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Issue #2 August 2004
Welcome to the second Intranews of the Cooperative Research Centre for Aboriginal Health (CRCAH). In this newsletter we have included information about some of the activities which have been happening both within the CRCAH partner organisations and within the general Aboriginal health arena. If you would like to share information about achievements and activities, please email enews@crcah.org.au



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Register or contact your link Contact person for more information.
For more information or feedback on
the newsletter, please contact your Link contact person or email Johanna Monk
 

 
Convocation Postponed
The CRCAH Convocation which was planned for November this year will be postponed to ensure the preparations are thorough and that it can make a maximum contribution to the continuing development of the CRCAH's research program.

While no new date has yet been set, it is unlikely to be until early next year. A special meeting of the Board will be held on September 24 in Melbourne to discuss the research program and the Convocation, and a revised date for Convocation may be set at that meeting.
CDAMS Indigenous Health Curriculum Framework launch Improving Child Growth in the Northern Territory (NT) Project

The Committee of Deans of Australian Medical Schools (CDAMS) is currently conducting a project which aims to integrate Indigenous health content into the core curriculum for undergraduate and graduate entry medical programs.

This project's main outcome, the CDAMS Indigenous Health Curriculum Framework, was launched by Professor Lowitja O'Donoghue and Sir William Deane on Friday 27 August at the Koori Heritage Trust in Melbourne.  The speakers emphasised the importance of this Framework in making a difference to Indigenous health and thanked those involved for their work and leadership.

The National Programs Manager for the Indigenous Health Curriculum Framework project is Gregory Phillips who is based at the University of Melbourne . For more information, please contact Nicole Waddell on
(03) 8344 0813 or waddell@unimelb.edu.au

The Chronicle – Child Health Special Edition (NT DHCS, June 2004) included an article noting the publication of the final report of the ‘Improving Child Growth in the Northern Territory (NT) Project', which was conducted in the remote north-east Arnhem Land community of Gapuwiyak by the Cooperative Research Centre for Aboriginal and Tropical Health and the Department of Health and Community Services from 2000 to 2002.

This report describes the community development approach used to support Yolngu community members and clinic staff to develop and implement strategies to promote child growth. Project outcomes are discussed including increased family and community involvement in child growth promotion and the development and partial implementation of the ‘Family Centre' strategy.

Copies of the report are available in the digital library of the CRCAH website or through contacting Michael Duffy at the CRCAH office on 08 8922 8841.

ARHEN Indigenous staff network workshop

The Australian Rural Health Education Network (ARHEN) supports an Indigenous Staff Network comprising staff from University Departments/Schools of Rural Health. The network is holding a workshop in August/September and the CRCAH is pleased to have been nominated as a participant. For more details, Logon to the CRCAH intranet and go to What's Happening.
 
 
Revising research priorities
The CRCAH Board and Research Development Group (RDG) are continuing their work to revise the CRCAH research priorities and develop a more programmatic research agenda targeted at direct health outcomes. A final proposal for this revised approach will be presented to the Board at a special meeting in Melbourne on September 24.

The more programmatic approach is likely to involve the development of large programs of work that bring together both funded and in-kind activities around particular priority topics.  Program coordinators will be appointed from the RDG to carry out the developmental work of bringing together people with an interest in each topic, identifying industry priorities and potential outcomes which could be achieved, and developing a planned program of research, transfer, and capacity development. Program proposals would then undergo a process of external review and assessment by the RDG and Board.

Discussion is still underway about exactly which priority areas will be selected as programs to be developed, but indicative research areas could be:
  • chronic disease;
  • primary health care services and workforce;
  • healthy skin;
  • social and emotional well-being; and,
  • social determinants and the physical environment

Social Determinants Workshop Report

Research Policy and Evaluation Workshop

Research Development Group meeting report

On the 5th and 6th July 2004, over 45 people from the CRCAH partner organisations came together at Flinders University in Adelaide to discuss the social determinants of Aboriginal health. For further details logon to the intranet and go to
Logon to the CRCAH intranet and go to What's Happening .

The CRCAH held a workshop in Darwin in June on research policy and evaluation involving participants from CRCAH, Menzies School of Health Research, the Department of Health and Community Services and the University of Melbourne. For a summary of the discussion, Logon to the CRCAH intranet and go to What's Happening.

The Research Development Group (RDG), chaired by Ian Anderson, met in Darwin on 27 July. The main focus of the meeting was refining priorities. For more information about the RDG meeting, Logon to the CRCAH intranet and go to What's Happening.


RDG meeting at MSHR

Call for Research Reform EoIs

The CRCAH has circulated a call for Expressions of Interest for a Research Reform project which must be submitted using the Concept form before Friday 17 September. For more information go to the Call for Expressions of Interest and the Concept form on What's Happening?

Commissioning Round Update

Appeals Process

In-Kind Reporting

On 19 July, the CRCAH received 9 proposals in the next stage of the commissioning round and forwarded these to reviewers. Reviews are now being collected and forwarded to proponents to give them an opportunity to respond. Proposals, reviews and responses will be sent to the Research Assessment Panels who will be meeting later in September.

At the June Board meeting it was agreed to establish a process to give proponents an opportunity to appeal a decision on an expression of interest or a proposal. A process has been developed by the Research Development Group. Proponents will be given an opportunity to appeal decisions to date by 15 September 2004. Details have been circulated through the Link Contact People network. For more information go to the Announcement. more >>>



CRCAH Board Member meeting, QIMR 2004

Thank you to everyone who has been involved in collecting in-kind reporting, particularly all the Project Leaders and Link people who have sent reporting on in-kind contributions to our Finance Officer Leah Ahmat. Leah has now compiled this information and recirculated it to partner organisations for confirmation A big thank you also to everyone who has been interviewed for the Annual Report.

 
 

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Want to find more publications? Check out the Digital Library!!!!

Want to bring up past news articles? Looking for one in particular? But are having trouble finding them? Then check out the ‘what's happening' search function located at the top of the page.

Simply select the category you want to search in and hit ‘go'! All news articles currently listed or archived will be displayed regardless of their status.

Search by ‘general', ‘hot off the press', ‘media releases' or ‘latest event'. If you still can't find what you're looking for, it may be that what you're after is located on the intranet.

You will need to logon to the ‘intranet' to gain access to ‘intranet only' articles. Once you have logged in with your password and username, you will have immediate access to all news articles within the site.

Have you updated your profile lately? Once you logon to the CRCAH intranet you can change your password or contact details by clicking on ‘your profile' under the ‘home' button. Keeping your details up to date will ensure that you receive up coming issues of CRCAH Intranews!

Unlock the power of the forum!

Interested in partaking in a variety of discussions? Or just want to give some feedback? Check out the ‘forum' located in the intranet!

Currently there are a small amount of discussion topics which have been created for you and this is your chance to comment or give feedback without the hassle of group emails.

By taking part in a discussion forum your comment will be posted for immediate view by other users engaged in the same discussion or group. And its easy to use! Once you have clicked on the ‘forum' button, you will see a variety of topics up for discussion.

Each main topic has a moderator assigned, someone who controls the discussion and monitors each post (message) that is entered. If you have any questions about any ‘main topic' you can email the moderator directly by clicking on their name.

Once you have selected the topic of interest, you may see another set of sub topics, click on the one you want and then click ‘post a comment'. That's it!
If you get stuck at any time, just click on ‘help' or otherwise email your question to the webmaster

If you wish to start up a main topic of discussion, please email Sarah Walton and one will be set up for you.
 

Student Profile: Mark Lutschini


Mark Lutschini is a Koori man from the Wangaaypuwan tribe in NSW who is currently the recipient of a CRCAH PhD scholarship. He has now been working on his PhD -“Policy Networks and Research to Policy Transfer in Aboriginal Health” - for 16 months with the University of Melbourne.

His aim is to describe the general characteristics of this Aboriginal health policy network and discuss them in terms of principles such as community control and self-determination. He will do this by asking people to nominate who they think are influential in health policy, and then entering the information into a database that gives network ‘maps'. He will then ask the key people within this network, what issues they have in getting and using information from health research to inform their decisions.

If you want to talk to Mark about the study, send an email to mjlut@unimelb.edu.au or phone the Koori Health Research Unit on (03) 8344 0813. If you get a survey in the mail called ‘Aboriginal Health Policy Networks Study', then Mark will be sure to call you.

Scholarships

Education and Training Webpage

The CRCAH wishes to give advance notice that we will be calling for applicants for Scholarships in September, in particular seeking applicants who are linked to research projects.  An announcement will be posted on the internet and circulated through the Links people networks.

 

 

 The Education & Training staff are restructuring their webpage and would appreciate any comments about making the site more appealing and easier to navigate. This will include profiling our scholarship students and their projects on the website to assist with networking and linking in with other CRCAH activities. Suggestions or feedback can be emailed to either Sarah Walton, CRCAH Webmaster or Lorna Murakami-Gold, ED&T Coordinator.