Campfire Issue 3, December 2013 In this issue 9th Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Environmental Health Conference…………………..1 The Australian Indigenous Health Infonet ………………………2 As we wrap up another year of Environmental Health I encourage you to read the Christmas edition of Campfire published electronically by the Environmental Health Directorate. The team at the Environmental Health Branch would like to take this opportunity to wish you and your families an enjoyable Christmas and New Year. A New Initiative to help Close the Gap…………………………..5 Activity Data Reporting……………....... 6 Environmental health worker bitten by snake……… 8 Robert Mullane, David Jarman, Matthew Lester Elf Yourself have a laugh on us Contact Us Matthew Lester Manager Aboriginal Environmental Health Phone: 9388 4819 Robert Mullane Senior Program Officer Aboriginal Environmental Health Phone 9388 4935 This publication is produced by WA Health’s Environmental Health Directorate. Any queries or submissions for future editions should be forwarded to David Jarman by email at David.Jarman@health.wa.gov.au The 9th Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Environmental Health Conference By Matthew Lester It was great to catch up with many of you in Adelaide at the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Environmental Health Conference. WA had the largest representation there of all the states and the conference proved to be a rich forum for exchanging knowledge and awareness of the large range of programs offered by environmental health practitioners. The presentations at the conference covered a wide range of topics specifically related to environmental health in Aboriginal communities. My personal thanks go to those who made presentations at the conference on behalf of WA– Chicky, Kenny, Louie and Aaron from Nirrumbuk Environmental Health, Georgina from Kimberley Population Health, Emma, Scottie and Genevieve from the Shire of Derby West Kimberley and Mark from the City of Greater Geraldton. It takes a lot of guts to stand up at a national conference and present a paper but your effort helps to show that many good things are being done in WA and it can inspire others. A special presentation was from Miranda Poynton who showed us a quick guide to the Indigenous Health InfoNet’s Environmental Health website. I have asked Health InfoNet to provide some information about navigating your way around this website and I would encourage all of you to go to look at this article, access the site and make use of it – especially the yarning place which has been set up for environmental health practitioners. WA delegates who attended the conference in Adelaide 1|Page Australian Indigenous Health Infonet How to use the HealthInfoNet for your work and study The Australian Indigenous HealthInfoNet is a great tool for anyone working or studying in the area of Aboriginal environmental health. (Below, left to right: John Bonney, Jason Roe, Miranda Poynton, Louie Bin Maarus, Geoff Wright) The team from Nirrumbuk used the HealthInfoNet website at the NATSIEH conference in Adelaide recently: The HealthInfoNet website can help you:  connect with other AEHPs in WA and Australia  locate EH laws and policies  get ideas about programs to run in your community  learn about new health promotion resources  find books and manuals you need for your work. This article will give a brief ‘how to’ on using the HealthInfoNet site. Go to the HealthInfoNet’s main website: www.healthinfonet.ecu.edu.au. You can also google “Aboriginal health” and it’s the first thing that comes up. This is the HealthInfoNet’s homepage: From here, go to the environmental health section by clicking on this button near the bottom of the homepage: 2|Page Now you’re looking at the HealthInfoNet’s environmental health section: This section covers 9 topics:  water supply  waste management  housing and community  food safety  personal hygiene  communicable diseases  animal management  caring for country  emergency management. The types of information you can find here are:  key facts  regulations and standards  policies and strategies  programs and projects  resources  publications  organisations. There is also a ‘workforce’ section that provides information about:  jobs  training  conferences and workshops  journals and newsletters. Have a play around and see what you can find. 3|Page The Yarning Place You can also join the HealthInfoNet’s environmental health ‘yarning place’. A ‘yarning place’ is an online place for chatting and networking. It’s free to join. The yarning place looks this: Once you’re a member of the yarning place, you can use the:  mob members’ directory  events calendar  ‘message stick’ e-mail list  yarning board for discussions  yarn rooms for instant messaging and live chat. If you’re a member of the yarning place, you’ll also receive a fortnightly email about Indigenous environmental health. The yarning place currently has about 200 members. To join, click on the ‘yarning place’ button on the HealthInfoNet website: If you have a question about the HealthInfoNet or the yarning place, send it to Millie at the HealthInfoNet and it will be answered in a future edition of Campfire. Millie Harford-Mills Australian Indigenous HealthInfoNet m.harford-mills@ecu.edu.au or (08) 9370 6842 4|Page A new initiative to help “Close the Gap” By Robert Mullane In an effort to support ‘Close the Gap’, Pilbara environmental health workers and health project officers developed four books on managing common Aboriginal environmental health problems four Pilbara aboriginal communities. Pilbara Meta Maya Aboriginal Corporation (PMMAC) environmental health workers and Combined Universities Centre for Rural Health (CUCRH) project officers produced the colourful and helpful books to highlight, and provide solutions for, many environmental health issues that occur in the Pilbara’s Aboriginal communities. The books have been produced to educate and empower people to reduce many environmental health issues that occur in their homes and community. The four books are all unique and have been developed with a strong sense of community ownership. Each community identified their environmental health issues and decided on appropriate solutions. Although the environmental health problems are similar in each community, the books remain personal and contain photos of local people and details specific to their ‘own place’. Topics covered include; environmental hygiene, sewage, pests, dogs, food hygiene, rubbish, rubbish tips & cars. An evaluation of the book’s impact will be conducted next year and will investigate whether community members’ knowledge and understanding of environmental health issues and solutions has improved and whether their actions and behaviours have changed. Depending on the findings of the evaluation, additional books may be developed and distributed to the remaining Pilbara communities serviced by the PMMAC environmental health team. Alternative strategies may be trialled if the books are unsuccessful. However, reactions to the project so far have been very positive and the books may prove to be a useful tool and strategy to help ‘Close the Gap’. Financial and resource support for this project was provided by; the Office of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health; CUCRH; PMMAC; Traditional Elders and community members from Warralong; Greg McConkey from Empower Education; and the Directorate. 5|Page Activity data By Robert Mullane 2013 has been a busy year for the Aboriginal Environmental Health Workers and Practitioners in the communities. Service providers have actively worked with communities to improve living conditions and reduce the impact that the environment has on the health of Aboriginal people. They have been sending through activity data on core work that has been undertaken to help communities be self sufficient and solve issues independently so illness and disease may be eradicated at the community level. The information sent by service providers has helped us determine what is working well and what sort of activities environmental health practitioners are involved in. The most common activities reported are:  Solid Waste  Community Housing  Health Promotion  Animal management  Drinking Water  Travel Rob Mullane has prepared some tables (for the period April-June 2013) which provide a general view of the activities reported by contracted environmental health service providers. The tables have been arranged to show reported overall activities reported for each health region and the last one showing the same for the whole State, individual community, agency, regional or state-wide level. The tables, can for each issue, show either the ‘number of times’ things were done, the ‘time spent’ (person hours) doing those things or what was done e.g. ‘inspected’, ‘improved’, ‘fixed’, referred’ or ‘advised’. 6|Page 7|Page Environmental health worker bitten by snake By Matthew Lester Rossy Phillips, one of the Nirrumbuk Environmental Health team, had an encounter with one of Australia’s most venomous snakes earlier this month. Walking back from the showers at Port Smith Caravan Park in the dark after a day working at nearby Bidyadanga community, Rossy was bitten on the ankle by a small compact orange-brown snake which was thought to be a death adder. Whilst in good health, Rossy now wears knee high boots and has developed a vigorous intensity for examining the ground. He recalls two memorable snippets of conversation that occurred in the commotion that followed the suspected bite – one was where a colleague was heard to say, “That was a death adder – you’re definitely gonna die”. The other occurred on the long trip to Broome where colleagues were asked, “Do we still have that tomahawk … just in case we need to remove the leg”. Pictured are Rossy and his emergency medical support team He alerted his colleagues at the camp who immediately immobilized his leg and applied a pressure bandage in as taught during their first aid training. Unable to find the snake, they contacted the Bidyadanga clinic and were advised to get to Broome Hospital. Local police based at Bidyadanga met the Nirrumbuk team on the North West Highway and escorted them to Broome. Rossy spent the night in hospital undergoing blood tests and was released the next day when it was apparent that no venom had entered his body. He was very lucky to have avoided a more serious reaction and his colleagues deserve praise for their quick thinking. Rossy returned to work the next day. 8|Page