Aboriginal health workers shine at national awards

Western Desert Nganampa Walytja Palyantjaku Tjutaku Team, NT.

A team of Northern Territory health workers and a Perth health services manager have been recognised at the national 2011 HESTA Primary Health Care Awards.

The Western Desert Nganampa Walytja Palyantjaku Tjutaku team has taken out the Team Excellence award for providing innovative holistic care for Aboriginal patients with end stage renal failure.

And 28-year-old Perth man Jonathan Ford has been named Australia’s top Young Leader in primary health for his work to establish the Mooditj Koort health and wellness centre in one of the poorest urban communities in Western Australia.

The Western Desert Nganampa Walytja Palyantjaku Tjutaku team came together eleven years ago when artists from two bush communities raised $1 million to create Purple House in Alice Springs. Here, patients with kidney disease are cared for so they are well enough to travel home for dialysis in their remote communities in the Western Desert.

“Purple House is about optimism and hope and staying part of your community while you are receiving care,” says manager Sarah Brown.

In Purple House, patients and their families are considered as much a part of the team as the health workers. They help to run both the house and the organisation.

“As more people return to their own communities for dialysis we are changing the face of renal disease,” says Brown.

A new dialysis truck is now being introduced so patients can have dialysis at home on country, and community members can be screened for kidney disease.

In Kwinana in Perth, Ford is equally committed. He says he was motivated to help set up Moorditj Koort by his own experience of growing up in a community with inadequate health services.

“I saw the toll it took on the whole community and I knew I had to do something about it,” he says.

Moorditj Koort, which means “strong heart” in the local Noongar language, services one of the highest urban concentrations of Indigenous Australians in the Perth metropolitan area.

“I want to build a strong and supportive Aboriginal community who have access to the services they need under one roof, in a place run by locals that they trust.

“The community needs to take ownership of health issues. We know that overcoming [poor] health is not just restricted to the health sector: it is also about education and housing.”