers from more than 30 countries. See the program. [/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]

1 October

Aimee Brownbill – @AimeeBrownbill – reflected on the recent PHAA conference, with a focus on emerging leaders. She is a PhD candidate with the University of Adelaide School of Public Health, where her current research is on the topic of sugary beverages. Her research explores the marketing techniques used by beverage companies to drive sales of these products. In particular, Aimee’s research explores how the portrayal of sugary drinks as healthy, or as better-for-you, influences consumer perceptions and consumption of these products. Through her research, Aimee hopes to inform public health interventions and policies that aim to reduce population consumption of sugary beverages. Aimee is an active member of the Australian public health community. She is currently on the Board of the Public Health Association of Australia and the South Australian Branch’s Executive Committee. Follow Public Health Association of Australia, Students and Young Professionals in Public Health – @PHAA_SYPPH.

[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]24 September

Brenna Bernardino – @brennabernardin – covered the 2018 Australian Public Health Conference in Cairns, whose theme was “Leadership in public health: Challenges for local and planetary communities” – #AustPH2018. Brenna’s cultural background is Timorese, Portuguese and Torres Strait Islander. She has a Bachelor of Arts (Psychology/Spanish) and Master of Public Health. Her research interests include Indigenous and sexual health, and she hopes to pursue a PhD on the topic of reproductive justice in Australia. Brenna is currently working as a research assistant for the Poche Centre for Indigenous Health, QLD. In October, she will commence an internship with the First People’s Health Unit at Griffith University, Gold Coast. She has also set up the UQ Stories for Reconciliation group to encourage others to read, watch and listen to Indigenous stories. Brenna also tweets for @PHAA_QLDbranch.

[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]17 September

Croakey editor and journalist Amy Coopes – @coopesdetat – tweeted from the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists’ Annual Scientific Meeting, for the Croakey Conference News Service. The conference brings together eminent global and Trans-Tasman thinkers to discuss the latest advances and opportunities in women’s sexual and reproductive health. Themed ‘Shifting Sands’, #ranzcog18 aimed to showcase the diversity and breadth of the specialty. Bookmark this link to follow Croakey’s coverage. [/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]10 September

Dr Paul Lawton – @pauldlawton – is a kidney specialist who has been working as a clinician across the Northern Territory since 1999, including four years as Director of Northern Territory Renal Services. In his research, he addresses questions about kidney disease care disparities and outcomes among Indigenous Australians, using larger already existing datasets, including some data linkage. How can we do better for disadvantaged populations, and why aren’t we?

Dr Lawton also works clinically as a kidney specialist in Darwin, including at Aboriginal Medical Services. His main clinical interests are chronic kidney disease (particularly in Indigenous Australians) and the management of complex conditions in remote and disadvantaged environments.

From Monday 10th to Wednesday 12th September, he tweeted from Sydney at the annual meeting of the Australian & New Zealand Society of Nephrology (#anzsn2018). Yes, Indigenous health (his main interest), but all things kidney too!

[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]3 September

The Australian College of Nurse Practitioners (ACNP) @acnp_national profiled their national campaign ‘Transforming Health Care’ @transformingHC, which aims to connect both the community and the health sector with the valuable offering Nurse Practitioners (NPs) are providing to improve healthcare across Australia. For more information, see here.[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]27 August

Krister Partel (@KristerPartel), director of advocacy at the Australian Healthcare & Hospitals Association or @AusHealthcare, previewed the news from the forthcoming #IHFBrisbane2018 World Hospital Congress, where there will be over 150 speakers from more than 30 countries, who will share their views and experiences on healthcare. For more details – http://ow.ly/G1NJ30lpuYt 

[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]20 August

The Australian Health Promotion Association – @AHPA_AU – shared the news from its Symposium in Canberra, with the theme: Better Practice – Better Placed: #AHPA2018.

[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]13 August

The @CroakeyNews team re-tweeted news from the #EcoHealth2018 conference in Colombia. The conference organisers state: “Ecohealth is about understanding the connections between environment, society and health. This approach goes beyond the usual analysis of relationships between biological and physical components of ecosystems and human populations, by including systems thinking and the analysis of the political dimensions of these complex problems with transdisciplinary teams. In particular, the overall theme of the next Ecohealth 2018 Congress is Environmental and Health Equity: Connecting local alternatives in a global World. This theme emphasizes the need to connect local initiatives in a world with global drivers that threaten healthy ecosystems and populations, and makes a call to tackle these forces and pursue justice.” Ecohealth 2018 is co-hosted by the Universidad del Valle in Cali Colombia. Professor Kerry Arabena gave a presentation during the conference on the #JustClimate project. [/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]6 August

Run by the GroundSwell Project (@GroundSwellAus), Dying To Know Day brings to life conversations and community actions around death, dying and bereavement. Held August 8th every year, it is a national day for talking about death and dying. D2KDay helps to develop death literacy – the practical know how needed for end of life planning. Hundreds of events are held by communities across Australia each year including more than 130 in 2018. The Groundswell Project’s vision is that when someone is dying, caring or grieving, we all know what to do. In Australia only 36 percent of people are discussing death and dying with their family, and 51 percent of us will die without a will. GroundSwell Project believe it’s time to get end of life conversations started. Across the week, the GroundSwell Project will share, the latest info and research about death literacy, loads of great resources and tools, info for health care professionals and community members and ideas to get people talking about death and dying. Plus on Tuesday the the 7th, we will host a Twitter Chat with #D2KDay co-founder Kerrie Noonan (@KezNoo), a clinical psychologist in palliative care who has worked in health and community settings as a community development social researcher. She’ll be discussing death, dying, death literacy, palliative care and much more! [/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]30 July

Cancer Council NSW – @CCNewSouthWales – has launched its pre-election advocacy campaign, Saving Life 2019, which calls on the next NSW government to protect the community from tobacco, tackle childhood obesity, and support people with lymphoedema. This week, the team at Cancer Council NSW will be focusing on why tobacco control should be a priority of the next NSW Government and what needs to be done to reduce the cancer risk in our community.

[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]23 July

Melbourne City Mission – @MelbCityMission – is a progressive, for purpose organisation with a diverse service platform encompassing early years, education and employment, homelessness and justice services, early childhood intervention and disability services, and palliative care services. We have been at the forefront of social innovation for more than 160 years, developing new solutions to complex issues at an individual level and at a societal and structural level. Our vision is to create a fair and just community where people have equal access to opportunities and resources.

Each day, we focused on a different issue eg. youth homelessness, education, gender equality. On Wednesday next week, our youth action group (young people passionate about social issues affecting young people in Melbourne) will be co-creating content with us. We will be focusing on the drivers, enablers and solutions to complex social and public health issues.

[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]16 July

Josh Cubillo @jcubillo was in the chair. He is a proud descendant of the Larrakia and Wadjigan clans in the NT, and currently lives and works on the traditional lands of the Wurundjeri People @UniMelbMDHS.

[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]9 July

The @CroakeyNews team re-tweeted #NAIDOC2018 and #BecauseOfHerWeCan. For more information about NAIDOC Week, see here.  Read the Croakey story: A glorious celebration of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women, long may it continue.

[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]2 July

Dr Kimberley Ivory – @kaydeeye – spent 2017 working in Mongolia as Health Advisor to the LGBT Centre Mongolia as an Australian Volunteers for International Development. She is senior lecturer in population medicine in the School of Public Health, University of Sydney. She researches and teaches on cultural diversity and the health impacts of stigma and discrimination, especially with regard to minority populations. She is back in Ulaanbaatar to tweet from the inaugural Rights4Health Conference, a multi-disciplinary health and human rights conference organized by the LGBT Centre and funded by the Australian Embassy in Mongolia. Rights4Health 2018 looks at human rights as positive social determinants of health for LGBTI people and other minority populations, addressing the UNs’ Sustainable Development Goals theme of “leave no-one behind”. Follow #Rights4Health2018.

[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]25 June

Angela Wilson – @ange_wilson – is the Communications and Marketing Coordinator for the Multiple Sclerosis Flagship Program at @ResearchMenzies.  She tweeted about MS research & advancements at the Menzies Institute. [/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]18 June

Adjunct Professor Lucie Rychetnik – @LucieRychetnik – who is based in Geneva, Switzerland, and involved in development and strategy for @GCHAlliance, shared reflections, resources and reading on climate and health issues. Studying #climatechange / Carbon Management via @GeosciencesEd. [/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]11 June

Professor Dennis McDermott – @redshoeclick – is the Director of Flinders University’s two Poche Centres for Indigenous Health and Well-Being (Adelaide and Northern Territory). Dennis is a psychologist, academic and poet. A Koori man, his mother’s family are from Gadigal land (inner Sydney) with connections to Gamilaroi country (north-west NSW). Dennis’s teaching and research interests encompass early childhood, social determinants of Indigenous health, racism, incarceration, policy, equity, Indigenous social, spiritual and emotional well-being, workforce development, Indigenous health pedagogy, and the nexus of culture and context in service delivery. In 2014 he was awarded a National Senior Teaching Fellowship by the Australian Government’s Office for Learning and Teaching (OLT).

 SEVEN DAYS

Let’s talk Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health this week

Monday

A portal: the “living, breathing side” of the social determinants of health. Eh?

One (good) starting point: embracing complexity

Tuesday

Now, let’s talk the Indigenous Australian social determinants of health – what do they add and how, and why such impact on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health? 

Wednesday

Responding to the challenges of lifting health and well-being No.1: Building a culturally-safe workforce

Thursday

Responding to the challenges of lifting health and well-being No.2: Having the hard conversations – talking racism, systemic discrimination and unconscious bias

Friday

Let’s talk strengths No. 1: resilience (redefined) and health

Saturday

Let’s talk strengths No. 2: Indigenous knowledges and health

Sunday

Let’s talk strengths No. 3: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art / dance / music / prose / poetry … what’re they to do with health?

[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]4 June

El Gibbs is a past winner of the Gavin Mooney Memorial Essay Competition and a writer about disability and other social issues, including the #CripCroakey series for Croakey. She’s the Manager, Media and Campaigns at People with Disability Australia and a proud disabled person.

El talked about the NDIS, disability and health, poverty and other social determinants of health affecting people with disability, barriers to healthcare, ethical research, and the strengths and expertise of people with disability. [/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]28 May

This week, Dr Chelsea Bond – @drcbond –  and the Poche Centre for Indigenous Health at The University of Queensland – @UQPoche – covered #IHMayDay18 and more. Dr Bond is an Aboriginal (Munanjahli) and South Sea Islander Australian and a Senior Lecturer with the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies Unit. Dr Bond has worked as an Aboriginal Health Worker and researcher in communities across south-east Queensland for the past 20 years and has a strong interest in urban Indigenous health promotion, culture, identity and community development. Her career has focused on interpreting and privileging Indigenous experiences of the health system including critically examining the role of Aboriginal health workers, the narratives of Indigeneity produced within public health, and advocating for strength based community development approaches to Indigenous health promotion practice. Her PhD research which examined the disjuncture between Indigenous and public health narratives of identity in an urban Aboriginal community was awarded a Dean’s Commendation for Academic Excellence placing her among the top 10% of her graduating year. Dr Bond has published a number of papers in relationship to strength-based health promotion practice, Indigenous social capital, and the conceptualization of Aboriginality within public health. Dr Bond is an Australian Learning and Teaching Fellow examining how Indigenous educators within Australian higher educational institutions create culturally safe teaching and learning environments.

[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]21 May

Summer May Finlay, a Yorta Yorta woman, PhD candidate, and contributing editor at Croakey, tweeted from Geneva, covering the launch of the World Federation of Public Health Associations (WFPHA) first Indigenous Working Group and the World Health Assembly. The working group’s Co-Chairs are Adjunct Associate Professor Carmen Parter from Australia and Adrian Te Patu from New Zealand, together with Emma Rawson and Finlay as Co-Vice Chairs. Read more in this Croakey article.

[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]14 May

The Lowitja Institute – @LowitjaInstitut – covered the #ResearchIntoPolicy forum in Canberra. This was described as “a conversation with researchers, policy makers, and stakeholders from across the health sector about research projects driven by the priorities of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities”. The forum featured presentations on three Lowitja Institute funded projects, and discussed how decision makers can translate the findings into effective policy for the health and wellbeing of First Peoples. Read reports on the forum by Dr Megan Williams for the Croakey Conference News Service.

[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]7 May

Croakey contributing editor Dr Lesley Russell –  @LRussellWolpe – covered #HealthBudget18, sharing news and analysis.

[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]30 April

Christina Watts – @WattsChrissy90 –  shared some of the latest news and research in #TobaccoControl. She is an advocate and researcher, a MPhil candidate at the University of Sydney, and Tobacco Control Project Coordinator at @CCNewSouthWales.  Also see this article she co-authored for Croakey about how tobacco companies are using Twitter.

[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]23 April

Croakey editor Dr Ruth Armstrong – @DrRuthAtLarge – was on the road as OutsiderInsideUSA, posting public health and other observations, and pictures as she travelled.

[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]16 April

This week, @DrMelStoneham covered the launch of the Pilbara edition of WA Indigenous Storybook, even travelling 40 kms one morning to get internet access to post amazing photographs of the stunning landscape. You can access the storybook here: https://www.phaiwa.org.au/indigenous-storybook/