Lowtija roundtable considers future directions in NT environmental health research

Australia's national institute for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health research, the Lowitja Institute, regularly holds roundtables to guide future research.

In June 2012, the Institute hosted three roundtable discussions in Darwin. One of these was about environmental health, housing and hygiene.

A record of this roundtable discussion has recently been published and is available via the links below.

The roundtable found that it would be useful to do further research to answer these questions about Indigenous environmental health:

• Can we apply the World Health Organisation (WHO) Healthy settings framework to the Northern Territory?
• How can community engagement/participation be encouraged and supported?
• How can the housing sector be engaged to improve health?
• What are the key indicators/factors for successful home hygiene?
• What is best practice for health outcomes in housing?
• How can government housing policy support health?

To encourage researchers to explore the prioritised questions, the Lowitja Institute will provide a small number of development grants (of $10,000) to contribute to the development of prioritised questions into full research funding proposals to National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) or other agencies. (Applications for these grants have now closed.)

Source: Lowitja Institute

Links

• View information: Northern Territory research priorities roundtables
• View website: The Lowitja Institute