Injury Surveillance in Aboriginal Communities

In our last issue we discussed an imminent report on a project aimed at developing more relevant injury surveillance methods for indigenous populations (Study of Injury in Five Cape York Communities). The printed report became available in February and the interest has been overwhelming. All the printed copies were snapped up almost immediately, a "webified" copy is available here.

In the aftermath of the release, there have been several exciting responses to the report's recommendations:

• Based on conclusions drawn from the report, the Tropical Public Health Unit (TPHU) in Cairns is currently implementing a pilot injury prevention project into three remote Aboriginal communities. It will involve an inter-agency approach with the communities, the TPHU, Queensland Transport and the Department of Employment, Education, Training and Youth Affairs.

The project will include:

• Development and piloting of an information system, which satisfies the needs of the community and the health service, which can be managed locally, and which includes an injury surveillance component.
• Training of a local indigenous person in information systems technology over a period of one year, to assist in the piloting of the system and to enhance the sustainability of the project.
• The TPHU working with community groups and other relevant agencies (health sector staff, Queensland Transport, Police, Social Security, Centrelink, etc) to develop and pilot community-based intervention strategies to prevent injuries of concern to the communities.
• The report has supported the concerns of the Apunipima Cape York Health Council in identifying alcohol as a major health issue in Cape York. It has helped Apunipima in the further identification of points of intervention for a variety of proposed programs, including injury prevention, counselling and social health issues. Sections of the report will be used in the proposed development of a comprehensive alcohol strategy for Cape York.
• Following their cooperation in the preparation of the report, the Department of Social Security and Centrelink have indicated their interest in working with the health sector as part of an inter-agency approach in addressing health issues.
• Issues of worker's compensation and third party insurance, which were included in the report at the request of The Aboriginal Coordinating Council, are currently being further evaluated. The Cairns-based office of the Coordinating Council is now fully convinced that Aboriginal people in remote communities are in need of education into their rights within these issues. The Council also supports the report in its entirety and will seek additional inter-agency approaches to injury prevention among Aboriginal people.
• Quite apart from its value to communities for its injury statistics, the alcohol-related information contained in the report has been welcomed by a number of agencies working in other health areas. Apparently there is a serious shortage of this kind of data available to health workers and researchers.

Further information on the above is available from

Doug Gladman at the TPHU, Tel: 07 4031 0152; Fax: 07 4031 0744

or

Robert Cockatoo, Tel: 07 4050 3628, Fax: 07 4031 1440.