Launch of The health of Aboriginal children and young people

(The following summary has been adapted from information provided by the Telethon Institute for Child Health Research.)

The health of Aboriginal children and young people was launched on 3 June 2004 at the Telethon Institute for Child Health Research, Perth, Western Australia (WA). The report is the first volume of findings from the Western Australian Aboriginal Child Health Survey (WAACHS), with four more volumes due to be released over the next 18 months. The volumes cover the topics of health, social and emotional wellbeing, education, family, and community and justice.

The WAACHS was one of the largest and most comprehensive investigations into the health and wellbeing of WA Aboriginal children, their families and communities, involving five years of planning and two years in the field. It was designed to build a store of knowledge from which to develop preventive strategies that promote and maintain the healthy development and the social, emotional, academic, and vocational wellbeing of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children.

The survey was undertaken by researchers at the Telethon Institute for Child Health Research in conjunction with the Kulunga Research Network. All phases were under the direction of the Western Australian Aboriginal Child Health Survey Steering Committee. The committee, chaired by Associate Professor Ted Wilkes, comprises senior Aboriginal people from a cross section of agencies and settings. More than half of the 130 surveying staff were Aboriginal. The team spent two years working across WA to gather a random sample of more than 5,200 Aboriginal children (one in five WA Aboriginal people aged 18 years or younger) and included interviews with 2,000 families, 11,300 family members, and more than 3,000 teachers.

The report details the complexity of factors that contribute to significantly higher rates of death, illness and disability among Indigenous people compared with other Australians. It includes a call for a national strategy to break the cycle of Aboriginal poor health and disadvantage that looks beyond health to the resources needed for healthy child development.

Associate Professor Ted Wilkes said Aboriginal health was too often portrayed as a problem that was simply too hard to fix and there had been little progress in improving outcomes over the past 30 years, whereas Canada, New Zealand and the United States had narrowed the disparity between Indigenous people and the rest of the population (view media release – HTML). Professor Wilkes noted that ‘Aboriginal people have heard the alarm bells ringing for years, this survey gives us the hard evidence we need for new strategies that look at the issue from a different direction. We have to break the cycle of poor health and that means we have to find ways to give our children a better start in life’. He described the data as a baseline from which real improvements can be achieved and highlighted that resources are needed in areas that are going to produce real results, with many of the solutions outside the health care system.

Outlining other findings from the data, Professor Steve Zubrick from the Telethon Institute for Child Health Research said that family arrangements varied markedly between urban and more isolated regions and family structures were under pressure, much of it as a legacy of the stolen generations: ‘the extended family structure in many Aboriginal homes is a very important safety mechanism for these children, but the overall impact of loss and separation is quite profound’ (view media release – HTML).

Aboriginal children are faced with significant impediments to their chances of a healthy life even before they are born (view media release – HTML). After birth, high rates of recurrent infection are a major risk to the health of Aboriginal children and are comparable to those of third world countries (view media release – HTML). Heather D’Antoine, survey steering committee member and Indigenous health researcher, stated that ‘these infections can have a big impact on the child’s health and development. It’s particularly distressing when we know many of these recurring infections are preventable with appropriate treatment and environmental measures’.

This project was funded by Healthway, Lotterywest, Rio Tinto Aboriginal Foundation, the West Australian State Government (through the departments of Education and Training; Health; Disability Services Commission; Community Development; West Australian Drug Strategy) and the Commonwealth Government (through the departments of Education, Science and Training; Health and Ageing (coordinated through the Office for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health); Attorney General; Family and Community Services).

The Health of Aboriginal Children and Young People (view HealthInfoNet abstract; view full report – PDF – 8.18MB – large file warning!) is available on the Telethon Institute for Child Health Research website. For information regarding reproduction of the report contact: Telethon Institute for Child Health Research, PO Box 855, West Perth WA 6872, Ph: (08) 94897777, Fax: (08) 9489 7700, Email: waachs@ichr.uwa.edu.au.

For further information:

• Children the key to breaking the cycle of disadvantage
  View media release (HTML) (released 3 June)
• Social disadvantage underpins children’s poor health
  View media release (HTML) (released 3 June)
• The Western Australian Aboriginal Child Health Survey background information
  View media release (HTML) (released 3 June)
• Infections leave life-long scars
  View media release (HTML) (released 3 June)
• Disadvantage begins in the womb
  View media release (HTML) (released 3 June)

ABC news:

• National strategy needed on Aboriginal child health: report
  View article (3 June)
• Aboriginal children take part in comprehensive health study
  View transcript (3 June)

Or contact:
Elizabeth Chester (Media Contact)
Telethon Institute for Child Health Research
Ph: (08) 94897965
Mob: 0409 988 530
Email: elizabeth@ichr.uwa.edu.au