Know your poison! July 2014 Walking with champions Save money now! You will save money if you quit smoking. If you smoke 20 cigarettes a day, and pay $20 a packet, you'll save: $140 a week $600 a month $7,300 a year $328,500 over a Steven Motlop (centre left) and Mathew Stokes (centre) kick off Walking with lifetime! Champions. More than 200 people joined local Geelong stars Steven Motlop and Mathew Stokes at Danila Dilba’s Danila Dilba Health Service locations inaugural Walk with Champions to highlight the effect If you would like help to quit of tobacco on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Corporate services smoking, let your doctor or people. 36 Knuckey St, Aboriginal Health Practitioner Steven Motlop said there is “absolutely no way I could Darwin NT 0800 know. Quitline Northern play at the elite level or any level for that matter if I was a GPO Box 2125, Territory offers Indigenous smoker, even a social smoker. I say no to tobacco.” Darwin City NT 0801 Quit Counsellors if you call 13 78 48. Danila Dilba Chair Paddy Stephensen said that while the Tel: (08) 8942 5400 Knuckey St clinic Men’s clinic smoking rate for Indigenous people is slowly going down, Fax: (08) 8981 7567 32-34 Knuckey St, 42 McLachlan St, “it’s still nearly triple the national average and one-in-five [email protected] Darwin NT 0801 Darwin NT 0800 Indigenous people will die from smoking-related illness”. 8942 5444 8942 5495 www.daniladilba.org.au Inside “Almost one in two Indigenous people smoke and one of the best things we can do is to give up smoking, and Will I have to pay more for the doctor? 2 support our family and friends to give up too,” he said. Dr Jim’s health tip 2 The World no Tobacco Day event started at Mindil Beach Celebrating Aboriginal with the walk ending at Lake Alexander. staff 3-6 A free breakfast was served at Lake Alexander, with AFL Building a stronger NT hosting a hand ball competition and Darwin City service 7 Council letting people mix their choice of drink on its Palmerston health centre Dental clinic Community services Youth service News medical services 7 ‘smoothie bike’. Unit 1/7 Rolyat St, Unit 4/7 Rolyat St, 15/1 Malak Place Shop 9/10 Gray shopping centre, Palmerston NT 0831 Palmerston NT 0831 Malak NT 0812 Essington Avenue, Gray NT 0830 Our contacts 8 The Danila Dilba mobile clinic provided free tests for 8932 3166 8931 5700 8931 0879 8920 9500 height, weight, sugar and blood pressure. 8 Danila Dilba Community Newsletter June 2014 Danila Dilba Community Newsletter June 2014 1 Will I have to pay more for the doctor? Celebrating Aboriginal staff You might have heard that the government wants to start making people Sharni Cardona, Clinic Coordinator pay extra money for medical services. In the middle of the Knuckey Street’s at Danila Dilba in The government wants us to pay seven busy and fast-paced clinic is the calm and 2013, she jumped at dollars every time we see a doctor, five dollars hardworking Clinic Coordinator, Sharni the chance to work for medicines and extra payments for things Cardona. with us. like blood tests and X-rays. After high school, Sharni juggled work and She was attracted to study and began her nursing degree, but was Danila Dilba Chair Paddy Stephensen says Danila Dilba, because able to focus on her studies when she there are very real concerns that these extra as “Darwin’s received a university scholarship. payments will stop Aboriginal people in community-controlled, She first came to Danila Dilba as a student Darwin coming to see us. Danila Dilba Chair, Paddy Stephensen. affordable and accessible health service, it and had such a positive experience that she A recent national survey found that the GP seeing a doctor or other essential spending gives the Indigenous community what they hoped one day to work for us. co-payment would deter 40% of people from for families.” want and need to live better lives”. After finishing her degree in 2010, Sharni seeing a GP. Sharni finds the complex cases and daily If the government’s proposals go ahead, began working in the fast-paced, adrenaline- “This may be even higher for Aboriginal Danila Dilba will look at how to help low pumping Royal Darwin Hospital Operating challenges of Danila Dilba Health Service people who generally have much lower income earners with these payments, but Theatre, dealing with daily life-and-death both rewarding and demanding. incomes and poorer health outcomes than that will be money which we would otherwise scenarios as an anaesthetics and recovery When Danila Dilba needed a Knuckey St other Australians,” Mr Stephensen said. put into our core primary health care nurse. Clinic Coordinator in February, it was clear “It could mean the difference between services. When a position as a nurse was advertised that she was the right person. Tiana McCoy, Aboriginal Health Practitioner The support of her husband and family the clients need and Heart disease is one of the biggest killers of Aboriginal men made the difference for Tiana McCoy in want, and says this and women. It’s a big part of why many Aboriginal men and completing her Aboriginal Health makes coming to work women don’t reach 60, and a lot of the time we can prevent it. Practitioner course with Batchelor College every day enjoyable. while juggling two young children and a What we eat, how much exercise we do, whether or not we smoke The team that Tiana are three things that we can control in our lives. Most of the part-time job. works with are positive problem comes from damage done to the arteries of the heart Tiana says it was “intense” with the and professional and hardening and blocking up. Dr James Stephen is travelling back and forth between home in she says “they’re a Jabiru and Batchelor to study over 18 Danila Dilba Health friendly bunch to be around”. Healthy food and exercise like fishing, hunting, regular walks and Service’s Senior Medical months. sports can help keep the arteries healthy. Officer. Tiana says having the family centre and “It was the hardest thing that I’ve ever the maternal health service in the one done,” she said. She almost didn’t complete Chest pain is often the first sign that something is not right but building “ensures a seamless transition from you may get other signs like shortness of breath or neck and arm the course, but Lesley Woolf (the then antenatal care right through to adulthood in pain. If you have any of these problems then get it checked out Palmerston Clinic Manager) jumped at the the one building”. before it’s too late. chance to have her finish her clinic hours with us, and this enabled Tiana to complete “Clients get to build relationships with staff Otherwise ask your Aboriginal Health Practitioner or doctor about her studies. and know that they are in a culturally safe getting a heart check. That’s the heart of the matter. Tiana has a passion for working in a and supportive environment that meets their health needs.” clinical setting, which delivers a service that 2 Danila Dilba Community Newsletter June 2014 Danila Dilba Community Newsletter June 2014 3 Will I have to pay more for the doctor? Celebrating Aboriginal staff You might have heard that the government wants to start making people Sharni Cardona, Clinic Coordinator pay extra money for medical services. In the middle of the Knuckey Street’s at Danila Dilba in The government wants us to pay seven busy and fast-paced clinic is the calm and 2013, she jumped at dollars every time we see a doctor, five dollars hardworking Clinic Coordinator, Sharni the chance to work for medicines and extra payments for things Cardona. with us. like blood tests and X-rays. After high school, Sharni juggled work and She was attracted to study and began her nursing degree, but was Danila Dilba Chair Paddy Stephensen says Danila Dilba, because able to focus on her studies when she there are very real concerns that these extra as “Darwin’s received a university scholarship. payments will stop Aboriginal people in community-controlled, She first came to Danila Dilba as a student Darwin coming to see us. Danila Dilba Chair, Paddy Stephensen. affordable and accessible health service, it and had such a positive experience that she A recent national survey found that the GP seeing a doctor or other essential spending gives the Indigenous community what they hoped one day to work for us. co-payment would deter 40% of people from for families.” want and need to live better lives”. After finishing her degree in 2010, Sharni seeing a GP. Sharni finds the complex cases and daily If the government’s proposals go ahead, began working in the fast-paced, adrenaline- “This may be even higher for Aboriginal Danila Dilba will look at how to help low pumping Royal Darwin Hospital Operating challenges of Danila Dilba Health Service people who generally have much lower income earners with these payments, but Theatre, dealing with daily life-and-death both rewarding and demanding. incomes and poorer health outcomes than that will be money which we would otherwise scenarios as an anaesthetics and recovery When Danila Dilba needed a Knuckey St other Australians,” Mr Stephensen said. put into our core primary health care nurse. Clinic Coordinator in February, it was clear “It could mean the difference between services.