This appeared last week from your favourite spinners.
Media release - Improving digital health literacy for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders people
6 December 2019: The Australian Digital Health Agency met with representatives from state and territory Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health services on 4 December to support improvements in digital health literacy.
The national partnership of Affiliates meets quarterly to progress strategic digital health priorities that contribute to Closing The Gap.
This meeting was held in Tasmania and was hosted by the Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre, and was attended by representatives from:
- Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre (TAC)
- Victorian Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation (VACCHO)
- Aboriginal Health Council of SA (AHCSA)
- Aboriginal Health Council of WA (AHCWA)
- Queensland Aboriginal and Islander Health Council (QAIHC)
- Aboriginal Medical Services Alliance NT (AMSANT)
- Winnunga Nimmityjah Aboriginal Health and Community Services (WNAHCS)
- Aboriginal Health and Medical Research Council of NSW (AH&MRC)
- National Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation (NACCHO)
Each jurisdiction showcased the progress of their local initiatives and received an update on the Agency’s 2020 community engagement work.
Heather Sculthorpe, CEO of the Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre, said “It’s vital that Aboriginal health services are involved in the work of the Digital Health Agency as our holistic approach to the health of our people ensures those who will benefit most from engaging with digital health have the information to enable them to do so.”
Professor Meredith Makeham, Chief Medical Adviser for the Australian Digital Health Agency, said “Australians living outside of cities experience lower quality health outcomes. Digital health initiatives such as the My Health Record can help bridge the health care gaps for people living in regional and remote areas.”
“It is essential that the Agency hear from and work in partnership with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health services.”
“Their frontline work to improve health care for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders people is integral to ensuring their communities can access and benefit from digital health technologies and services,” Professor Makeham said.
ENDS
Here is the link:
Look I know we are getting towards the end of the year but this release really took the biscuit in my view.
Besides totally missing the fact that 80%+ of Aboriginal Population live in non remote areas – see this link from the 2016 Census.
It seems they also rather gloss over the digital divide which is much more important in regional / remote area for survival than the #myHR I would suggest. Having a working connected mobile phone is a pretty useful tool to help you preserve / improve your health!
I was also slightly surprised that the venue for the gathering was Tasmania (from all over) rather that a range of other sites with more Aboriginal people. (Tasmania has about 23,500 of the nations 650,000 who identify as Aboriginal – 3.6%)
Oh well, I wonder when we will have the ADHA targeting other groups for special treatment – (make up your own list based on race, sexuality, disability or whatever!) and I suspect a release for them in coming soon.
It really would be much better if the funds for all this travelling were diverted to an analysis of what sensibly should come next for the wretched failure of a system. Maybe with the ADHA decapitated this nonsense will stop?
David.
3 comments:
Can’t say a centralised database of random bits of information is the first thing that comes to mind when contemplating the needs of rural and remote Australian communities. Wonder if the brought a bale and thought of fresh water.
Just a thought... in light of Merriam-Webster's word of the year "they" ... can MyHr cope with non-binary gender? And if you've been watching Years and Years, how about transhuman?
Getting away from My Health Record for a mo, I have been watching Years and Years @2:37 ... I reckon the transhuman storyline is a distraction. Emma Thomson is luminous in the series, let's just get that out of the way. But the show's premise, which should be exciting/alarming from a tech point of view, is far less dramatic than the developments we are poised to see integrated into our lives in the next five years. Yet they are driving cars that are more analogue than mine is now. I mean, really. 2.5 out of 5 stars.
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