Health

The planning, design, funding and delivery of quality, contemporary health care is universally a complex and challenging task. This is irrespective of setting, community and population characteristics, economic circumstances and individual health status. In rural and remote Australia the complexity is magnified by unique characteristics and cha ....

The Australian Integrated Mental Health Initiative in the Northern Territory (AIMHI NT) is one site of a National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Strategic Partnership initiative seeking to improve remote indigenous mental health outcomes - in a context of increasing hospital admissions and high readmission rates. Remot ....

The processes for developing the Tasmanian Rural Mental Health Plan are briefly described in this paper which also discusses some of the activities undertaken by the Barrington Support Service in progressing the mental health of students in some of Tasmania's state schools, including AusEinet project, FRIENDS in primary schools, an ....

The Federal Government's Northern Territory Emergency Response has three broad objectives: stabilisation to protect children and secure their communities; normalisation of services and infrastructures; and longer term sustainability, bringing Indigenous Australians into line with the choices other Australians enjoy. From a health p ....

Australia has a shortage of doctors in general and more so in Aboriginal communities. The 2011-2012 report by Health Workforce Australia endorses the relevance of physician assistants (PAs) in rural Australia, and this article describes the experience of a PA employed in rural Aboriginal Health Services in North Queensland. The author also shares ....

Cognitive impairment is one factor known to affect people's ability to participate in substance misuse treatment because of the range of cognitive, behavioural and emotional problems such impairment can cause. Some of the behaviours described as common features of cognitive impairment, such as impaired self-monitoring and self-regulation and lack ....

rimary health care (PHC) is widely regarded as essential for preventing and treating ill health. However, the evidence on whether improved PHC reduces hospitalisations has been mixed. This study examines the relationship between PHC and hospital inpatient care in a population with high health need, high rates of hospitalisation and relatively poo ....

Issue addressed: To examine the role that alcohol breath-testing devices in licensed premises may have in rural and remote areas of Australia. Methods: Data to monitor the use of the wall-mounted, alcohol breathtesting devices were collected by download from the devices themselves and through survey tools for bar staff and the patr ....

This paper reports further analysis from a study investigating service providers' perspectives on factors influencing frequent hospital admission in older patients with chronic disease, and explores the perceived role of social isolation. Semi-structured interviews with 15 purposively sampled community-based service providers in rural New South W ....

The Reach Out! Rural and Regional Tour (RORRT) was launched in April 1999. The project aims to work with communities to promote positive mental health for young people living in rural and regional Australia. This paper discusses the objectives of the tour and includes: evaluation design; sources of data; demographics of participant ....

The Sustainable Farm Families project focuses on the relationship between occupational health and safety and farm family health to address premature death, morbidity and injury on Australian farms. It uses health literacy through education and physical assessment to improve health and knowledge outcomes for farm families. This arti ....

Aboriginal adolescents living in or near rural towns have different social and cultural needs than Aboriginal adolescents living in large cities or remote areas. Identification of health needs by the community is an established principle of health promotion for improving community health. The objective of this study was to identify ....

This paper arises from research undertaken in a Queensland rural community to determine the influence of bush identity on attitudes to mental health. Through questionnaires and interviews with mental health service consumers, it was discovered that they felt discriminated against, alienated, disempowered, unsupported and alone. Alt ....

Alcohol misuse by farmers continues to challenge rural nurses. This article reports on the experiences of Australian nurses participating in the Alcohol Intervention Training Program (AITP). Qualitative interviews of 15 rural and remote nurses. Semi-structured phone interviews were utilized to assess the response to and implementation of the AITP ....