SWSLHD acknowledges the traditional owners of the land of this District - Darug, Dharawal and Gundungurra peoples.

ISSUE 4 | JANUARY 2016

BANGALANEWSLETTER

Director’s Message

Congratulations to our graduate Trainees

INSIDE THIS ISSUE:

Vaccination rates of our little ones are on the improve 2

Shared responsibility in closing the gap for our little ones 2

Tackling HIV head on 3

More patients in ED 3

Budyari Aboriginal CHC gets a make-over 4

Update: Respecting the Difference 4

Welcome to the summer edition of the Bangala Newsletter. Last year

was an exceptionally busy year for the SWSLHD Aboriginal Health Team with the development and implementation of a number of new services across the District.

These include additional specialist and allied health outreach services, some of which are discussed in this edition. Our Aboriginal workforce across the LHD continues to grow, with 238 Aboriginal staff members now employed compared to 200 six months ago.

In November, new trainees commenced with the organisation in a range of roles including assistants in nursing, administration, wards persons and cleaning.

2016 figures look to be just as busy and productive with our Strong Fathers Strong Families Coordinator coming on board, increasing our focus on men’s health and the introduction of the new “2 to school program”. This will enable us to provide increased support to children and families around the transition to school.

I want to also acknowledge the significant contribution Libby Brown has made to the Aboriginal Health Team over the last two years as Deputy Director. Libby has been pivotal to a number of the initiatives that we have progressed and behalf of the team I’d like to wish her all the best in her new role as Aboriginal Health Manager with Nepean Blue Mountains LHD.

Nathan Jones, Director of Aboriginal Health, SWSLHD

On 18 November SWSLHD held a graduation ceremony for our trainees that successfully completed our Aboriginal Traineeship program.

In September 2014 SWSLHD engaged 24 trainees in a range of roles including assistant in Nursing, ward person, cleaning and administration across Bankstown, Fairfield, Liverpool and Campbelltown hospitals.

Eighteen of the trainees successfully obtained their Certificate qualification and the majority have now transitioned into permanent roles within the LHD. The event was well attended by the trainees, their managers, families and friends. Congratulations to each of our 2014/15 graduates. Well done!

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SWSLHD Aboriginal Child and Family Team (Narellan) are working in partnership with a selection of SWSLHD allied health staff to run a series of educational sessions within a playgroup setting.

The purpose for these sessions is to make families aware of the services that are available to improve the health of their children in a number of key areas including hearing, vision, nutrition, oral health, immunisation, speech pathology, child psychology and specialist child nurses. These educational sessions have been designed and developed to provide quick, easy to understand information about these health services within the most current guidelines and using the most up to date information. Providing this information in a playgroup setting plays a very important role in breaking down barriers for families who are either unaware of where to seek assistance and/or reluctant to seek out assistance via telephone intake lines. The playgroups are based in seven sites across the District, where families are able to book a screening session or seek a referral to appropriate specialists.

As a further focus on child development, the SWSLHD Aboriginal Child and Family Team are also working in partnership with the Waran Warin Aboriginal Child & Family Centre (Minto) by value adding service provisions in the key areas of speech pathology, occupational therapy, child nutrition, paediatric assessments, monthly child and family clinic and access to a child psychologist. SWSLHD staff are committed to working closely with Waran Warin staff to ensure that they too have the skills and understanding on developmental milestones for children.

Julie Cherry (SWSLHD Aboriginal Immunisation Liaison Officer) recently did a presentation at the Population Health Research and Evidence Showcase about the Aboriginal Immunisation Liaison Project that was undertaken over a three year timeframe.

The aim of the project was, and still is, to close the immunisation gap between Aboriginal/non-Aboriginal children in the 0-4 year age group. The first and biggest hurdle to overcome with this Project was to improve the identification process of Aboriginal people in the community. Projects were undertaken by the Aboriginal Health Team with other stakeholders to rectify this, but were also centred on encouraging Aboriginal people to identify - by promoting the value and importance of identifying. The Project also uses many forms of communication including letters, texts, education sessions and smart phone

apps, as well as promoting the importance of timely immunisation at many community events to encourage parents to get their bubs immunised on time.

The main focus with immunisation is on timely vaccination, which still proves to be a challenge. Based on immunisation data for October – December 2013, there was a significant 12 per cent gap difference between Aboriginal/non-Aboriginal children for some age groups. Since that

time, the gap between Aboriginal/non-Aboriginal children fully vaccinated has been significantly improved across all age cohorts and for some is now better than non-Aboriginal age cohorts.

Shared responsibility in closing the gap for our little ones

Vaccination rates of our little ones are on the improve

ABORIGINAL HEALTH IS EVERYONE’S BUSINESS

DIDJA KNOW? Across Australia, in 2013–14, primary health care providers carried out 47,414 Indigenous child health checks - A rate of 194 checks per 1,000 Indigenous children aged 0–14

BANGALANEWSLETTER

A great day was held at Tharawal AMS on Wednesday 2 December. Up to 90 Aboriginal students from eight local high schools took part in a touch footy competition, which was used as a platform to raise awareness of HIV and to promote protective behaviours.

The event ran smoothly through the combined efforts of a range of project partners including Tharawal AMS, SWSLHD Aboriginal Health Unit, NSW Dept of Education, NSW Sport and Rec, Traxside Youth Health Service, Campbelltown Council, AH&MRC and SWSLHD HARP Health Promotion team. Congratulations and thank

you to all involved especially the students and schools who took part. It rounded off a great series of events promoting HIV Awareness Week and World AIDS Day across SWSLHD. It is the second year that this competition has been held at the sporting fields adjacent to Tharawal AMS.

Tackling HIV head on

More patients in ED

2012/20130

500

1000

1500

2000

2500

3000

3500

Liverpool

Aboriginal ED Presentations by Hospital

Campbelltown Bankstown Fairfield Bowral

2013/2014 2014/2015

2012/20130

500

1000

1500

2000

2500

Liverpool

Aboriginal Patient Numbers by Hospital Excluding ED

Campbelltown Bankstown Fairfield Bowral

2013/2014 2014/2015

DIDJA KNOW?

There are approximately 238 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander staff working across SWSLHD. This equates to 1.86 per cent of the total SWSLHD workforce of 12,828 staff.

Over the last three years the Aboriginal Health Unit has worked closely with each of our facilities to collect a range of data related to Aboriginal patients’ use of hospital services.

The data is collected through the SWSLHD Aboriginal Health KPI Dashboard and looks at hospital performance in a number of areas. One of the drivers for the KPI Dashboard was to support improved identification of Aboriginal patients. The improvements in identification are reflected in the graphs above which show the growth in patient numbers for both Emergency Departments and all other hospital locations. The increase in patient numbers also coincides with the expansion of the SWSLHD Aboriginal Liaison Officer (ALO) network that ensures some ALO coverage at all of our Hospitals.

Budyari Aboriginal Community Health Centre in Miller has recently undergone extensive renovations to support improved patient care.

On 9 November 2015 over 100 people attended a morning tea to celebrate the re-opening of the Centre which now includes five consultation rooms, enabling an increase in the number of clinical services delivered from the Centre.

Budyari is a unique resource in that it is a community health centre with a dedicated Aboriginal Health focus. While the focal point of the centre is the Aboriginal Chronic Care program it is also a hub for a range of other health and social services. Over the last two years there has been a concerted effort to expand Budyari’s service range to better meet the community’s health needs. These include increased nursing and dietician hours, visiting GP service from Gandangara Health Service, Cardiologist clinic, Gastroenterologist clinic, Mental Health outreach service, drug and alcohol counselling and an exercise physiologist service.

SWSLHD’s Health Service Manager, Budyari Community Health Centre Mr Leslie Jenkins said the Centre is a place where patients feel comfortable returning for treatment and support from Aboriginal health workers, doctors and nurses who know them and

their medical histories. “What we try to provide is holistic care for the patient, so that when you go into the clinic, you know the person who is taking care of you,” Mr Jenkins said.

Budyari Aboriginal CHC gets a make-over

4 | ISSUE 4 JANUARY 2016

Aboriginal Health Unit

Bangala Building, Eastern Campus, Liverpool Hospital

Nathan JonesPhone: 9828 6014Email: nathan.jones@sswahs.nsw.gov.au

Hyllus MunroPhone: 8738 6993Email: hyllus.munro@sswahs.nsw.gov.au

BANGALANEWSLETTER

RTD has been successfully rolled out across SWSLHD. Up to 30 November 2015, 130 Workshops have been delivered to over 5,500 staff, and up to 10,000 staff have completed the online version of RTD.

The success of the rollout is validated by an external evaluation of the RTD face-to-face workshops conducted by the UNSW Centre for Health Equity Training Research and Evaluation (CHETRE). The evaluation took place between March 2014 and April 2015 across four selected sites of

SWSLHD. Findings from the evaluation showed a positive impact on SWSLHD staff cultural competence in terms of improved knowledge, understanding of and confidence in working with Aboriginal patients and staff. An evaluation report has been finalised, with an event to be organised to do an official handover of the Report to representatives from the Ministry of Health. Paper copies will be placed in each of the hospital libraries across the District, and online copies will also be uploaded to the SWSLHD intranet and internet sites.

RTD Workshop dates for 2016 are now available on HETI, staff are encouraged to register for this mandatory training.

Also, Hyllus Munro has been appointed on a permanent basis to continue the rollout of RTD across the District with a future role in developing and delivering educational programs in partnership with the District’s Centre for Education and Workforce Development (CEWD).

Respecting the Difference (RTD) update