Education
The Rio Tinto Aboriginal Fund supports programmes which improve health outcomes for Aboriginal people. The Fund aims to support programmes which have the potential to provide sustainable benefits. A selection of health programmes supported by the Fund is presented below.
DIABETES MANAGEMENT AND CARE PROGRAMME
(2002 to 2007)
The Unity of First People of Australia (UFPA) has established a diabetes management and care programme at four remote communities in the north of Western Australia. The programme is based on intervention and practical prevention strategies for changing lifestyles and eating habits.
SEXUAL AND REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH SKILLS PROGRAMME
(2007 to 2009)
Through this three year (2007-2010) project, Family Planning Queensland (FPQ) is supporting Aboriginal Medical Services (AMSs) and other community controlled health services to improve the sexual and reproductive health of communities in regional Queensland. It will do this by providing Aboriginal health workers with training and support to develop the skills and confidence they need to deal effectively with such matters.
FAMILY HEALTH BROKER STUDY
(2006 to 2010)
The Coalition for Research to Improve Aboriginal Health (CRIAH) is researching ways to improve Aboriginal health. One aspect of that research, being funded by the RTAF, is a study of whether community appointed health brokers can improve the hearing of Aboriginal children.
REMOTE CHILDREN'S EAR, NOSE AND THROAT HEALTH SCREENING SERVICE
(2007 to 2009)
The RTAF, along with the Telstra Foundation and Queensland Health, is supporting The Royal Children’s Hospital and the Centre for On-line Health in a three year pilot programme to deliver mobile ear, nose and throat health screening to Aboriginal children in rural and remote Queensland . The project will examine how best to get health specialists to remote regions where there is a high incidence of chronic disease.
ANTaR - INDIGENOUS HEALTH SUCCESS STORIES
(2006 to 2007)
In June 2007, Australians for Native Title and Reconciliation (ANTaR), with support from the RTAF, published the Success Stories in Indigenous Health booklet. The booklet showcases the breadth of successful initiatives that Indigenous communities across Australia are undertaking in tackling health problems. It also highlights the significant progress in improving Indigenous health that can be achieved through increased funding and support for community controlled health care initiatives. The project is part of ANTaR’s work on it's Close the Gap campaign, which advocates closing the life expectancy gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians within a generation.
RIO TINTO ABORIGINAL CHILD HEALTH PARTNERSHIP
(2002 to 2007)
Between 2000 and 2003, the Telethon Institute for Child Health Research conducted a study into Aboriginal child health in WA. This partnership acts upon the findings of that study. The areas of focus of the programme will include: modelling the WA study across northern Australia; reducing prenatal exposure to smoking and alcohol; and promoting and enhancing the roles of Aboriginal health workers. This initiative will greatly develop the commitment of government and the private sector to work together to address Aboriginal child health issues. The Telethon Institute for Child Health Research was founded by Professor Fiona Stanley, the 2002 West Australian of the Year, and is nationally and internationally recognised for proactively addressing Indigenous maternal and child health needs. The partnership involves the Rio Tinto Aboriginal Fund, the Rio Tinto WA Future Fund, four Rio Tinto mining businesses, a federal agency, and the governments of Western Australia, Northern Territory and Queensland.
STRONG WOMEN PROGRAMME
(2007)
The Parlngunh Lurrruth Ngarla (strong women) programme is a series of four day courses run by nursing staff and Aboriginal elder women of the Wadeye community for female students aged ten to 15 years. It talks about the emotional changes of puberty, peer pressure and safe sex in order to reduce the rising incidence of sexually transmitted diseases and early adolescent pregnancy. The programme not only increases the girls’ understanding, but also provides them with a support network.
WALTJA CHILD NUTRITION PROJECT
(2006)
Poor nutrition contributes to substandard health in many Aboriginal communities, especially among children. In 1996, the RTAF funded Waltja, a community based organisation to continue its work to establish nutrition programmes for children up to five, across central Australia . The project focused on developing appropriate and sustainable community based nutrition programmes; providing Aboriginal communities with knowledge and awareness of the nutrition needs of their children; and developing culturally appropriate models of best practice and resources that can be used to support other communities and early childhood services in the central Australian region.
HEALTHY SKIN PROGRAMME
(2003 to 2006)
This Melbourne-Darwin based skin programme combines research and application to the problems of skin infection and subsequent life reducing disease. The programme is being conducted among communities in the east Arnhem region in the Northern Territory. Health worker education is an important component of this project. The programme is co-funded with the Ian Potter Foundation, the Co-operative Research Centre for Aboriginal Health and the Australian College of Dermatologists.
YOUNG WOMEN'S SEXUAL HEALTH PROJECT
(2002 to 2005)
FPA Health ran a project in western New South Wales to provide culturally appropriate clinical services and an educational programme to address the health literacy of young Aboriginal women. The programme helped young Aboriginal women recognise and make healthy choices about their reproductive and sexual health needs and gave them improved access to services such as cancer screenings, contraception and pregnancy care.
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MUMS AND BABIES – MATERNAL AND CHILD HEALTH PROGRAMME
(2001 to 2004)
This maternal and child health clinic set up in the Townsville Aboriginal and Islanders Health Service, provides ante and postnatal health services for Indigenous women. The clinic now caters for around 500 clients each month with numbers still increasing, and provides continuity of service and the building of confidence and trust among the pregnant women and mothers. After only five years, the health outcomes achieved by the programme include a reduction in low birth weight babies from 16 to 11.7 per cent; mean birth weights have increased by 170 grams; and perinatal deaths have fallen from 58 per thousand to 22 per thousand.
The Rio Tinto Aboriginal Fund initially supported the programme and was responsible for attracting additional support from the Ian Potter Foundation to ensure that the project proceeded. The Office for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health (OATSIH) in the Commonwealth Department of Health and Aging has now accepted a primary funding role for the project and has nominated it as an exemplar programme.
KIDNEY HEALTH PROGRAMME IN TIWI COMMUNITY
(1998 to 2001)
The objectives of this programme, which commenced in November 1995, were to prevent or retard the development of kidney disease in the high risk Aboriginal population on the Tiwi Islands in the Northern Territory , and to set up an effective model for delivery of therapy which optimises acceptance of treatment. The Fund committed funding to this project in 1998. Following the success of the Tiwi work, the Fund joined with OATSIH to fund, for three years, an extension of the programme to the Northern Territory mainland communities of Wadeye, Naiyiu and Borroloola.
ROYAL FLYING DOCTOR SERVICE
(1996 to 1998)
The Royal Flying Doctor Service (RFDS) is a non profit organisation providing medical help to people in remote areas. It flies more than seven million kilometres a year, helping over 140,000 people - 40 per cent from Indigenous communities.
In 1996, the Foundation began a four year support process providing assistance to the RFDS by funding an Indigenous health liaison programme. The funding paid for two liaison officers, one in Cairns and one in Mt Isa and covered salaries, expenses, travel, and further education and training. Important additional support was provided for evaluation of the project. The data gathered were of significant benefit to the RFDS in consolidating the role in their wider organisation.
