December 11th-14th Mowanjum Health Day

My last remote trip. Things are winding down, everyone’s getting ready for Chrissy. It’s nice seeing the school decorated but things are much the same, still a challenge and still kind of depressing. One of our aims as a department is to work on health promotion because 1:1 level doesn’t seem very effective. No one in remote communities does their physio exercises let alone exercise in general. Obesity is such a problem and poor general health but people just don’t know about it. And it’s so hard to educate, 1) because there is no interest and 2) it’s difficult to get a message across due to lack of understanding each other’s languages. So we are trying to figure out the best way to get our message across, how do people want us to deliver the information so that they understand it and so that the can be interested in their own health. It’s more difficult than it sounds. There was a health clinic day in mowanjum last week. Mowanjum is a community close to Derby. The even was organized by the Mowanjum nurse and different groups came to set up a little stall – community health, DAHS (aboriginal health service), allied health, a quit smoking/drugs group etc. We were there an hour late but still a few hours before anyone rocked up- all set up and nothing to do. We weren’t really sure what to expect but our ITA (indigenous therapy assistant) said “It’s another bunch of white fella telling them what to do- why should they come?” So we got it wrong… again. Finally (after a few health workers drove out door knocking) a woman and her child came. The poor things were a bit bombarded and didn’t know how to respond. But when the ITA took her around, she interated a little more. Racism goes 2 ways… “Proactive” is a word that doesn’t seem to be in the vocab list. A few people wandered in, took the freebies and free food and sat around chatting to each other. Then we heard news that an elder had just passed away in the community so we all had to pack up and leave… We tried to ask people if they knew us and what we did but it was a bit of a waste of time to be honest. I don’t know why we keep trying. Is it a duty? I’m confused. And frustrated. Yet I keep wanting to help people and make changes and do the best I can – which is a common trait among health professionals. And perhaps this is our problem…