November 4, 2009 – 2:16 pm
As the previous Croakey post points out, the news about Indigenous smoking rates may be more encouraging than we’ve previously understood.
Dr Mark Ragg, a health and communications expert, believes the history of smoking among people with mental illness holds some lessons for those working to tackle Indigenous smoking, and also gives cause for optimisim.
He writes:
“David [...]
November 4, 2009 – 2:07 pm
We are so inundated by bad news about Indigenous health that it’s easy to be overwhelmed by doom and gloom. But when it comes to smoking – a major cause of sickness and premature death – the news may be more encouraging than we’ve previously thought.
Dr David Thomas, a senior research fellow at the Menzies [...]
November 4, 2009 – 9:32 am
As the previous Croakey posts report, the NT Government is under fire for its policy of refusing dialysis treatment in Alice Springs to Central Australians who live outside the Territory’s borders.
But the spotlight should be put on the Federal Government, argues Professor Wendy Hoy, of the Centre for Chronic Disease, School of Medicine, University [...]
November 3, 2009 – 6:47 pm
Continuing the thread from the previous post, the Aboriginal Medical Services Alliance Northern Territory is warning that the NT Government’s policy of refusing dialysis treatment for patients from outside the Territory is causing enormous harm.
This is the statement:
AMSANT has written to the Northern Territory Health Minister with a potential solution to needless deaths among [...]
November 3, 2009 – 4:36 pm
Below is an extract of an open letter that is being circulated to raise awareness of the plight of Aboriginal people in central Australia who are no longer able to access dialysis services in Alice Springs.
It is from Sarah Brown, Manager of the Western Desert Nganampa Walytja Palyantjaku Tjutaku, an organisation that provides support to [...]
October 2, 2009 – 11:24 am
These clips are worth checking out – part of the funkiest anti-smoking campaign I’ve seen in a while.
This one is called Cough N Rap
And, I don’t know about you, but this one just makes me want to dance… (if it doesn’t stop people smoking, it might at least get them moving…)
The clips (and there are [...]
October 2, 2009 – 10:47 am
Are we on the verge of real health reform?
We’re not even close – and if you’re expecting anything meaningful to happen before 2020, you’re just not paying close enough attention.
That’s the assessment of Professor Ian Hickie, executive director of the Brain and Mind Research Institute at the University of Sydney.
And he thinks the Federal [...]
September 10, 2009 – 12:13 pm
In voting down the Government’s efforts to reform the private health insurance rebate, the Opposition has revealed its poor grasp of health financing issues.
So says health policy analyst Jennifer Doggett, who describes the rebate as “a textbook example of the worst health funding policy in Australia’s history“.
She writes:
“Imagine if car insurance provided rebates for [...]
August 26, 2009 – 5:36 pm
Bernard Keane has given a warmish plug to former Health Department Secretary and Public Service Commissioner Andrew Podger’s new book, The Role of Departmental Secretaries: Personal reflections on the breadth of responsibilities today, describing it as an “important(ish)” book.
Happily, it also sounds like Podger has spilt a few beans, as well as taking a serious [...]
August 19, 2009 – 1:29 pm
I am part-way through the anthropologist Gillian Cowlishaw’s book about the lives of Aboriginal people in western Sydney, The City’s Outback, and am enjoying it mightily.
I’m beginning to wonder, in the wake of both this book and Tess Lea’s explorations of the worlds of public health professionals in the NT, Bureaucrats and Bleeding Hearts, whether [...]
