Applications open soon for the 2024 IAHA Ultimate Student Leadership Challenge, December 6-8

The IAHA USLC is a three-day cultural and professional leadership program that is designed to support students in the development of a wide range of skills and leadership in a health context. Working collaboratively, the students will bring their cultural and professional knowledges to the fore as they develop a management plan in response to a complex case study. The challenge will empower them and fellow health student peers to lead in providing holistic, culturally safe, and multidisciplinary care.

The USLC program is underpinned by IAHA’s Cultural Responsiveness in Action: Theory of Change and IAHA’s Cultural Responsiveness Capability Framework, which acts as a tool to support all people working with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, families, and communities in a strengths-based and culturally responsive way.

The USLC is a learning experience for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health students designed to educate the nation’s next generation of healthcare professionals.

This opportunity is only for IAHA student members; if you are not a current member, click here to join now! 

USLC enquiries – email membership@iaha.com.au or ph (02) 62851010

IAHA MEDIA RELEASE – Australian Universities Accord Final Report: an opportunity for more culturally safe and responsive educational pathways

Indigenous Allied Health Australia (IAHA), a national Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community- controlled organisation, welcomes the release of the Australian Universities Accord Final Report, marking a significant opportunity for meaningful higher education reform in Australia. The Report includes 47 recommendations to reform higher education, and among the areas included within the report are aims to improve access, opportunity, and experiences for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students, educators and researchers.

IAHA acknowledges the financial burden that higher education can have for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students and families, particularly for students undertaking unpaid placements in their studies. IAHA supports the Report’s recommendation to introduce payment for mandatory placements. It strongly urges the government to ensure allied health is included alongside education and nursing peers in government-supported placement opportunities, recognising the essential, collective role they play in our communities.

IAHA Chairperson, Nicole Turner, said, “It is welcome to see initiatives designed to improve equity of access, including for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students, and addressing placement poverty will both enable more people to pursue health degrees and experience meaningful clinical placement opportunities in their studies. An ongoing concern for IAHA is the shift in the delivery of allied health degrees toward, increasingly, postgraduate programs. We know the additional time, financial commitment, and impact on scholarship eligibility is another access barrier, which hasn’t been highlighted adequately in the Report.”

‘You’ve got to look back before you can move forward’

Truth-telling and sovereignty are vital to overcoming Indigenous health inequalities, according to a new RACGP submission. The RACGP has welcomed the opportunity to contribute to the Yoorrook Justice Commission – the first formal truth-telling process into historic and ongoing injustice experienced by Aboriginal people in Victoria since colonisation. In the joint submission between RACGP Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health and RACGP Victoria, the college identifies the importance of acknowledging the root causes of health inequities for Aboriginal people, recognising the health benefits of ‘truth-telling, sovereignty and self-determination’.

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Further funding for Birthing on Country program

Charles Darwin University’s (CDU) Molly Wardaguga Research Centre has received nearly $5 million in funding to expand support for Birthing on Country services critical for First Nations mothers and babies. The funding has been provided as part of the Federal Government’s Medical Research Future Fund. The CDU Birthing on Country program currently supports Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Services (ACCHOs) and other partners to establish and evaluate three demonstration Birthing on Country services in rural (Nowra, NSW), remote (Alice Springs, NT) and very remote (Galiwin’ku, NT) sites. This new funding will assist with generating high-quality research that demonstrates the positive clinical, economic, and social impacts of this innovative service at a societal and family level in diverse geographical areas.

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Improving food security in remote First Nations communities

The Albanese Labor Government is improving food security in remote Aboriginal communities and investing more than one million dollars on a range of infrastructure projects.

In the remote Northern Territory community of Robinson River, about 800 kilometres south east of Katherine, $69,000 will go towards crucial supply flights of food and essentials.

This will help ensure access to food during the wet season, when the community is cut off for several months at a time.

Nearly $570,000 will go towards major upgrades to the Urapunga Store, 600km south-east of Darwin, to convert an existing structure into an insulated and enclosed fully fledged store.

The upgrades will include installation of air-conditioning, energy efficient electrical systems and a new fuel pump to better service the local community.

READ FULL MEDIA

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