Staff honoured for Indigenous work
Award: Professor Christina Mitchell (left) presents Dr Jane Graecen and Associate Professor David Campbell with the Dean's Award for Social Inclusion for their work in Aboriginal health in East Gippsland.
Two leaders at the School of Rural Health East & South Gippsland have been given the Dean’s Award for Social Inclusion.
Director, Associate Professor David Campbell, and senior lecturer Dr Jane Greacen received the award to acknowledge their work towards improving the health and wellbeing of the local Aboriginal community in East Gippsland.
The award nomination highlighted four areas in which David and Jane had contributed. This included establishing and providing a significant amount of ongoing support for the Centre of Excellence for Aboriginal Health in East Gippsland (CEAHEG).
David and Jane significantly assisted with the establishment of this centre and its associated not-for-profit organisation, obtaining support from the Faculty Dean as well as local health services and schools.
They have undertaken local community-based research alongside CEAHEG to understand the barriers and issues faced by local Aboriginal families and students for them to complete school, attend university and aim for health careers.
David and Jane have facilitated community consultations and targeted career education programs. Last year, they played a significant role in running a forum in conjunction with the local community, secondary schools, support agencies and tertiary institutes to find ways to better assist the community in meeting its goal.
Secondary students have been encouraged to look at careers in health through the planning and running of events by David and Jane at the SRH in Bairnsdale.
SRH East & South Gippsland education centre in Bairnsdale hosted a special forum — Just Looking @ Careers in Health — in April this year. It encouraged local students, particularly Indigenous students, to consider a career in health.
David and Jane were also heavily involved in the organisation of a local conference “Health Careers for young Koori People” in May this year. It developed practical strategies to provide ongoing support for students in East Gippsland to become health professionals.
Their work in establishing a local education program to assist Monash students understand the local Aboriginal community better has drawn high praise. They are working hard to improve the educational experiences of Monash University health students based in the region on clinical placements. These students can work in partnership and provide health care for local Aboriginal Australians.
While there is an already existing generic Aboriginal health curricula embedded in Monash health courses, the inclusion of local cultural knowledge was really a prerequisite for safe practitioners. Therefore along with other Monash staff, the local health service and community, they established tutorials on local Aboriginal beliefs, traditions and health in order to strengthen student-patient engagement and hopefully result in better patient health care.