Research to empower, inform and transform July/August 2014 Inside this issue CREAHW News 1 CI Information 2 CI Information 2 CREAHW staff news 3 Publications 4 Upcoming Conferences 4 CREAHW News A range of exciting activities have happened in the CREAHW over the last few months. We have had awards, research trips by CI’s and students—both national and international, television adverts and articles being published in journals.  CI Prof Pat Dudgeon was made an Honorary Research Fellow of Telethon Kids Institute til 2017.  CI Dr Cheryl Kickett-Tucker and CI Prof Rhonda Marriott were given adjunct status at the Centre for Child Health Research UWA.  On the 25 September CI Prof Rhonda Marriott was presented with a Lifetime Achievement Award for CATSINaM (Congress of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Nurses and Midwives) at the 16th annual conference held in Scarborough. Rhonda was described by her nominer as a champion for Aboriginal nurses and midwives who demonstrated that Aboriginal people can promote change and improve health outcomes across a range of settings. CI Prof Rhonda Marriott was a keynote speaker at the event and also presented at the student day and yarning workshops about birthing on country over the 2 days.  CI Prof Sandra Eades is Chief Investigator on a new NHMRC grant titled ‘The Forgotten Generation: Understanding Health Trajectories in Aboriginal Adolescents and Youth’. CI Prof Fiona Stanley is an Associate Investigator on the grant. This grant is over a 4 year term and is funded for $1,999,392.  Adele Cox has been recognised with a LiFE award for excellence at the 2014 National Suicide Prevention Conference in August. Adele is a colleague of the CREAHW at UWA. She is part of CI Pat Dudgeon and CI A/Prof Roz Walker’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Suicide Prevention Evaluation Project. More overleaf about this project.  NAIDOC Week was celebrated in Perth during the month of July. It was also Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children’s Day. A new project is launched in WA Page 2 The Australian Government recently funded a national Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Suicide Prevention Evaluation Project (ATSISPEP). Research to empower, inform and transform The Project is being undertaken by the School of Indigenous Studies in partnership with the Telethon Kids Institute/UWA. CI Prof Pat Dudgeon is leading the Project and CI A/Prof Roz Walker is overseeing the development of the evaluation. Senior Researchers Dr Clair Scrine and Dr Carrington Shepherd are also working on the evaluation. The Project Flyer can be found here. The project is formally evaluating a range of existing Indigenous suicide prevention programs and services to enable the development of a much-needed evidence base for ‘what works’ in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander suicide prevention. Prof Jill Milroy, the Director of School of Indigenous Studies, UWA, Dr Tom Calma AO, Co-Chair of the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Mental Health and Suicide Prevention Advisory Group (NATSIMHSPAG) and CI Prof Pat Dudgeon, UWA are providing direction to the Project. The UWA management team consist of Prof Pat Dudgeon, Prof Jill Milroy and A/Prof Roz Walker will be responsible for overseeing the Project implementation and outcomes. The project is in the process of evaluating Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander suicide prevention services and programs. It is identifying community suicide prevention needs and system-level change for suicide prevention. At the end of 12 months it will provide recommendations for future actions for suicide prevention at a national level to inform the National Strategy and develop a position paper. Prof Dudgeon, Chair of National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Leadership in Mental Health (NATSILIMH) said it was evident there was a growing gap between the mental health of Indigenous and non-Indigenous people. In July the NATSIMHSPAG held a meeting in Canberra to discuss suicide prevention. CI Prof Pat Dudgeon and CI A/Prof Roz Walker attended the meeting. Roz presented on the strategies to disseminate the 2nd edition of the Working Together book. A visit to the Midwest Telethon Kids Institute Director Prof Jonathan Carapetis was invited to Geraldton in August, along with CI Glenn Pearson and CI A/Prof Roz Walker. On their visit they met with the CEO of the Geraldton Regional Aboriginal Medical Service. The CREAHW Coordinator prepared a flyer for the visit titled—’Welcome to the Centre for Research Excellence in Aboriginal Health and Wellbeing/Telethon Kids Institute Midwest/Murchison Team’ which can be found here. The flyer featured CI Dr Juli Coffin and Charmaine Green Senior Research Officer with CREAHW working on the Cultural Security Project; and Heather Jacobs, Research Assistant on the Solid Kids Solid Schools II project funded by Healthways. Juli’s other projects are: Equine Assisted Horse Therapy and Tobacco Research Program. She has also produced a range of videos that feature on Youtube and Vimeopro. There is a range of smoking and diabetes videos on Youtube. If you type Juli’s name or nobakkibaby into the search engine you will see her vast array of videos. A range of Solid Kids Solid Schools videos are on Videopro (Password is SSKS6530). News from our ‘Eastern States’ Chief Investigator Page 3 CI Prof Sandra Eades with fellow colleague Paul Ishiguchi attended the London Health Services conference in early July. They presented on baseline data from a trial they conducted with 18 ACCHOs to reduce the evidence practice gap for type 2 diabetes care. The diabetes study is progressing well with all nine intervention ACCHOs having implemented systems to improve care for type 2 diabetes. Dame Valerie Beral who Sandra visited at Oxford is now the Chair of the International Epidemiology Association for the next three years until their next meeting in Japan. Sandra works closely with Prof Emily Banks now at ANU who trained in epidemiology at Oxford with Dame Valerie Beral. Emily and Sandra are leading the newly NHMRC funded Aboriginal adolescent cohort study. On 17—21 August CI Prof Sandra Eades was a featured speaker on a plenary session at the IEA World Congress of Epidemiology in Anchorage, Alaska . The conference was titled Global Epidemiology in a changing environment: The Circumpolar Perspective. Along with my presentation about Australia we spoke in a session about eliminating disparities in health outcomes for indigenous at the International Epidemiology Association conference in Patricia Longley Cochran (Alaska), Andrew Sporle (Maori – Alaska http://ieaweb.org/. New Zealand), Sandra Eades, Carlo Coimbra (Brazil) The Looking Forward Team take the stage in Perth The Looking Forward Project team facilitated a symposium, titled ‘Working Together Makes Us Stronger,’ at the Mental Health Services Conference held in Perth on the 26-29 August. The panel consisted of a panel of seven Nyoongar Elders and three mental health services who work with the team. Panel members shared their experiences of working together, highlighting the practical aspects of cultural ways of working that are necessary to improving service delivery to Nyoongar families living in the southeast metro region of Perth who are experiencing mental illness. Marg O’Connell, Rose Walley, Michael Wright, Tanya Jones Our Senior Researcher visits Japan In July, Dr Carrington Shepherd attended the ISA World Congress of Sociology in Yokohoma, Japan. At the congress Carrington heard about a wide range of projects in the varied discipline of sociology, including some interesting work in Indigenous contexts and the application of new and novel quantitative methods to problems facing population health and development. The Congress also provided a lot of opportunities to meet like-minded researchers (there were over 5,000 delegates and too many parallel sessions to mention!) and to re-connect with existing colleagues in England, Germany and other places. Carrington also enjoyed the best meal of his life! Discussion and Seminar Series—August 2014 In August it was Carrington’s turn to present at the Seminar Series. His topic was about ‘Identifying social pathways to enhanced life outcomes in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children’. Carrington discussed his passionate interest in bridging the knowledge gap on social inequalities in Aboriginal health in Australia and how his research explores how social determinants and pathways can lead to enhanced life outcomes. The Centre for Research Excellence in Aboriginal Health and Wellbeing (CREAHW) is a strategic program of intervention research that is focused on achieving radical and sustainable change for the Aboriginal community and improving the lives of Aboriginal people. The program is a unique validation of Aboriginal knowledge and demonstration of Indigenous methodology involving a multi-disciplinary team of Indigenous and nonIndigenous researchers, who will contribute to the body of knowledge, work transparently with the Aboriginal community and embrace Aboriginal culture and ways of thinking. Dates for your diary 11 December—CREAHW Review and Student Day 23 December— 5 Jan Telethon Kids Institute Christmas Shutdown Publications CI Dr Juli Coffin—State-wide strategy well underway to stub out Aboriginal smoking. Medicus Journal Vol 54. No. 7. August 2014 Upcoming conferences/events 2014 15—17 December World Indigenous Peoples Conference, Pullman Hotel, Cairns, Qld 2015 19 February The Mental Health Service Summer Forum, Sydney NSW 20—22 March 6th International Meeting on Indigenous Child Health, Ottawa, Ontario 11 May Creating futures Conference , Cairns, Qld 24 May The 13th National Rural Health Conference, Cairns Qld 26 June Suicide and Self-harm Prevention Conference , Cairns Qld Telethon Kids Institute 100 Roberts Road, Subiaco WA P 08 9489 7765 F 08 9489 7700 Email - [email protected] Website - aboriginal.telethonkids.org.au