Newslines Radio: Healthy lifestyle workers
This Newslines Radio program looks at the great work that healthy lifestyle workers are doing in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities all around the country.
Improving the health and wellbeing of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people is critical to Closing the Gap.
This Newslines Radio program looks at the great work that healthy lifestyle workers are doing in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities all around the country.
Funded by the Australian Government these health professionals work closely with communities to improve nutrition and physical activity for individuals, families and communities as well as increase awareness of chronic disease.
Elaine Lomas who works for the Aboriginal Medical Service at Mt Druitt in Sydney tells Newslines that if we work together we can make a difference.
“I think that if we all join together in tackling all of these ways of closing the gap, if we all rise up as one community to actually make our community healthy for our young ones, give them the right messages and also lead by example ourselves,” she says.
Find out more
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people experience a burden of disease two-and-a-half times that of other Australians. A large part of the burden of disease is due to chronic diseases such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes, cancer, chronic respiratory disease and chronic kidney disease. This can be reduced by earlier identification, and management of risk factors and the disease itself.
The Indigenous Chronic Disease Package aims to achieve this reduction by providing support to the health sector and better access to health care by Indigenous Australians.