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If we can’t look after our first people in this country
then really what are we doing?
And if a society is measured by the wellness and the healthiness of the children, again what are we doing?
I’m a part of the Close the Gap Campaign
and support it because I believe in equality.
I believe essentially in that great Australian saying – a fair go for all.
[music and sound effects]
>> Female Narrator: With the support of people like Rachel from Gympie and Giles from Murray Bridge.
With the support of people like you the issue of indigenous health has come a long way.
The federal government’s commitment to a long-term plan
and the initial four-year funding package is starting to show results.
But it’s just the beginning and it’s only together that we will ensure
the ongoing commitment and funding that is needed to bring about
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health equality.
[fast paced music and sound effects]
This new COAG funding has improved health outcomes
within our community.
Under the Healthy Transition to Adulthood program we elected to bring
on five young trainees
and train them to become Aboriginal health workers.
Two of them we trained as mental health first aid instructors.
Around chronic disease the evidence that we’re now seeing is
absolutely fantastic,
where Aboriginal people are now taking control of their health.
We’re empowered them, we’ve given them the access to
good information and we’ve given them access to
good strong culturally appropriate health care.
The other area that we’re really seeing some excellent results
is around child and maternal health.
Previously we had little rabbits, so to speak, tiny little babies.
To now where we're getting leading specialists at
King Edward Memorial Hospital for Woman complimenting our service on how well we do stuff.
Without the investment of healthy for life I wouldn’t be in the service.
The money has come for me to work here from that funding source.
The partnership with the hospital has been a really important aspect of
how the model works because I can’t do it on my own and I need the
help of the hospital, and the two of us working together has made a difference to Aboriginal woman’s health.
In the five years that I’ve been working here the baby’s weights have
increased and the babies that are being born are much more robust and healthy looking children.
[fast paced music and sound effects]
Access in Aboriginal health is one the main determinates
of health outcomes.
That’s why we are here in Brunswick Junction today 40 kilometers out of our usual central base in Bunbury.
At SWAMS we’ve done all we can to try and be as innovative as possible.
The eye health camera enables images to be taken and we then send those remotely back to the Lions Eye Institute in Perth
and an ophthalmologist there can engage in a Skype consultation with our patients.
It’s fantastic technology and it’s helping to close the gap in this area.
We’ve noticed in recent times that more patients
are starting to use our service more regularly
and that’s the way that we'll ultimately close the gap.
I’ve been able to use the funding to work as far away as Narrogin,
Collie, the Bunbury regions setting up woman’s groups in three regions
and also setting up a men’s group, a youth group.
We’ve got more education out there our people are starting to manage their own health.
Not too many of our people are being hospitalised
and I think there has been a change.
>>Christine Mears: Been through a bit with my mum and that made me feel quite depressed.
Ever since I have been coming here it’s turned my life around.
I was a really shy person, now I’m the type of person that will get out there in the community.
It's pushed me to get a job, I’ve been employed. They see me as a really big role model in our family and our community.
The impact that the Close the Gap Campaign has had on our work has been astronomical.
It has been a major supporter in ensuring COAG funds were actually given to health services such as ours.
To know what more then 130,000 Australians took part in Close the Gap Day is phenomenal.
It’s a great commitment it also shows that there is so much goodwill. There are so many people who do care.
Supporters of the Close the Gap Campaign can help us by continuing to maintain awareness of the effectiveness of the investment
by government, contact their MPs. Because we on the ground
are starting to see some great health outcomes.
If COAG funding was to be pulled from our organisation tomorrow,
the instant impact would be seven people would lose their jobs, programs would go.
If the funding stops the groups will stop. They’ll go back into their old lifestyle. It’s hard to build up trust with people
and once you take that funding away and say look we can’t have the groups no more, then your trust stops.
Basically we would go back to how we were four years ago of just providing a generalised health service.
The first four years was only the building blocks, we now need to be able to continue on so we can put the house together.
At the moment we have just got the foundation down and that’s what the first four years was about –
putting down good solid foundations in health services.
It’s the next four years of funding that will become the critical part
of COAG and whether or not we will make a difference.
If people didn’t continue to push and didn’t continue to get these innovative programs out there
and they thought that what they had done was enough,
it's put a little dent in it so that looks really good. Very quickly any gains would be overtaken.
It’s really about sustainability.
It’s really about these programs being ongoing and well supported.
And I think it’s continuing at the same tempo and the same speed for quite bit longer yet.
Together we will make a difference to the health and well being
outcomes for Aboriginal people in years to come,
but we need to do this together now.
>>Juli Coffin: Investing in a health future to me means a lot more than
the monetary commitment, which of course we need.
It’s about building up the workforce. It’s about really raising the profile of Aboriginal health.
>> Rhonda Bradley: Investing in a healthy means we’ll be able to see healthier children in the community
and as a result healthier adults that contribute more to society.
Investing in a healthy future means empowering the community
to take control and direction of their own health.
Coming to this healing group has helped me in invest in my health
and in my family, my nieces and nephews.
You can’t have a healthy future without somebody taking responsibility
for that future and that’s our responsibility as community members.
We need to make a commitment to that and once we make that commitment one of the biggest factors is for that commitment to
have integrity. That you follow through on your commitment that it’s not just lip service.
It’s not an Aboriginal problem or an Aboriginal issue, you know, it’s a national issue.
It’s a national solution that we need. Everybody needs to work in together.
To all the supporters out there, we will make a difference.
We will get there and thank you!
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