The National Aboriginal Community Control Health Organisation (NACCHO) has a new Chairperson – Henry Councillor
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In March 2003 Mr Henry Councillor became the Chairperson of the National Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation (NACCHO), the national peak body for more than 120 Indigenous community controlled health services. Mr Councillor, who was Deputy Chair of NACCHO, takes the helm from Ms Pat Anderson
Henry Councillor, 41, is a Jaru man whose family comes from the Mt Dockwell area of Halls Creek in the Kimberley Region of Western Australia. He has had a long involvement in Aboriginal health that commenced with the Kimberley Aboriginal Medical Service’s Council Inc. (KAMSC) over 20 years ago. In 1994 he was appointed KAMSC’s Chief Executive Officer. He has worked also with the Broome Regional AMS, the Yura Yungi Medical Service at Halls Creek and the East Kimberley AMS.
Mr Councillor is actively involved in a range of local, state and national committees and has stated that one of his main aims as Chairman will be to progress partnerships with mainstream services to improve the health of Aboriginal people. He believes that Aboriginal controlled health services constitute a vital, viable, expanding sector and that the holistic approach adopted by the first centre in Redfern over 30 years ago has proved its worth.
Speaking at the National Rural Health Alliance Conference in Hobart on 2 March 2003, Mr Councillor paid tribute to Ms Anderson’s work during her time as Chair and expressed a desire to maintain the momentum she had begun. NACCHO’s focus, as Mr Councillor explained, is to ensure that the Aboriginal health agenda is represented and prioritised at Commonwealth and State levels. NACCHO is an advocate for Aboriginal people in such areas as the acquisition of funding and building the workforce capacity of Aboriginal health. Mr Councillor said that his personal priorities would be the prevention of youth suicide, and the creation of programs to deal with communicable diseases, diabetes and drug/alcohol abuse – issues he had seen in the Kimberley.
In his keynote address, Healing the Divisions, he focussed on the ongoing poor health status of Aboriginal people and the failure of health services to meet the demand. He called for accountability of services, particularly rural health programs; noted the need to address inequities associated with Aboriginal access to tertiary care; and reinforced the need for benchmarks. He identified successful partnerships between Aboriginal controlled health services and mainstream services including Divisions of General Practice, the Chronic Disease Alliance and the National Rural Health Alliance. He commented that the most pressing issues faced by Aboriginal people – alcohol abuse, violence, powerlessness, discrimination and the need for healthy lifestyles – will not be solved medically and will require community action and advocacy. He concluded that the mainstream health system will need to nurture such an approach.
Mr Councillor will act as Chairperson, a full-time position, until November. At that time, under NACCHO’s Constitution, all member services will have the right to vote at the annual general meeting in Melbourne on who will fill the position of Chairperson for the following two years.
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