CATSINaM March 2016 Newsletter...March 2016 CATSINaM Newsletter IN THIS ISSUE 1. CEO Welcome:...

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March 2016 CATSINaM Newsletter IN THIS ISSUE 1. CEO Welcome: Thinking about partnerships 2. How is CATSINaM working for you at a national level 3. Lenore Geia: Our member featured in the 2016 Close the Gap Day promotion 4. CATSINaM's Student Day and International Indigenous Health Workforce Meeting: Our national PD event CEO Welcome: Thinking about partnerships On February 10th this year I attended the Close the Gap Steering Committee’s launch of the ‘Progress and Priorities Report 2016’. I took particular notice of the similarity in comments made by the Prime Minister and Leader of the Opposition during their speeches about building trust, developing respectful relationships and working in partnership. For example, the Prime Minister said: “The message I've heard most consistently from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people is their desire to work in partnership with government in a relationship based on mutual respect. And we must never forget that the success of Australia, the success of ours, the most successful multicultural society in the CATSINaM March 2016 Newsletter This email was sent on Fri, 1 Apr 2016 at 11:39 AM and cannot be edited. Email Subject: CATSINaM March 2016 Newsletter Email Body: If you cannot read this email please view online. OPTIONS OPTIONS 2 RECIPIENTS RECIPIENTS 3 1 PREVIEW PREVIEW BACK TO MANAGE CATSINaM March 2016 Newsletter SAVE

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Page 1: CATSINaM March 2016 Newsletter...March 2016 CATSINaM Newsletter IN THIS ISSUE 1. CEO Welcome: Thinking about partnerships 2. How is CATSINaM working for you at a national level 3.

March 2016 CATSINaM Newsletter

IN THIS ISSUE

1. CEO Welcome:Thinking aboutpartnerships

2. How isCATSINaM workingfor you at anational level

3. Lenore Geia: Ourmember featured inthe 2016 Close theGap Daypromotion

4. CATSINaM'sStudent Day andInternationalIndigenous HealthWorkforce Meeting:Our national PDevent

CEO Welcome: Thinkingabout partnershipsOn February 10th this year I attended the Close theGap Steering Committee’s launch of the ‘Progress andPriorities Report 2016’. I took particular notice of thesimilarity in comments made by the Prime Minister andLeader of the Opposition during their speeches aboutbuilding trust, developing respectful relationships andworking in partnership. For example, the PrimeMinister said:

“The message I've heard most consistently fromAboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people is theirdesire to work in partnership with government in arelationship based on mutual respect. And we mustnever forget that the success of Australia, the successof ours, the most successful multicultural society in the

CATSINaM March 2016 Newsletter

This email was sent on Fri, 1 Apr 2016 at 11:39 AM and cannot be edited.

Email Subject:

CATSINaM March 2016 Newsletter

Email Body:

If you cannot read this email please view online.

OPTIONSOPTIONS

2

RECIPIENTSRECIPIENTS

31

PREVIEWPREVIEW

BACK TO MANAGE CATSINaM March 2016 Newsletter SAVE

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5. Unmasking ourheroes -unmasking ourhistory

6.MembershipForums

7. CATSINaMseminar series oncultural safety andhealth caresystems

8. Membershipdevelopments

9. Aspiring toestablish anAboriginal andTorres StraitIslander Nursingand MidwiferyJournal

10. CATSINaM atconferences,forums andsymposiums

11. Progress withour policy positionstatements

12. New faces andfarewells atCATSINaM

13. Trialling theCATSINaM MentorTraining

14. CATSINaMroundtable on theNational Aboriginaland Torres StraitIslander HealthCurriculumFramework

15. Implementation

world is based on mutual respect. That is the glue.That is the absolutely essential element that holds ustogether and provides us with the ability to do betterand better in the years ahead.”

(https://www.pm.gov.au/media/2016-02-10/close-gap-10th-anniversary-parliamentary-breakfast)

So I reflected on the process of doing things withAboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people rather thanto them. I found myself pondering: what doespartnership mean? It suggests there is equality in therelationship, but so often we usually enter inrelationships with inequity. So we have to think aboutwhat sort of relationship we want and how it can beachieved.

If we want a relationship that is grounded in respect,what does this mean? For those approachingCATSINaM, or other Aboriginal and Torres StraitIslander organisations or communities, it requiresdiscarding the idea that your way is the best way. Itrequires dialogue and relationship building. Acolleague shared this quote with me from PauloFreire’s 1970 book called ‘Pedagogy of the oppressed’that explores the relationship between dominant anddominated culture groups, and what those in positionsof power need to do. It captures what is often absentwhen the commitment to partnership is more talk thanwalk (by the way, since this time Freire has correctedhis use of sexist language!):

“…dialogue cannot exist without humility. The namingof the world, through which men [sic] constantly re-create that world, cannot be an act of arrogance.Dialogue, as the encounter of men [sic] addressed tothe common task of learning and acting, is broken ifthe parties (or one of them) lack humility.” (p.78)

What does this mean for CATSINaM? We need to thinkabout our brand and who we partner with? Why arethey partnering with us? What do they hope toachieve? What do they hope to gain? What is at theheart of their request? Is the best interest of ourorganisation, our brand, our Members and ourpriorities and concerns at the heart of the partnership? If it is, then it is a clear indication that the work isbeing developed and undertaken with Aboriginal andTorres Strait Islander people to address sharedconcerns, not as window-dressing or leverage forother agendas and gains.

The fruit of genuine commitment to partnership is self-determination, human rights and choices for Aboriginaland Torres Strait Islander Australians, and the feelingof resect is evident. For CATSINaM, we know that wedo not have to partner with everyone just because theyask us. We must ensure the request meets thesecriteria. It:

recognises and respects our knowledge,leadership and expertisematches our organisational priorities as thesereflect our membership’s shared prioritiesaligns with our resource capacity or contributesthe resources required for us to participate, aspart of the inequity we face is our limitedresources as a small organisation.

Kind regards,Janine Mohamed

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Plan for theNational Aboriginaland Torres StraitIslander HealthPlan: High interestaspects for nursingand midwifery?

16. The State ofReconciliation inAustralia Report

17. Dischargeagainst medicaladvice: Institutionalracism and culturalsafety in hospitals

CATSINaM Events in 2016

16 April 2016Victorian Membership Forum - Melbourne 27 April 2016CATSINaM seminar series on Cultural Safety andhealth care systems - Canberra 6 November 2016CATSINaM Student Day - Melbourne CATSINaM Hall of Fame Dinner - Melbourne 7 November 2016CATSINaM International Indigenous Health Workforcemeeting

How is CATSINaM working for you at a nationallevel?

Close the Gap Steering Committee launch of the ‘Progress andPriorities Report 2016’On 10 February CATSINaM representatives, CEO Janine Mohamed and Member KatarinaKeeler (RN and Kokatha woman from South Australia) attended the national launch of the‘Close the Gap Steering Committee Progress and Priorities Report 2016’. CATSINaMcontributes to the compilation of the Report as a Member of both the Close the GapSteering Committee, as well as the National Health Leadership Forum. The launch waswell attended and was addressed by Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull; Bill Shorten MP, Leader of the Opposition and Senator Richard di Natale, Leader of the Australian Greens.CATSINaM was well represented at the launch with Katarina providing the formalintroduction for Mr Shorten MP. CATSINaM’s activites at Parliament continued throughoutthe day with both Janine and Katarina attending the ‘Closing the Gap Prime Minister’sReport 2016’ at Parliament later that same day.

The Progress and Priorities report expressed cautious optimism about the gains

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that are apparent, and emphasised that improvements in Aboriginal and TorresStrait Islander life expectancy should not be expected to be measurable until atleast 2018 due to the lead times between the design and rollout of programs, bothjurisdictionally and nationally. It also stated:

The message from the Close the Gap Campaign is clear. Aboriginal and TorresStrait Islander health inequality is an issue of growing national concern. We can andwant to be the generation that closes the gap but we must stay the course andkeep our attention and resources focused on this goal. The health gap has rightfullybeen described as a stain on our nation, and this generation has the opportunityand responsibility to remove it. (p.3)

If you interested in the detail of the report, it can be downloaded here

The Government’s perspective on progress against the seven COAG headlinetargets is found in the Prime Minister’s ‘Closing the Gap’ report: It outlines how twoof the seven COAG headline targets are on track: halving the gap in infant mortalityby 2018 and halving the gap in Year 12 attainment by 2020. Two other are not ontrack: close the life expectancy gap by 2031 and have the gap in employment by2018. There is mixed progress in halving the gap in reading and numeracy forIndigenous students by 2018, as measured by outcomes for Year 3, 5, 7 and 9students.

No data is available for the revised target of 95% of all Indigenous four year oldsenrolled in early childhood education by 2025, and it is too early to determineprogress against the new target set in 2014 to close the gap in school attendanceby the end of 2018. For detailed information click here.

National reviews and submissionsA quarter never passes by without an opportunity or invitation to contribute tonational reviews or inquiries. Topics that have arisen since January include:

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Development of a Centre of Food and Nutrition for Australia’s First People atthe University of Sydney – we may be more involved with this but will updateyou as we learn morea Department of Health online survey regarding the ‘National ImmunisationEducation Framework for Health Professionals’an MBA consultation on the registration standard - endorsement forscheduled medicines (rural and isolated practice)the quality of assessment in vocational education and training discussionpaper for consultationan Australian Government Department of Health survey regarding the reviewof NACCHO and state/territory Affiliatesthe Senate Community Affairs Committee inquiry into the ‘Future ofAustralia’s aged care sector workforce’.

We provided a joint response to the ‘Future of Australia’s aged care sectorworkforce’ with AIDA, IAHA and NATSIHWA, as our sibling organisations. Thisdiagram is an ‘aerial view’ depiction of the cooperative relationship we are fosteringacross the four organisations, each dedicated to advocating for and growing theAboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health workforce in their specific discipline.

The focus of our response was on one of the 13 points in the terms of reference:'challenges of creating a culturally competent and inclusive aged care workforce tocater for the different care needs of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples,culturally and linguistically diverse groups and lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgenderand intersex people’.

We emphasised the different patterns of ageing and health for Aboriginal andTorres Strait Islander Australians, and that early onset of poor health means thatAboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are affected by the conditions ofageing, so require services at an earlier point. We spoke strongly about culturalsafety and responsiveness, as each organisation has a clear policy positionstatement on cultural safety, so this needs to be evident in aged care workforcepolicy design and implementation. It is also consistent with the commitment in theNational Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Plan on achieving a healthsystem that is free of racism and inequality.

We brought the Senate’s attention to a human rights based approach, particularlyin relation to the ‘United Nations’ Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples’,and the central role of culture to health and wellbeing. These tenets formed thebasis for specific advice to the Inquiry on how that could better prepare and extendthe aged care workforce to be inclusive and respectful of the needs of olderAboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians.

Linking with universitiesA new focus for CATSINaM in 2016 has been attending Orientation Week activitiesto meet nursing and midwifery students as they commence their journey. Throughgenerous contributions from CATSINaM Members, we were able to visit and speakto students at four universities:

Simon Hodgeman, a Victorian Member, visited Deakin University.Cherisse Buzzacott, an NT Member, attended the Alice Springs campus,Batchelor Institute of Indigenous Tertiary Education.Chloe Peters, our Membership Supoprt Officer, went to the University ofCanberra.Jasmin Hunter, our Senior Project Officer, visited the University WesternSydney.

We provided each university with information about CATSINaM, membership packsand information on the CATSINaM Student Day and International IndigenousHealth Workforce Meeting in Melbourne, November 2016, which will be our annual

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conference event for 2016.

In addition to raising the profile of CATSINaM with universities and students, thishas generated close to 20 new members. If you have a relationship with auniversity near you, or are willing to visit one in Orientation Week 2017, pleaseregister your interest with us. We will provide you with all the information you needto run the session, including a recommended agenda and series of points to cover,and will help you liaise with the university.

Lenore Geia: Our member featured in the 2016 Closethe Gap Day promotion

We want to thank and pay respect to Lenore Geia, who was one of the people whofeatured in the Oxfam Close the Gap film clip. You can view it in full here, but hereare a couple of excerpts from Lenore’s commentary:

“Health is crucial. Not just physical health, the whole holistic sense of health, ouremotional and mental health - the way we can cope with things in life. Health isabout our survival….We need to grow our own professionals – that will close thatgap, I know it will"

"When we can walk together in this country and share the benefits of beingAustralian people, and say I am an Aboriginal woman….but I am a lawyer, a doctor,a nurse. I am an Australian. Indigenous health is everyone’s business. It’s ournation’s business. If we are about our nation moving together, moving forward, thenwe have to deal with business, together.”

What are you doing on the ground? Share your storyWe are always keen to profile what our Members are doing. Many of you are quietlyworking away in your workplaces and communities with passion and commitment

to improve health services experiences and outcomes for Aboriginal and TorresStrait Islander Australians, and supporting the new generation of Aboriginal and

Torres Strait Islander nurses and midwives. We don’t get to hear about your work.

We would love to tell your story.

Please let us know if you are willing to be interviewed, share information aboutwhat you are doing or share resources and activities. We can acknowledge and

profile your work through this Newsletter, the presentations we are asked to give,our CATSINaM-led events and in our national advocacy and submission work. We

may ask you to be personally involved, if this is possible for you.YOU are the inspiration and role models for new generations of Aboriginal and

Torres Strait Islander nurses and midwives.Contact our Membership Engagement Officer to register your interest – or tell us

about someone who you think we should contact.

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CATSINaM’s Student Day - 6th of November 2016

We encourage all universities to explore how you can personally and financiallysupport students to attend the CATSINaM Student Day.

We hope you received the ‘Save the date’ request for these two important eventsin the CATSINaM calendar.

The CATSINaM Student Day on November 6th 2016 continues the tradition westarted in 2014 at the Perth conference, when we held the inaugural Student Day. Ithas proved to be a well-attended and highly valued event by students, supportingthem to stay focused on achieving their dream of becoming a nurse and/ormidwife. It is the lead-in event to the CATSINaM International Indigenous HealthWorkforce Meeting. We encourage all universities to explore how you canpersonally and financially support students to attend

Hall of Fame Gala Dinner - Unmasking our heroes –6th November 2016

We are taking further steps to acknowledge and honour Aboriginal and Torres StraitIslander nurses and midwives who have been part of our collective and theCATSINaM history. This is taking shape through the development of a ‘Fellowshipof CATSINaM’ through which CATSINaM Members will be recognised forsignificant professional achievements within the nursing and midwifery profession,along with a CATSINaM Hall of Fame. We will profile these developments in theJune Newsletter once they have taken further shape

CATSINaM International Indigenous HealthWorkforce Meeting - 7 November 2016

We have a collective history, so we should have pride in our identity acrossthe world.

This theme of unmasking our heroes and our history as Indigenous nurses hasbeen taken up in preparing for the International Indigenous Health WorkforceMeeting on 7th November in Melbourne. We have recently talked with our Maori,South Pacific and Canadian colleagues who will travel to join us in November. Wediscussed how there are parallels in the global identity of Indigenous nurses. Wehave a collective history, so we should have pride in our identity across the world.This will take CATSINaM’s ‘Articulating the uniqueness of our workforce’ policyposition statement to an international level.

Please watch this space for our keynote speakers from around the globe.

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Member Forums in 2016

We have developed a new approach to trial for Member Forums this year that weare implementing with the support of Board and local Members. The focus will beon peer networking and peer exchange, topics of relevance to the jurisdiction, andintroducing new or potential Members to the CATSINaM family, as well as anupdate on what CATSINaM has been doing in recent months. Wherever possible,we are trying to link them to other relevant events that our Members may beplanning or want to attend.

The first cab off the rank with this approach was Queensland. In liaison withProfessor Roianne West, Queensland Board Member, we held a Membernetworking forum that was co-timed with the Indigenous All Stars versus World AllStars game on February 13th – this date is the anniversary of the Apology to theStolen Generations. Oh, for those of you from AFL-dominated parts of the country,this was a rugby league game! We had near 20 Members take up this opportunity.

If you are keen to see a forum in your state or territory, then please talk to yourBoard Member about what they have in mind and to register your interest.

Victoria Membership Forum Our Victorian Board Member, Ben Gorrie, is organising a membership forum forSaturday the 16th of April in the CBD of Melbourne. The forum will begin at 2pmwith an information session about CATSINaM, our recent achievements and whatwe are doing on behalf of our Members, as well as provide an opportunity to meetand network with your peers. The forum will conclude with a cultural event, whichis ticketed. We ask you to please register your interest with CATSINaM via ChloePeters at [email protected] no later then 1st of April 2016 to ensureyour ticket. All other States and Territories Membership Forums CATSINaM will be hosting membership forums is each and every State andTerritory. Information will be sent through CATSINaM blasts as dates and locationsbecome firm. Keep your eye out for further information.

CATSINaM seminar series on cultural safety andhealth care systems

Cultural safety is integral to improving health outcomes for Aboriginal and TorresStrait Islander people. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians are morelikely to seek access to health care, and achieve better health outcomes byaccessing services that are respectful and culturally safe. As part of ourcommitment to advocate for and provide advice on creating culturally safe workingenvironments, CATSINaM is piloting a ‘cultural safety seminar series’.

The series will bring together policy makers, educators, academics and practiceleaders to guide thinking on ways to progress cultural safety within our health caresystems. The first seminar is being developed in partnership with the Poche Centrefor Indigenous Health and Wellbeing (Adelaide) and AIATSIS in Canberra on 27th

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April 2016. It will bring together key experts in health education to lead discussionof cultural safety in policy and practice. Key themes will include:

Understanding cultural safety - what are the critical elements?Dealing with resistance – talking about race and racism.The case for cultural safety - improving health outcomes for Aboriginal andTorres Strait Islander peoples.Exploring international models of training and lessons learnt fromimplementation.

The first seminar will be convened by prominent health academic Professor DennisMcDermott from the Poche Centre for Indigenous Health and Well-Being (Adelaide,Flinders University), who has been leading work on reducing resistance to culturalsafety within health care systems. Dr Chelsea Bond (QUT) an emerging leader inAboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health academia will explore race in publichealth discourse. CATSINaM CEO Mrs Janine Mohamed will explore issues ofassessment and quality standards for cultural safety training. We are also excitedto have representatives from San’yas Indigenous Cultural Safety Training Program present to the Seminar. San’yas is a large scale cultural safety training programthat has been rolled out by the Provincial Health Services Authority in BritishColumbia, Canada.

If you are available and can get to Canberra, it would be wonderful if you canattend and hear our feature presenters address a range of topics including culturalsafety models, curriculum, pedagogy and assessment.Registration is now available online via eventbrite.

Membership developments

Are we continuing to grow our membership? The happy answer is yes! We nowhave 751 total Members. Increasing numbers of Aboriginal and Torres StraitIslander nurses and midwives – both those who are qualified (397) and those whoare students (252) – are swelling the ranks of our membership. We are also gainingincreasing members through our Affiliate membership for individuals andorganisations, with 102 in total since this membership category was introduced inlate 2014.

In this newsletter we answer this question: who are our Members professionally?The graph shows the distribution for our 649 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanderindividual members (Affiliate individual and organisation members are not included)in this breakdown. The actual numbers for each professional group are shown inthe green columns linked to the left vertical axis, with the percentage theyrepresent indicated by the orange diamonds and dotted line that is linked to theright vertical axis.

After the students (39% of this group), our largest professional group areRegistered Nurses (36%), followed by Enrolled Nurses (12%), dual RegisteredNurses and Registered Midwives (6%), and Registered Midwives (4%). We do nothave a record of the professional identity of Associate Members, who are retired.

Aspiring to establish an Aboriginal and

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Torres Strait Islander Nursing and Midwifery Journal

During 2015, the CATSINaM Board started discussing the possibility of establishingan Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Nursing and Midwifery Journal. If we areable to progress this initiative, the intent of the journal will be able to help students,CATSINaM members, academics, health service and policy staff, and otherinterested parties to expand their knowledge about Aboriginal and Torres StraitIslander health, workforce and cultural safety relevant to the diverse cultures ofAboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples from all around Australia.

Why would we consider doing this? Worldwide there are over 177 nursing andmidwifery journals, however there are very few that focus on content from FirstNations peoples in the nursing and midwifery profession. We gathered data on therepresentation of articles on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health, workforceand cultural safety in eight peer-reviewed journals for the 2010 to 2015 period (sixyears in total). The journals we audited were: Journal of Transcultural Nursing,Contemporary Nurse, Women and Birth, Journal of Advanced Nursing,International Journal of Mental Health Nursing, Collegian and Qualitative HealthResearch.

Only 1.2% of all articles published during 2010-2015 by eight high quality nursingand midwifery journals were focused on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanderhealth, workforce and/or cultural safety.

In total, there were 4,931 articles combined over this time period, with 60 articlesspecifically focused on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health, workforceand/or cultural safety. This is equivalent to a 1.2% representation. Representationincreases a little if articles by or on First Nations peoples of other countries areincluded, but we restricted our focus to Aboriginal and Torres Strait IslanderAustralians and Maori people of New Zealand. None of the journals in whichAustralian and New Zealand nursing and midwifery researchers commonly publishtheir work focus solely on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health, or even thehealth of First Nation’s peoples.

We have more work to do in investigating the feasibility of establishing anAboriginal and Torres Strait Islander nursing and midwifery journal. However, if youare currently writing or planning to write papers for publication in peer-reviewedjournals, we wanted to put you on notice that this is being explored to provide youwith a potential new option that will bring much needed information on Aboriginaland Torres Strait Islander health, workforce and/or cultural safety to a wideraudience.

If you would like to discuss the possibility of publishing your work in the CATSINaMNewsletter please contact our Membership Engagement Officer Chloe Peters.

CATSINaM at conferences, forums and symposiums

CATSINaM is represented by staff, Board Members and Members at a range ofnational or international conferences and forums throughout the year. In the last sixmonths we have attended events such as the New Zealand Nurses NationalConference, the LIME Connection VI, the NACCHO Aboriginal Men’s Health OchreDay and the Clinical Nurse Coordinators National Network Meeting.

So, what do we talk about? This graph shows the percentage and number ofpeople who listened to the range of topics on which we presented, with 442 peoplereached in total over six different events. The percentage of people are shown inthe purple columns linked to the left vertical axis, with the percentage theyrepresent indicated by the lime diamonds and line that is linked to the right verticalaxis.

Everyone hears about who CATSINaM is and what we do. Our next most frequenttopic is the recruitment and retention of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander nursesand midwives (77%). We commonly present on the importance of cultural safety(61%), including what we are doing to promote that within the profession, as wellas harmonisation of the workforce (59%) – by that, we mean how we workcollaboratively across different health professional disciplines to achieve betterhealth service experiences and outcomes. Membership recruitment andprofessional development opportunities are mentioned, depending on the audience

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as our members or potential members are not always present at these events.Clinical placements were only discussed at one national meeting that specificallyfocused on this topic.

As you can see, we are ensuring that our topics reflect the high priorities areas inour strategic plan as we seek support and cooperative action from stakeholders innursing and midwifery and the wider health sector.

Progress with our policy position statements

We are pleased to report that we are close to releasing two new policy positionstatements. Both started their journey as yarning circle topics at the 2014CATSINaM Conference - ‘Birthing on Country’ and ‘Articulating the uniqueness ofour workforce’. As a result of workshops held at the 2015 CATSINaM Conference,we are also progressing two further statements on ‘Methylamphetamine and OtherStimulants’ and the ‘Male Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Nursing Workforce’.Here is an update on what to expect in the new few months for each of thesetopics. Birthing on Country joint statement with the Australian Collegeof Midwives and CRANAplusBirthing on Country is described as ‘…a metaphor for the best start in life forAboriginal and Torres Strait Islander babies and their families’, which provides anappropriate transition to motherhood and parenting, and an integrated, holistic andculturally appropriate model of care for all.

Since our article on this policy position statement in the June 2015 Newsletter, theWorking Group completed the draft statement. By the end of the year it had beenconsidered and supported in principle by the CATSINaM Board. If you were anendorsed CATSINaM Member as of December 2015, you would have received acopy of the draft statement for consultation - thank you to everyone whoresponded to us.

The final draft was endorsed by the CATSINaM Board in March 2016. Once wecomplete final amendments, we will provide the endorsed policy positionstatement on the website and use it to continue our advocacy for Birthing onCountry to be standard practice for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women.We hope you can use it to support your work, wherever you work. We haveincluded a brief excerpt from the statement below:

Birthing on Country is described as ‘…a metaphor for the best start in life forAboriginal and Torres Strait Islander babies and their families’, which provides anappropriate transition to motherhood and parenting, and an integrated, holistic andculturally appropriate model of care for all.

Articulating the uniqueness of our workforceThis statement has had a similar journey – thank you again to all Members whohave provided input, and the work of the Board in coming to a decision on theprinciples that articulate the uniqueness of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islandernursing and midwifery workforce. The CATSINaM Board endorsed the final draft inMarch 2016. We expect you will be able to access it on the website soon.

Methylamphetamine and Other StimulantsBen Gorrie and Janine Mohamed led a very well-attended yarning circle on ‘Crystal

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methamphetamine (ice) and other stimulants, and how they are impacting onAboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities and treatment’ at the 2015CATSINaM Conference[KS1] . Since this time we have been reviewing the materialthat people contributed during the yarning circles on how ice use impacts on ourwork contexts, our communities and strategies that do or can work in addressingthis more effectively.

We have developed a draft statement that the Board recently reviewed at theMarch meeting. The draft has been distributed to Members for further feedback.

Male Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Nursing WorkforceLaurie West ran a workshop at the 2015 CATSINaM Conference that reflected onhis experiences as a male RN. What emerged as an idea and is now gatheringmomentum is developing a policy position statement on the ‘Male Aboriginal andTorres Strait Islander Nursing Workforce’. We are delighted that Laurie is centrallyinvolved in the working group for this statement, and look forward to providing anupdate on the direction it is heading in the next newsletter.

New faces and farewells at CATSINaM

We are excited to welcome Karel Williams onto the staff team, who is also aCATSINaM Member. Sadly, we say farewell to Jasmin Hunter who is pursuing herdream of becoming a teacher, as she has been offered a position in a local schoolwhile she finishes the final stages of her teaching degree. We will miss her but wishhere all the best because we need more Aboriginal teachers too!

Karel Williams: Karel is our Midwifery Policy Officer. Her family is AboriginalTasmanian and Western Arrernte/Waramangu. Karel’s first job was at theTasmanian Aboriginal Centre in Hobart. She later moved to Ngunnawal Countryand worked in senior levels in the Australian Public Service for many years. Karelhas also taught and been a guest lecturer in a number of units related to Aboriginaland Torres Strait issues at the University of Canberra, including health. Karel hadalways wanted to become a midwife. She was accepted into the first intake of thedirect entry program at the University of Canberra where she studied part-timewhile continuing to work full-time, until leaving the public service in mid-2014. Ather graduation ceremony in 2015, Karel received the Ngunnawal Centre Prize forIndigenous Students and was the inaugural recipient of the University ofCanberra’s Tom Calma Medal. Karel was also the 2015 ACT NAIDOC Scholar ofthe Year. Karel commenced her graduate year in the Birth Centre at the CentenaryHospital for Women and Children. She now works two days a week withCATSINaM focussing primarily on midwifery issues. You can contact Karel at:[email protected].

Trialling the CATSINaM Mentor Training

CATSINaM is excited to be launching the first stage of the CATSINaM MentoringProgram in 2016. The program will link experienced CATSINaM Members withMembers who are student or newly graduated Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islandernurses and midwives to provide collegiate and cultural support in their early careerjourney.

CATSINaM has sought interest from a number of Aboriginal and Torres StraitIslander nurses and midwives to be mentors as part of this program. The firstMentor Training Workshop was held in Sydney on 30-31st March 2016, facilitatedby Marg Cranney.

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In the meantime, we will continue our liaison with interested health departments,services and universities to become partners and co-funders of a MentoringProgram in their locations. If you are interested in doing this or want moreinformation on the CATSINaM Mentoring Program, please contact Karel Williamsvia email: [email protected].

CATSINaM roundtable on the National Aboriginal andTorres Strait Islander Health Curriculum Framework

On December 16th 2015, CATSINaM hosted a roundtable discussion for educatorsregarding the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health CurriculumFramework (the Framework) at the University of Technology, Sydney. You can get acopy of the Framework from our website in the ‘Resources’ section of ourCommunications page: http://catsinam.org.au/static/uploads/files/aboriginal-and-torres-strait-islander-health-curriculum-framework-wfgioxngfdbn.pdf.

This workshop explored how the Framework could be implemented in a nursingand midwifery context. How well does it reflect our thinking about the importanceof cultural safety and the delivery of Aboriginal health, history and culture within thenursing and midwifery curriculum? The discussion was wide-ranging but focusedon the need to adjust terminology, to move the primary focus away from the patientor Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures to ensure there is critical reflectionby individual practitioners, and to consider how both cultural safety and Aboriginalhealth is taught. The group pondered whether the Framework needed to beadapted differently for nursing compared to midwifery. The stakeholders that needto be involved in any adaptation were explored along with resource implications.

Ultimately, it was agreed a contextualised version of the Framework, specific tonursing and midwifery education, needed to be developed that included bestpractice examples of how to apply the Framework in a practical manner. A secondroundtable was set for March 18th, hosted by the Poche Centre for IndigenousHealth at Flinders University. As we go to print, the outcomes of this roundtable arebeing documented and shaped into a project plan that outlines the next stepstowards achieving this, and how this relates to our ongoing effort to establish a‘Leaders in Nursing and Midwifery Education Network’. Both will requirestakeholder support and engagement, resources (funding and time), andpersistence in raising the bar on good practice in nursing and midwifery educationin relation to cultural safety and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health. Welook forward to sharing progress with you over the coming months.

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Implementation Plan for the National Aboriginal andTorres Strait Islander Health Plan: High interestaspects for nursing and midwifery?

We profiled the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Plan 2013-2023 (NATSIHP) in the September Newsletter, and its accompanyingImplementation Plan in the December newsletter. Both documents can bedownloaded from this Department of Health link. There are several components of the seven domains in the Implementation Planthat link with CATSINaM’s priorities. In this newsletter we profile cultural safety, andmaternal health and parenting.

Cultural safety and addressing institutional racismThe Health Systems Effectiveness domain is linked to all of the ImplementationPlan goals. Five strategies, each with several actions and deliverables for 2018 and2023 are identified. One of these is specifically focused on cultural safety -Strategy 1B “Mainstream health services are supported to provide clinicallycompetent, culturally safe, accessible, accountable and responsive services toAboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in a health system that is free of racismand inequality” (p. 10).

One of the actions outlined for this strategy focuses on understanding,addressing and prevention systemic racism and discrimination. A deliverableby 2018 is having indicators for measuring cultural safety, such as discharge fromhospital against medical advice and there being no differentials in accessing bestpractice clinical care between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and non-Indigenous patients. By 2023 it is expected that these indicators are in place andbeing monitored.

Another action is for the provision and implementation of guidance on clinicallycompetent and culturally safe services, including in mental health. A deliverablefor 2018 is that good practice models for culturally safe service delivery withstructured clinical decision-making tools to support consistent standards fordiagnosis, treatment and rehabilitation are developed, implemented and reviewed;this work is expected to continue with more standards released by 2023. Anotherdeliverable is revising the Cultural Respect Framework for Aboriginal and TorresStrait Islander Health by 2018 and supporting its implementation trough to 2023;the original document lapsed in 2009. Hopefully, the system will continue with itsdirect naming of racism in the health system and ensure this occurs in the reviseddocument. The final version of the publically released original document made nomention of racism. Maternal Health and Parenting domainThree goals have been identified for maternal health and parenting between nowand 2023:

Increase the rate of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women attending atleast one antenatal visit in the first trimester from 51% to 60%.Increase the rate of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women attending atleast five antenatal care visits from 84% to 90%.Decrease the rate of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women who smokeduring pregnancy from 47% to 37%. (p. 17)

Strategy 2B and its actions are of direct relevance to CATSINaM’s policy andadvocacy work: “Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander mothers and fathers haveaccess to affordable, culturally appropriate and high-quality antenatal andpostnatal services” (p. 18). This is to be achieved by implementing these threeactions:

Mothers, fathers and carers have access to antenatal and postnatal servicesthat address wellbeing, perinatal depression, maternal stress, smoking,alcohol and other drugs, and nutrition (consistent with the National AntenatalCare Guidelines), and provide support for breastfeeding, routine screeningand antenatal care.Mothers, fathers and carers of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander childrenhave a continuing connection with health services beyond the antenatalperiod.Mothers, fathers and carers have access to culturally appropriate birthingoptions. (p. 20)

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The deliverables expected to be achieved by 2018 for the third action regardingculturally appropriate birthing options include that the National Maternity ServicesAction plan has been fully implemented and reviewed, the Birthing on Countryreport has been finalised and pilot sites selected (with the expectation thatprograms are implemented and outcomes reviewed immediately after that), and theappropriateness, effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of ‘Midwifery GroupPractice’ initiatives have been explored. Some of these actions may move a littleslower than CATSINaM would prefer. The soon to be released Birthing on Countrypolicy position statement will be a platform on which we will continue to advocatefor more rapid progress in this area.

The State of Reconciliation in Australia Report

This landmark report by Reconciliation Australia was launched on February 9th2016. It reflects on 25 years since the commencement of the ‘formal’ reconciliationmovement, and is introduced by a powerful foreword by Patrick Dodson, theChairperson of the original Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation from 1991 – 1998.It puts forward a holistic framework for understanding and acting on reconciliationsbased on five critical dimensions as shown in this diagram (p. 4) that operate atindividual, organisational and societal levels. As explained in the report:

These five dimensions do not exist in isolation. They are interrelated and Australiacan only achieve full reconciliation if we make progress in all five areas. Forexample, greater historical acceptance of the wrongs done to Aboriginal and TorresStrait Islander Australians can lead to improved race relations, which in turn leadsto greater equality and equity. The nation’s progress towards reconciliation is onlyas strong as the least advanced dimension. (p. 4)

The report provides detailed commentary and evidence about Australia’s currentstatus in relation to these five dimensions, before identifying how we can continueprogressing towards a reconciled Australia. This table is reproduced from page 68in that section of the report, which explains how we can do this.

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How is this relevant to CATSINaM?The five dimensions of reconciliation resonate strongly with CATSINaM’sStrategic Plan and policy position statements.The five dimensions of reconciliation are exemplified in CATSINaM’s CulturalSafety Training program and other cultural safety initiatives within the nursingand midwifery profession and the wider health sector.CATSINaM has been involved in advising stakeholders on the developmentof their Reconciliation Action Plans or RAPs.RAPs are a useful mechanism for nursing and midwifery organisations, aswell as hospitals and health services to engage with and strengthen theircommitment to reconciliation.

A description of the report with links to the full and summary versions of the reportis found here: https://www.reconciliation.org.au/the-state-of-reconciliation-in-australia-report/

Take notice of the ‘Our History, Our Story, Our Future’ film clip. This short two-minute film can be used as a valuable curriculum resource for pre-registrationteaching and/or professional development to complement material regardingcultural safety, Australia’s true history and improving Aboriginal health outcomes.

Discharge against medical advice: Institutionalracism and cultural safety in hospitals

In late 2015 we met with the Director of the Deeble Institute for Health PolicyResearch, which conducts high-quality, independent academic research on a widerange of health policy topics. It is an initiative of the Australian Healthcare andHospitals Association (AHHA), the independent, national membership body andadvocate for the Australian public and not-for-profit healthcare systems.

We are still exploring the potential and options for collaboration, but wanted to alertyou to their website as a useful resource. You may want to explore their healthpolicy evidence briefs where they endeavour to synthesis available researchevidence in a particular area of health policy – seehttps://ahha.asn.au/publication/evidence-briefs#deeble. Their 2014 brief focusedon ‘The relative effectiveness of Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Servicescompared with mainstream health service’.

Their health policy issue briefs take a topical health policy issue, synthesising theresearch evidence and recommending a way forward seehttps://ahha.asn.au/publication/issue-briefs. Their latest brief focused on anevidence-based approach to reducing discharge against medical advice amongstAboriginal and Torres Strait Islander patients – seehttp://ahha.asn.au/publication/issue-briefs/deeble-institute-issues-brief-no-14-best-practice-approach-reducing. Here is an excerpt from the executive summary:

DAMA rates are considered a measure of the responsiveness of hospitals to theneeds of their Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander patients. Currently high levelssuggest that acute care settings are not effectively addressing the concerns ofAboriginal and Torres Strait Islander patients in order to keep them engaged in carefor the duration of their treatment. The literature review identified that there are anumber of contributory factors associated with DAMA among Aboriginal and TorresStrait Islander peoples. Several significant factors are: institutionalised racism, alack of cultural safety, a distrust of the health system, miscommunication, familyand social obligations, and isolation and loneliness. (p. 2)

We imagine this topic will be of significant interest to many of our members.Critically, the paper focuses on the importance of having and utilising AboriginalHospital Liaison Officer and Aboriginal Health Workers/Practitioners, as well assystem culture and practice change to enhance cultural safety and reduceinstitutional racism. The paper acknowledges that “the presence of Aboriginal andTorres Strait Islander people themselves in the health workforce is an importantcontributor to cultural safety” (p. 10). However, it did not explore in any detail theneed to increase the number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander nurses,doctors and allied health staff within hospitals as part of the solution.

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