HealthBulletin

Australian Indigenous HealthBulletin
Vol 6 No 4 October 2006 - December 2006: ISSN 1445-7253

A peer-reviewed electronic journal from the Australian Indigenous HealthInfoNet

Reports and publications

This section of the Bulletin identifies recent reports and publications, including book chapters. If you are aware of material that would be appropriate for inclusion in this section please contact us

This report supports the aims of the Aboriginal Child and Sexual Assault Taskforce (ACSAT) to examine and report on child sexual assault in Aboriginal communities. The focus was to review the responses of government and non-government agencies in NSW and make recommendations for improvements. Obtaining the Aboriginal community's perspective of child sexual assault and issues and current service responses, was the basis for the analysis. The responses were matched with services provided by government and non-government agencies, and based on gaps and barriers identified, recommendations were formulated and presented.

This report presents information on the extent of family violence in the Indigenous population. Information is provided on: existing surveys and administrative data on the prevalence of violence; support services for victims of violence; and hospitalisation and mortality data. The report also reviews past and current initiatives, including interventions and prevention programs, aimed at addressing family violence, and discusses strategies to address the gaps in existing information.

Genat B, Bushby S, McGuire M, Taylor E, Walley Y, et al. (2006)
Aboriginal healthworkers: primary health care at the margins.
Perth: University of Western Australian Press

This book discusses what Indigenous healthworkers do, the holistic nature of their profession and how they are perceived by their Indigenous clients. It identifies a lack of professional recognition of healthworkers and inadequate support from Western medical clinicians. The authors, five of which are Aboriginal healthworkers, suggest that practical steps be taken for greater engagement of the profession with the mainstream health system.

Hall J, Berry M (2006)
Indigenous housing: assessing the long term costs and the optimal balance between recurrent and capital expenditure.
Melbourne: Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute
View report (PDF - 947KB)
View website: Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute

This report is the result of a research project sponsored by the Standing Committee on Indigenous Housing (SCIH) and the Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute (AHURI). The report sets out an analysis of both Indigenous community housing organisations (ICHOs) and State owned and managed Indigenous community housing organisations (SOMIHs). The analysis includes evaluation of: quantitative and qualitative differences between clients, geographies and jurisdictions; the reasons for these differences; revenue policy implications; expenditure issues; and issues relating to capital and recurrent splits and possible future directions.

This research report was compiled for the Indigenous Community Governance Project (ICGP) to detail the preliminary findings from the first year of fieldwork. It outlines the need for capacity development in governance and identifies several dimensions as being fundamental to building stronger, sustainable governance at the community and regional levels. The dimensions include: the wider 'governance environment'; cultural match and cultural geography; modes of leadership and representation; institutional capacity; organisational design and relationships; representation; decision-making processes; and human resource capacity. The report concludes with concerns and implications for policy makers and for Indigenous organisations and their leaders. The accompanying ten key messages from the preliminary findings discuss the dimensions for building stronger sustainable governance.

This report was commissioned by the National Advisory Group on Smoking and Pregnancy as part of an overall strategy to reduce smoking in pregnancy. The objective of the report is to: provide baseline data on the characteristics of mothers who smoke in pregnancy; and describe the perinatal outcomes of their babies. This information will be used to inform a national program aimed at helping women, particularly Indigenous women, stop smoking during and after pregnancy.

The report documents that 52.2% of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander mothers reported smoking during pregnancy, compared with 15.8% of non-Indigenous mothers. It also reports that smoking during pregnancy: increases the risk of premature birth by 60%; is known to lower birth weights; increases the risk of the baby having high blood pressure; and contributes to increased rates of respiratory diseases, asthma and ear infections in infancy and childhood.

This study found that Indigenous people are considerably more likely to suffer a heart attack than other Australians; and are more likely to die as a consequence (whether admitted to hospital or not). If admitted to hospital, Indigenous people are less likely to receive key medical investigations or procedures such as angioplasty or coronary bypass surgery. The study considers the various factors that contribute to higher Indigenous death rates from coronary heart disease, such as: vulnerability to heart attack; complexity of cases; and treatment inadequacies. The report highlights the need to reduce the health inequalities that Indigenous people experience in relation to coronary heart disease.

This information paper provides discussion and a call for action to address issues around food security for Indigenous people living in remote Australia. The content includes definitions relating to food security, the cost of food supply to remote areas, and discussion around existing innovative programs. People and organisations concerned with access to food in remote Australia are encouraged by the NRHA to read this paper.

Silburn SR, Zubrick SR, De Majo JA, Shepherd C, Griffin JA, et al. (2006)
Strengthening the capacity of Aboriginal children, families and communities.
Perth: Curtin University of Technology and Telethon Institute for Child Health Research
View report (HTML)
View summary booklet (PDF - 2.3MB - large file warning!)
View website: Telethon Institute for Child Health Research

This report documents aspects of an extensive survey of the health, well-being, developmental and educational status of Western Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children. It focuses on the remediation of Indigenous disadvantage through family and community development programs. It calls for reform in the areas of policy, government, and service delivery. It identifies that changes are urgently needed in order to: optimise educational opportunities and outcomes; increase family functioning and improve economic circumstances and cultural connectedness; and reduce levels of stress.

This research paper critiques the Harvard Project on Indian Economic Development which has been operating for about 18 years in the John F. Kennedy School of Government. The basis of the Harvard Project's prescription for Aboriginal advancement in Australia is that sovereignty matters, culture matters, and institutions matter. These findings are being used in Australia to inform government policy, both at federal and state levels, and at least two research projects are currently attempting to independently verify the findings in the Australian context. The paper puts the Harvard Project under some scrutiny and searches for ways of meeting three competing aims: effective indigenous governance, respect for indigenous culture, and acknowledgement of the need for human and civil rights within indigenous communities.

An adaptation of this paper was presented at a United Nations (UN) workshop on Indigenous Peoples and Indicators of Well-Being in Ottawa, 2006. The paper summarises current Australian social indicator frameworks, including issues of statistical accountability and the politics of statistics. It refers to aspects of the representation of Indigenous culture in formal reporting frameworks, and highlights that the development of indicators in cross-cultural settings will always involve a degree of reductionism and a process of translation. It also considers the implications for measures of well-being, from an Australian perspective, based on the key objectives of the UN's Second International Decade of the World's Indigenous Peoples.

This discussion paper highlights the need for fresh perspectives about the policy implications of Indigenous demographic trends. The current frameworks for policy development are focused on State and Territory jurisdictional levels, however this paper calls for a whole-of-government approach to demographic 'hot spots' where Indigenous population dynamics in particular regions give rise to issues of public policy concern. It recommends a clear national statement and approach to policy around structural settings such as outstations, town camps, growing remote Indigenous towns, regional country centres, and poor city neighbourhoods. It also suggests that policy directions impacting on these demographic trends involve close collaboration across and between all levels of government.