My name is Robby Chibawae, CEO for Puntukurnu Aboriginal Medical Service that provides Primary Health care for First Nations people.
What are the challenges in delivering health services in this region
Being remote just means to organise all the logistics that you need to make sure you've got everything you need to provide. A comprehensive primary health care can be challenged in terms of distance and can also be a challenge in terms of cost. So when you put it all together, what you end up finding is that you are better off trying to work to attract services to come to you as opposed to move individual families to go to where services are, even if they're tertiary clinical services.
Why is co-design of programs so important for First Nations communities
The ownership or feeling the sense of respect for First Nations people, that's very important. I'll give you an example. When we're building this, we spent six months just consulting how do you want it to look like? Or even the clinics we've done in the desert, the goodness is that when they tell you what they want and you work according to that, then they take ownership. Then no, no, this is our clinic. Even if there's a problem that comes later on. No, but we told them what to do, and they just told so that ownership is very, very, very important, especially where culture is very important in our cohort.
But it has to be done with us, not on us. And I think for me that was anyway and the patients, they will tell you, I think 12 months, you know, the doctor you would come here. We agreed to disagree. He goes because 12 months. But for me that was important to get that buy in, you know, from the community and that's where we are today.
Why is lung cancer screening so important for your communities
Very, very, very important. I cannot over emphasise that simply because if in my statistics, I've got 100 people who might get lung cancer due to smoking or other environmental factors in due course due to services like this, you know, cumulatively, if I can be able to save 50, 60, 70, 80% of that cohort, think about, you know, all the benefits, you know, to the communities, to the families, first of all, at a family unit level. Because what we forget is that any one of these elders we are losing to premature death is leaving young children who remain without any cultural guidance. And then these are somehow the future leaders of tomorrow, community members of tomorrow who are left in the lurch without any cultural guidance.
Where do they end up? So for me, it's an ecosystem and one of the things we need to do better as well. Let's help and sustain the body, but let's treat the mind as well. Remember the mind and all. You know, it's, it's like an engine. So I think we become so somatic in our approach that we, you know, as long as I'm feeling good, no society is how you know, their well-being, mental.
And so all those programs, when you put them together, you create better health outcomes for the people.
He explains how mobile lung cancer screening through Heart of Australia recognises safety and helps improve health outcomes for families and communities.