Visit to VACCHO

If you didn't already know, the Chinese are celebrating their New Year, so Melbourne was very colourful over the weekend, with all kinds of celebrations happening across the city (as can be seen from the picture above).  There is a large Chinese population in Melbourne (as there was in Cairns) and it was lovely to see everybody joining in the celebrations (I refrained from the karaoke that was on!). Meinir and Alun have left for Sydney, so I am on my own now until I get home, so I'm missing their company already - it has been great having them here with me.  I have moved accomodation and the wifi is patchy there, so I've had to come to MacDonalds to get free wifi (trying to choose something healthy from the menu was a challenge!).  I haven't got much battery left on the laptop, so I hope I finish the post before the laptop dies!

Yesterday (Monday), I visited VACCHO (Victorian Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation), where I met with Robyn Bradley (State Tobacco Co-ordinator) and Keren (Researcher).  VACCHO  is Victoria’s peak representative Aboriginal health body and champions community control and health equality for Aboriginal commuity. 

It currently has 28 members, with each member being an Aboriginal community controlled organisation. The majority are multifunctional services with health as a central part of their responsibility and some are full health services. The role of VACCHO is to build the capacity of its membership and to advocate for issues on their behalf.

We had a very interesting discussion about the work that VACCHO has been involved in regarding Smoking during Pregnancy, where they have supported their members to develop smoke free policies in their workplaces (similar to Wuchopperen mentioned in a previous post).  They have supported members to develop their own smoke free policies (so that neither clients or staff can smoke on the premises, whilst also stating whether or not they can smoke on the grounds (some have banned it altogether, some have designated smoking areas).  They started this process by consulting with the staff and clients, in order to gain their point of view and gain evidence that this was a supported policy by all. 

Whilst implementing the smoke free policy, they also trained the health professionals working in these workplaces, on how to approach individuals who breached the smoke free policy.  It is quite difficult to approach somebody who is smoking in a smoke free area, as it can cause confrontation, so training was delivered to the staff in order to be able to do so.  Some of the clients who smoke are anxious and worried (they may be waiting for results etc), so it is natural that they want to smoke whilst waiting. 

The third strand of the policy was providing support to individuals who want to give up.  Nicotine Replacement Therapy is available for free for Aboriginal and Torres Straight Islanders through the Pharmaceutical Benefit Scheme.  Individuals are therefore supported to give up through using replacement therapy.

Here is a photo of Keren, Robyn and myself:

We also have a very interesting discussion about the use of language when developing effective and culturally appropriate materials for the target audience.  The Aboriginal community in the Victoria area often use Koori English in their daily conversations (English with some Aboriginal words interspersed).  VACCHO developed these support materials for individuals wanting to quit, containing Koori English:

They were developed in consultation with the Aboriginal community, so that it was visually appropriate, as well as containing appropriate language. 

VACCHO are currently developing their work programme for the forthcoming years, having received a directive from the Federal Government to concentrate their work efforts on Smoking in Youth and further work in Smoking in Pregnancy.  Thank you to Keren and Robyn for their time - I much enjoyed the discussion that we had, especially around the language, as there are similar language issues both in Wales and in the Aboriginal community.

As I mentioned at the start of the post, Meinir and Alun have now gone to Sydney.  However, on the weekend, we took a fantastic (but very long), trip to the Great Ocean Road to see the 12 Apostoles.  It was well worth the long day:

I mentioned in a previous post that I had seen drive throughs which sell alcohol - here is a picture as proof:

I also saw this outside a nightclub in Melbourne - it's a machine that tests the alcohol on your breath and notes whether you are safe to drive or not.  A very useful device I thought and one which probably prevents many from getting into their car and driving home after drinking:

I am meeting with Geoff Munroe tomorrow from the Australian Drug Foundation, so I will update my blog after the meeting.  Hopefully this will be from the comfort of my accomodation and not in McDonalds!