Aboriginal Child Abuse - Proposed Reform Posting II

Here is a National Aboriginal Community Health Organisation (NACCHO) letter concerning what more and more Aboriginal people and their supporters are calling 'John Howard and the Liberal Party's guise to Aboriginal land grabbing for their uranium waste dumps'...

The NACCHO Executive has asked that this message be sent. Please forward to your contacts.

You will be aware that the Howard Government has announced a plan where “scores of doctors will be drafted to examine all 23,000-plus indigenous children in the Territory aged under 16 for evidence of sexual abuse” as reported by the Australian on June 22.

You will also be aware that under COAG, a program for the implementation of an accelerated child health check has been underway since first discussed in late November 2006 following an Intergovernmental Summit on Child Abuse in Indigenous Communities. The accelerated child health check program is a trial involving teams of GPs and nurses to be recruited to provide 2000 Aboriginal children with child health checks in 10 remote Aboriginal communities with established primary health care services. The roll-out of this trial has so far found that most services wish to adopt a ‘backfill model’ of recruitment where their local GPs (who have the skills and knowledge of the community) undertake the child checks rather than the other way around.

This is no surprise. The introduction of a broader program of child health checks for all Aboriginal children in the NT that concentrates on sexual health checks is disturbing. Some of the concerns have already been reported from the medical profession, such as the AMA in the NT, citing the workforce issues and the cultural sensitivities in implementing such a scheme.

Moreover, returning to the original NT Inquiry (“Little Children Are Sacred”) to which this proposal is a response, the Inquiry recommends the following health responses:

Home visiting programs; increased health centre focus on maternity, prenatal and early childhood support; increased health services capacity to deliver the focus by increasing support for PHCAP; increased primary health care training; using primary health care services as “hubs” for integrated health and welfare responses in remote communities; and in consultation with Aboriginal communities and organizations, that programs to address the underlying effects of ‘intergenerational’ trauma be developed to enhance emotional and social well-being.

The Inquiry did not recommend widespread sexual health checks (screening) of all Aboriginal children as proposed by the Howard Government.

NACCHO recommends that any governmental response that involves the health sector must proceed only after there has been consultation and support gained from Aboriginal communities and organizations. We invite the Government and all health bodies to engage with NACCHO prior to endorsing or supporting the Australian Governments proposals for screening all Aboriginal children under 16 years in the NT.

Please make contact with Ms Dea Thiele, CEO NACCHO on 0417046692, in order to ensure there is an evidence-based, and responsibly sensitive health sector response to proposals from the Australian government.