The 8th National Rural Health Conference – Central to health: sustaining well-being in remote and rural Australia

The 8th National Rural Health Conference, 10 -13 March 2005, was the largest ever public meeting on remote and rural health. Held at Alice Springs Convention Centre, Northern Territory, it was attended by 1,100 delegates from around Australia including health service providers, students and consumers.

The conference was organised by the National Rural Health Alliance which is primarily funded by the Department of Health and Ageing and comprises 24 national organisations. The Alliance advises on rural and remote health policies and strategies. The principal conference sponsor was the National Health and Medical Research Council with additional conference support provided by the Northern Territory Government.

The conference involved presentations, papers, workshops, and posters, and also shared yarns in less formal settings. Contributors included health service managers, allied health professionals, Aboriginal health workers, nurses and GPs. Conference themes were:

• the demonstrated means of successfully strengthening the multidisciplinary remote and rural workforce;
• lessons to learn about improving the health of Indigenous people and other populations in remote areas;
• the connections between land and health for Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people in remote and rural Australia;
• the ways in which education, transport, the environment, economic development and communications intersect with each other and the people in remote and rural Australia; and
• the key emerging issues in clinical practice for remote and rural Australia.

Indigenous health and well-being were a major focus of the conference, highlighting the poor state of Indigenous health as a priority social issue. Of the 90 concurrent papers that won a place on the program (from 440 abstracts) 39 were associated with Aboriginal health. Topics discussed in relation to Indigenous health included: health conditions; health services; workforce issues; environment issues; and lessons learned.

Internet access for all conference delegates was provided at the Australian Indigenous HealthInfoNet exhibition stand, with Telstra Country Wide providing Internet connectivity. Diana Hay from the Aboriginal & Islander Health Worker Journal and Jane Burns from the Australian Indigenous HealthInfoNet also ran a joint display with information about the two organisations. Jane conducted a HealthInternet café on web-based Aboriginal health information, particularly related to rural and remote health, and other HealthInfoNet services such as training and website development. Delegates were encouraged to visit all the exhibition booths.

For further information including the full set of recommendations (PDF – 171KB) and conference media releases:

• Remote area health: not complaining but not complacent
• Global challenges for Australia’s remote health sector

view the 8th National Rural Health Conference website.

We would like to thank the conference participants who provided written permission for us to display their photos here