Aboriginal Communities In South Australia Research Articles

Acceptability of the culturally adapted ASQ-TRAK developmental screening tool to caregivers of Aboriginal children.

The Ages and Stages Questionnaire-Talking about Raising Aboriginal Kids (ASQ-TRAK) culturally adapted developmental screening tool is widely used in Australian Aboriginal communities. However, there has been limited exploration of the tool's acceptability to caregivers. The aim of the study is to determine the acceptability of the ASQ-TRAK developmental screening tool to caregivers of Aboriginal children in urban, regional and remote South Australia. Caregivers of Aboriginal children completed a survey regarding acceptability of the ASQ-TRAK. Convenience samples of caregivers were invited to a telephone interview. Ninety-two caregivers completed the survey (96% response). Acceptability (92%) and caregiver satisfaction (73%) were high. Families perceived the screen as easy to use and understand, strengths-based and providing valuable information about their child's development. The ASQ-TRAK tool was highly acceptable to caregivers in Aboriginal communities in South Australia. The study highlights the importance of culturally safe practice and supports ASQ-TRAK implementation. Broader use and further evaluation of the ASQ-TRAK in Aboriginal communities needs consideration.

Does access to saltwater swimming pools reduce ear pathology and hearing loss in school children of remote arid zone aboriginal communities? A prospective 3-year cohort study.

To assess whether access to saltwater chlorinated swimming pools in remote Aboriginal communities is beneficial in reducing levels of middle ear disease and hearing loss in school children. A prospective 3-year cohort study of children in 10 remote Aboriginal communities in South Australia with (n=4) or without (n=6) swimming pools. Outback Australia. Eight hundred and thirteen school-age children residing in remote South Australia. Prevalence of open and closed middle ear disease and prevalence of hearing loss. About 2107 ear assessments were conducted during the study period. 70.7% of children in communities with pools failed a screening test of hearing compared with 68.6% of children in non-pool communities (P=0.637). 32.3% of children had chronic otitis media (COM). There was no difference between pool and non-pool communities in the frequency of either inactive (19.4% pool vs 22.6% non-pool; P=0.232) or active (19.8% pool vs 17.8% non-pool; P=0.383) COM. In children with bilateral intact tympanic membranes, 21.2% had unilateral and 20.6 had bilateral type B tympanograms. There was no difference between pool and non-pool communities in the frequency of type B tympanometry (P=0.465). Hearing loss associated with both open and closed middle ear disease remains highly prevalent in children living in remote Aboriginal communities in South Australia. Access to swimming pools in this population does not appear to significantly reduce these high levels of middle ear disease or associated hearing loss.

RADIOACTIVE WASTE AND AUSTRALIA'S ABORIGINAL PEOPLE

The treatment of Australia's Aboriginal people by the nuclear industry (broadly defined as private- and public-sector agencies pursuing uranium and nuclear projects) is a poorly researched topic. That is not merely a gap in the academic research on related topics (the history of the nuclear industry in Australia; the history of race relations in Australia; etc.), but it has “real world” consequences. Put simply, the paucity of information about the mistreatment of Aboriginal people makes it easier for nuclear interests to repeat past practices; and conversely, proper documentation and publication of past (and current) practices detrimental to Aboriginal people can make it more difficult for nuclear interests to repeat those practices. Over the past decade Friends of the Earth Australia (FoE) has sought to partially remedy the information deficit in the context of its work with Aboriginal communities involved in debates regarding uranium mining and proposed radioactive waste repositories (the author works for FoE). One thread of that work is the growing body of multimedia work (and a Master's thesis) by FoE member Jessie Boylan covering the legacy of the atomic bomb tests, uranium mining and waste repository proposals (see <www.jessieboylan.com>). Another thread of the project is detailed written documentation of past and present incidents of mistreatment of Aboriginal people by nuclear interests (as well as multimedia presentations of this material – see, for example, <www.australianmap.net>). This article builds on that research and focuses on attempts to impose radioactive waste repositories on the land of unwilling Aboriginal communities in South Australia.

Participatory Education As Empowerment: A Case Study On Loss, Grief And Empowerment

Accepted: 23.06.2015 As Freire indicated, for education to be successful, it needs to be participatory where both student and teacher recognise the educational capacity within each other. In order for education to be participatory, there needs to be empowerment of the recipients of the education. This is particularly true when the education is delivered cross-culturally and in a community setting. A community can be defined as a group of people who live and work cooperatively together. Education in a community setting empowers both individuals but also the community as a whole. Delivery of education to a community comprises both insiders and outsiders. Insiders are the community members who know intuitively how the community operates. Outsiders do not know experientially how a community functions. When outsiders bring expertise into a community, it is the insiders who can adapt that expertise and make it relevant to that community. Seasons for Healing was an educational loss and grief program implemented in Aboriginal communities in South Australia. Incorporating an interpretive, yet also critical and reflexive ethnography, expertise from outsiders combined with experiential insight from insiders enabled people from Aboriginal communities to be empowered through participant education. As people within communities participated in their own education through the Seasons for Healing Program, an awareness of their own empowerment developed.

Living beyond Aboriginal suicide: Developing a culturally appropriate and accessible suicide postvention service for Aboriginal communities in South Australia

Anglicare SA’s Living Beyond Suicide program (LBS) is a postvention service which partners with crisis services such as the police and ambulance who attend each suicide in South Australia and who provide families with an immediate link to the service. LBS workers visit in the hours and days after the suicide, companion survivors through post-suicide processes, and provide a vital link between families and the community. The support given is practical and based on a family’s needs. It is also based on evidence which suggests that postvention services are important in mitigating the negative effects of grief and suicide contagion. Despite the overrepresentation of Aboriginal people in suicide statistics, LBS is signifi cantly underutilised by Aboriginal people. The aim of this research is to investigate how programmes such as LBS can be made more accessible and appropriate for Aboriginal people so that all people in the community have the opportunity to access the service should they experience bereavement through suicide. The project constitutes the beginning of a ‘both ways’, asset-based dialogue, and seeks to enhance the service’s capacity through dialogue with Aboriginal stakeholders, whilst investigating the potential of the service to augment the capacity of Aboriginal people and communities to live beyond suicide. To this end, the research here gathers information from a number of Aboriginal people who have been bereaved by suicide, and Aboriginal service providers who work with people who have been in this situation. It asks whether or not there is a need for a service such as LBS for Aboriginal families and communities and, if so, how the current programme could be modifi ed to make it more accessible and/or appropriate for Aboriginal people. Overarching those service specifi c questions, the project investigates the potential utility of predicating social service provision on a process of ‘walking together’.

Living Beyond Aboriginal Suicide: Developing a culturally appropriate and accessible suicide postvention service for Aboriginal communities in South Australia.

Living Beyond Aboriginal Suicide: Developing a culturally appropriate and accessible suicide postvention service for Aboriginal communities in South Australia.

Chronic condition management and self-management in Aboriginal communities in South Australia: outcomes of a longitudinal study

This paper describes the longitudinal component of a larger mixed methods study into the processes and outcomes of chronic condition management and self-management strategies implemented in three Aboriginal communities in South Australia. The study was designed to document the connection between the application of structured systems of care for Aboriginal people and their longer-term health status. The study concentrated on three diverse Aboriginal communities in South Australia; the Port Lincoln Aboriginal Health Service, the Riverland community, and Nunkuwarrin Yunti Aboriginal Health Service in the Adelaide metropolitan area. Repeated-measure clinical data were collected for individual participants using a range of clinical indicators for diabetes (type 1 and 2) and related chronic conditions. Clinical data were analysed using random effects modelling techniques with changes in key clinical indicators being modelled at both the individual and group levels. Where care planning has been in place longer than in other sites overall improvements were noted in BMI, cholesterol (high density and low density lipids) and HbA1c. These results indicate that for Aboriginal patients with complex chronic conditions, participation in and adherence to structured care planning and self-management strategies can contribute to improved overall health status and health outcomes. The outcomes reported here represent an initial and important step in quantifying the health benefits that can accrue for Aboriginal people living with complex chronic conditions such as diabetes, heart disease and respiratory disease. The study highlights the benefits of developing long-term working relationships with Aboriginal communities as a basis for conducting effective collaborative health research programs. WHAT IS KNOWN ABOUT THE TOPIC? Chronic condition management and self-management programs have been available to Aboriginal people in a range of forms for some time. We know that some groups of patients are keen to engage with care planning and self-management protocols and we have anecdotal evidence of this engagement leading to improved quality of life and health outcomes for Aboriginal people. WHAT DOES THIS PAPER ADD? This paper provides early evidence of sustained improvement over time for a cohort of Aboriginal people who are learning to deal with a range of chronic illnesses through accessing structured systems of support and care. WHAT ARE THE IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTITIONERS? This longitudinal evidence of improved outcomes for Aboriginal people is encouraging and should lead on to more definitive studies of outcomes accruing for people engaged in structured systems of care. Not only does this finding have implications for the overall management of chronic illness in Aboriginal communities, but it points the way to how health services might best invest their resources and efforts to improve the health status of people with chronic conditions and, in the process, close the gap between the life expectancy of Aboriginal people and that of other community groups in Australia.

The provision of water infrastructure in Aboriginal communities in South Australia

The history of domestic water supplies to the Aboriginal communities in South Australia under the Commonwealth-State Bilateral Agreement is explored. The water supply is considered world class in terms of the suitability of the technology to the remoteness of many of the communities and the harsh arid environment.

Using the health hardware method to measure poverty in Indigenous Australia

Two issues confront researchers concerned with the relationship between poverty and health. The first deals with the problem of an accurate measure of poverty. The second deals with revealing for policy makers the pathway between poverty and health status. This is an arena where research is still very much embryonic despite the strong evidence that poverty is a social determinant of health. This paper outlines a method used with four remote Aboriginal communities in South Australia to establish a correlation between poverty and health. Drawing on Tregenza and Tregenza’s adaptations to the Cost of Living methodology we incorporated a wide range of health hardware, health consumables and food into poverty predictions for four Aboriginal communities. While the method cannot generalize findings to larger population groups it does provide clear evidence to the participants and policy makers of the impact of poverty on well-being.

Inhalant Deaths in South Australia

A 20-year retrospective study of inhalant deaths in South Australia, autopsied at Forensic Science SA, was undertaken from January 1983 to December 2002. Thirty-nine cases were identified from an autopsy pool of 18,880 cases, with a male to female ratio of 12:1. Sixty-four percent of the victims (N = 25) died during voluntary inhalation of volatile substances and 28% (N = 11) committed suicide utilizing a volatile substance or gas. The remaining 3 cases involved a workplace accident (N = 1) and 2 cases of autoerotic death where inhalants were being used to augment solitary sexual activity. The mean age of the 28 victims of accidental inhalant death of 21 years (range, 13-45 years) was considerably less than that of the 11 suicide victims of 31.5 years (range, 17-48 years). No homicides were found. Approximately one quarter of the victims were Aboriginal (N = 11), 10 of whom had died as a result of gasoline inhalation ("petrol sniffing"). Other common substances of abuse were aliphatic hydrocarbons such as butane. The study has shown that those most at risk for accidental or suicidal inhalant deaths were young males, with 92% of victims overall being male, and with 77% of victims being under 31 years of age. Gasoline inhalation remains a significant problem in Aboriginal communities in South Australia.

ABORIGINAL PEOPLE’S ATTITUDES TOWARDS PAYING FOR WATER IN A WATER-SCARCE REGION OF AUSTRALIA

In Australia, governments are committed to water infrastructure developments that are both environmentally sustainable and economically viable. Consumption-based pricing is seen as a water conservation strategy. This has significant implications for Aboriginal communities, many of which do not pay for water use and experience economic hardship. This paper outlines attitudes towards paying for water use in five Aboriginal communities in South Australia. Inability to pay for services was a common factor hindering willingness to pay for water. While different factors were raised in different communities, most communities believed that water is a ‘cultural right’ that should not be paid for. The research found that strategies such as communication and community involvement in the decision-making processes around water supply are necessary to facilitate cost recovery and to promote water conservation.

Co-operative inquiry: The development of a visual impairment prevention program initiative for two Aboriginal communities in South Australia

Impaired vision and blindness are two serious health problems in Australian Aboriginals. In an initiative known as the Visual Impairment Prevention Program (VIPP) commonwealth funding was made available to each state/territory to improve eye status of the Aboriginal population. The South Australian Department of Human Services selected two Aboriginal communities to take part in this initiative. This paper outlines how Flinders University participated in this process.The aim was to conduct an eye program for Aboriginal health workers and develop eye health promotional resources for educational use in the Aboriginal community. The principles of Co-Operative Inquiry were used to guide the process. An evaluation indicated that both products were culturally acceptable to the Aboriginal community.

Assessment of the growth of children and physical status of adults in two Aboriginal communities in South Australia

Assessment of the growth of children and physical status of adults in two Aboriginal communities in South Australia

Assessment of the growth of children and physical status of adults in two Aboriginal communities in South Australia.

Growth of children and physical status of adults in two Aboriginal communities, Gerard and Raukkan, South Australia, were assessed. Height, weight, biepicondylar breadth of humerus, the triceps and subscapular skinfolds, and arm circumferences were measured on 110 children and 77 adults annually between 1996 and 2000. Data were transformed to z scores, using American reference data. In all groups height z scores are negative. In all but Raukkan boys, the z scores are significantly smaller than the reference. Body weight z scores lie above the reference, with the only exceptions being Gerard children. Still, in all cases BMI lies above the reference, being significantly greater than the reference, except in Gerard girls. z scores for the triceps skinfold are not consistently positive, but those for the subscapular skinfold are positive in all groups, indicating centralized fat accumulation. In both boys and girls, Raukkan men and Gerard women, biepicondylar breadth of the humerus is below the reference. Increased BMI and trunk fatness suggest that members of these communities are not only receiving adequate nutrition, but that in many cases there is also a caloric surplus, sometimes leading to obesity. Inadequate skeletal growth indicated by short stature and small biepicondylar breadths, on the other hand, suggests that the environment is less than optimal for growth. Factors such as disease load, psychosocial pressures, or specific nutrient shortages may be involved.

Tuberculosis surveillance in the South Australian Aboriginal community

Tuberculosis (TB) is still a significant problem in Aboriginal people. There are higher rates of active TB and evidence of continuing transmission among this group. We sought to define the specific epidemiological risks and best methods of surveillance for TB in Aboriginal people in South Australia. We compared the incidence of active TB in Aboriginal people in South Australia with that of the total number of cases in non-Aboriginal people from 1978 to 1988, and studied the prevalence of infection in four Aboriginal communities in South Australia. Incidence rates of active TB were four times higher in South Australian Aboriginal people than the total South Australian rates. Specific age analysis revealed higher active disease notification rates in Aboriginal people aged 45-54 years and 55-64 years. The notification rate for Aboriginal men was almost three times the rate for women. Standardized incidence ratios of active TB cases for Aboriginal communities were higher in rural and traditional communities than in urban Aboriginal people. Infection prevalence, measured by tuberculin skin testing, varied from 7.7% to 30.8% in the different communities but did not correlate with the standardized incidence ratios. We conclude that (i) South Australian Aboriginal people are suffering a higher rate of active TB disease than the total South Australian community, and (ii) that the disease and infection rates vary between communities and between age and sex groups. The discrepancy between disease notifications rates, as measured by standardized incidence ratios, and infection prevalence requires further investigation. To improve TB control in Aboriginal people, programmes need to be altered to be more appropriate for this group.

Petrol Sniffing II: What Some Communities Have Done About It

One way of trying to understand why children sniff petrol is to look at the ‘good’ things (from their point of view) they experience. Ask the question, “What problems are solved by this sniffing?”Reading through the reports from different communities in Australia, and also in other countries, and talking to people in Aboriginal communities in South Australia, I noted some problems. There might be hunger. Some people think that sniffing petrol makes children forget about being hungry, and they notice that children who sniff a lot are very thin. There might be loneliness and feeling left out of things. When children sniff, they usually do it together in a group, and have fun together. They get ‘strong’ enough to take no notice of what their relatives and white people say. They get ‘strong’ enough to do things they would not normally do – like breaking into houses or the store, or ‘testing’ themselves against teachers or other people in authority. There might be boredom. When children sniff, they have exciting or frightening pictures in their minds, and they feel as if they can ‘travel around’in their head and visit other places. There might be worry. Children worry about family things (such as whether they have someone to care for them and make sure they have enough food and blankets), or about growing up and the future (what will happen to them if their relatives die; what will they do when they finish school?)By sniffing petrol and feeling ‘high’ some of these problems are alleviated; there is excitement and stimulation; hunger is forgotten; the fun of being ‘different’ and having a group of friends who do the same thing makes up for being left out and being hit by older people. They can travel around in their heads and see lots of new things.