Professor Emma-Jaye Gavin

Have you faced any challenges or barriers to accessing care? I have found mainstream health services in Victoria have been very unsafe. I have experienced multiple instances of racism and health care denial over the last ten years. I have been made to pay upfront for procedures where caucasian friends have not been required to, for the same procedure. I have been denied pain relief drugs in ED, after the ED nurse saw I was Aboriginal on the intake form. I have been denied Close-the-gap prices at the chemist, despite it being ticked on my script, and my Indigenous health initiative number being included, because the pharmacist didn’t think I looked “Aboriginal enough”. In a different pharmacy, in a very white middle class neighbourhood, the pharmacist announced my Aboriginally status to the entire pharmacy staff, and they all came to watch as “I was the first Aboriginal person to get a close-the-gap script at that pharmacy”. I have had several health issues escalate unchecked because the mainstream doctors refused to consider health issues outside my racial make up, resulting in health disorders that progressed, and are now life long.

No, not at all. When I have had to seek mainstream health services in Victoria, more often than not the experience has been marred by micro-aggressions, racism, or healthcare denial.

Mainstream health services should be learning from ACCHOs how to care for First Nation clients. I have always felt supported, respected and listened to at First Nation health services. Mainstream services should employ Aboriginal health liaison officers to support and advocate for the care of First Nation clients / patients. Mainstream health services should undergo vigorous cultural awareness training and unlearning of racist / stereotypical misinformation regarding First Nation health. ACCHOs are great at supporting the full health of Aboriginal clients, meaning the physical, spiritual, mental, as well as the health of Country and community. Mainstream services need to better understand what supports First Nation health outcomes.

I would like to see significant changes to the way Indigenous health and cultural awareness training is taught to mainstream health staff. I would like to see more hiring of Indigenous doctors, nurses, allied health professionals, liaison officers etc, to better support the health outcomes for First Nation patients. I would like to see a better system for identifying problematic / racist mainstream health staff, and a process which ensure retraining through cultural awareness program. I would like to see a system where every First Nation patient is encouraged to complete a survey of their experiences, and these are independently reviewed to determine which health services / departments are failing First Nation clients, and a process for re-training, review, or dismissal for staff who continue to create unsafe spaces for First Nation peoples.