$58 million grant to help tackle eye disease in Aboriginal communities
The Rudd Government has announced they will invest $58.3 million over four years to help tackle eye and ear diseases in Indigenous communities – including diseases rarely seen outside the third world. In announcing the grant, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said that the current rates of indigenous people suffering from avoidable vision loss and hearing loss was unacceptable.
A major objective of the grant is to fund programmes working to eliminate trachoma among Indigenous Australians. Mr Rudd said approximately 20 000 indigenous children suffer from trachoma in Australia.
“This is about helping indigenous kids get the start in life they deserve. It will help them get a better start to education, which should deliver improvements in literacy and numeracy, which in turn has flow-on effects to improved employment outcomes”, Mr Rudd said.
Mr Rudd noted that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are at increased risk of developing avoidable blindness and vision loss and are less likely to visit eye health care practitioners than other Australians.
Vision 2020 Australia, a national body of over 50 member organisations is working to raise community awareness about good eye health and vision care. A number of the member organisations are undertaking programmes to help raise eye care standards for indigenous communities. Chief Executive Officer of Vision 2020 Australia, Jennifer Gersbeck said that Australia is the only developed nation where trachoma remains endemic.
“This historic announcement by the Prime Minister will finally aim to eliminate a disease which affects more than 20 000 aboriginal children around Australia”, she said.
Another recent initiative that will help boost Aboriginal eye and health care is the opening of the Aboriginal Health College at Little Bay, Sydney. The College is a unique, health education facility that will see more than 150 skilled Aboriginal students return to their own communities with essential healthcare qualifications each year. It is a major step towards Closing the Gap in health outcomes for Aboriginal people.
Chief Executive Officer, Sandra Bailey, said the Aboriginal Health College provides healthcare education for Aboriginal students and allied health professionals. “This will result in a significantly enhanced workforce of dedicated Aboriginal staff in health services who are working towards better health outcomes for Aboriginal people,” Ms Bailey said.
“This is a fantastic programme in keeping with the important principle of Aboriginal people providing culturally appropriate and accessible services in their own communities.”
“We know that Aboriginal students are significantly under represented in vocational training and retention within mainstream education programmes is critically low. What we see at the college is Aboriginal health education in Aboriginal hands,” added Bailey.
At the opening it was announced that College’s main auditorium would be named in honour of Professor Brian Layland, Director of Aboriginal Programmes for the International Centre for Eyecare Education (ICEE), in recognition of his efforts to establish and support health care and education for Aboriginal people and his unparalleled support for the establishment of the College.
To view the full media release of the announcement of the $58.3 million grant go to: http://www.pm.gov.au/media/Release/2009/media_release_0844.cfm
To learn more about the Aboriginal Health College go to: http://www.ier.org.au
