On 7 August 2017 Weenthunga Health Network, supported by Victorian Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation (VACCHO) held a ground-breaking Summit at Victoria University which focussed on Aboriginal health outcomes through health education and curricula in Victorian universities.
The aim of the Summit was to improve Aboriginal health education in Victorian universities by promoting collaboration and sharing across courses and universities as well as Aboriginal academic leadership, Aboriginal community engagement, and professional development for academics.
The Summit, facilitated by Associate Professor Greg Phillips, provided an important opportunity to bring experts together to discuss strategies to enhance their shared objective of improving health outcomes for Aboriginal people in Victoria through Aboriginal health education, in the light of the fact that the escalating number of health students is at risk of overloading the limited essential resource of Aboriginal academics, advisers, and clinical placements.
The Summit heard from a number of experts about the pressing and important challenges, and possible potential solutions to be implemented.
Six key themes emerged from the summit, which include:
- Strategies for encouraging institutional change at government and university level.
- How to best facilitate clinical placements at ACCHOs for students studying health courses.
- The importance of Aboriginal pedagogy in teaching of health courses.
- How to best support Aboriginal students.
- How to best support Aboriginal staff in universities.
- How to best work two-way, how to foster good working partnerships between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal academics.
For the full report including strategies and recommendations, please click here