Moving Forward Together in Aboriginal Women's Health: - Theses ...

Moving Forward TogetherJanet Kellyschool expos began; bringing school aged young people from across the entirecentral East/West area of Adelaide to Gilles Plains.The new look Aboriginal Neighbourhood House was met with a variety ofcommunity responses. While most local Aboriginal people agreed that themedical clinic and chronic conditions focus was ‘good’, they wondered whathad happened to their original vision of a community meeting place. When theservice name was changed from Aboriginal Neighbourhood House toAboriginal Outreach Health Service without community consultation, thecommunity surmised that their neighbourhood house was now a governmenthealth service, with some community development programs on the side. Theywatched with mixed feelings as the washing machine and dryer were removedunused, a locked drug cupboard and immunisation fridge were installed, andcommunity group rooms remodelled into staff offices.One longer term Gilles Pains Community Campus employee who had workedwith the original Aboriginal Reference Group and understood the communityexpectations and hopes, summed up some of the different perspectives and thelocal impacts she observed and felt. She said;It is very hard for even us (community health professionals) to followwhat is happening with the health service changes. And what thereasoning is behind it.There is a certain irony of going over to APHCAP funding for theAboriginal health services which is Medicare funded, based on clinicservices and is chronic disease focused.Finally the local services are Aboriginal controlled, but in the end,because it is linked to APHCAP funding, they are not able to providewhat the community wants. There is such irony to it…You cannot arguethat there isn’t a need for clinical services, because there so obviously is,but how did this all result in moving away from the support of well-beingand stress prevention programs (CH Mg Int2).Most incoming staff members at the newly developing AboriginalNeighbourhood House/Aboriginal Outreach Health Service had no knowledgeof the history behind the service, and found the negative community responsevery difficult to understand. They were employed to provide a health service,212