Local relevance, ownership is key to successful indigenous health programs

In 1994, the small community of Yuendumu in Australia’s remote Northern Territory faced a desperate epidemic of petrol sniffing by gangs of young people who roamed the streets at night - a symptom of a generation destroying itself. Nothing the community had tried  – not banishment, flogging, night patrols, or replacing petrol with Av Gas – had worked, until the community adopted an idea suggested over and over by aboriginal people - to send petrol sniffers to a remote outstation, Mt. Theo, where they were introduced to their cultural traditions.

The program operated solely on local resources for its first few years, as told in the Mt. Theo story. "Mt Theo is in an ideal location to run a program like ours because it is geographically isolated being 50 kilometres from the nearest main road which means the kids do not run away. It also has a telephone which is essential for safety. We started with no outside resources. The school put up $5,000 for food for the project, and we borrowed vehicles from around the community to transport food and people from Yuendumu to Mt Theo. We operated like this up until 1997 when the Commonwealth and Territory Governments began to give us funding support. 

"All the work was voluntary and when the food money ran out we would book up food at the community store and then run fund raising barbecues to pay off the debt. The Aboriginal people living at Mt Theo would use their own private cars and pension money to run activities for the kids and to buy extra food and clothing. This is how we started, and starting with nothing has made us strong.  We all do this work because we believe in it in our hearts."

The success of that program in treating young people through cultural counselling and training by traditional owners and elders led to the creation of the Mt Theo-Yuendumu Substance Misuse Aboriginal Corporation (MYSMAC) in 1998. In the years since, Mt. Theo has been recognized nationally and internationally as an effective and innovative response to substance misuse by young people. Increasingly, within the Warlpiri region, young people are being referred to Mt Theo by police and magistrates as an alternative to formal charges, as a bail condition or supervised parole.

Building on the success of its programs to stop youth petrol sniffing, the Mt Theo Program now provides programs to help youth, families and the community, including treatment and diversion at Mt Theo Outstation, prevention through a Youth Diversionary Program, and a youth leadership and aftercare program known as Jaru Pirrjirdi (Strong Voices) Project.

The program's achievement in creating an environment for healthy change in which petrol sniffing is no longer seen as "cool" by youth, is one of 15 stories of outstanding achievement in improving the health situation of Australia’s aboriginal people profiled in Success Stories in Indigenous Health, published in June 2007 by Australians for Native Title and Reconciliation and available online. In the introduction, ANTAR’s national director Gary Highland noted that the stories of indigenous health programs come from every one of Australia’s mainland states and territories.

“While these programs are diverse, there are factors that many of them have in common,” Highland says. “The first is that the majority could be described as ‘bottom up’ rather than ‘top down’. Most of them originated at the local level, driven by priorities decided by individual Indigenous communities. Some employed methodologies pioneered elsewhere, but these were adapted so they have local relevance.

“Most of the programs depend on the knowledge, authority and support of community Elders for their success. They show that improved health outcomes are less likely to come from miracle cures or imposed new treatment regimes than from the ability of Indigenous people to determine their own futures and be accountable for decisions impacting on their own communities.”

The information about Mt Theo is drawn from its website. The publication, Success Stories in Indigenous Health, provides links to the 15 programs that are profiled, and can be downloaded from the ANTaR website. Australians for Native Title and Reconciliation (ANTaR) is an independent, national network of mainly non-Indigenous organisations and individuals set up to help protect the human rights of Indigenous Australians and advance the reconciliation process in Australia. Members include Indigenous leaders, prominent individuals and over 200 local ANTaR groups. ANTaR assists Indigenous leaders and communities to communicate their aspirations and concerns to a wider community, conducting national education and awareness campaigns on Indigenous affairs and various fundraising activities.

 


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