Rural Remote Health
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Rural Remote Health · Apr 2009
There should be more help out here! A qualitative study of the needs of Aboriginal adolescents in rural Australia.
Aboriginal adolescents living in or near rural towns have different social and cultural needs than Aboriginal adolescents living in large cities or remote areas. Identification of health needs by the community is an established principle of health promotion for improving community health. The objective of this study was to identify the views of rural Aboriginal adolescents regarding health promotion topics, the most important health problems they faced, their support networks and their beliefs about who should help them meet their health needs. ⋯ The importance of engaging the community and being sensitive to social and cultural contexts in research and programming was confirmed. Policy-makers, health providers and agencies working with youth need to focus on inclusion of families in youth health promotion and drug and alcohol prevention for Aboriginal adolescents in rural areas. Mentorship and peer-support programs are more effective than health professionals and agencies in working with youth. The expertise of those traditionally working with youth could be channelled into coordinating a mentorship program. Personal wellbeing and safety is an important issue and multipurpose youth centres may provide a secure place for adolescents to learn, interact and develop a vision for their futures.
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Cancer management follows the overall trend of rural health disparities, with higher incidence rates of preventable cancers and lower survival rates in rural Australia. Cancer prevention and management has been identified as a priority area and Cancer Australia has funded a variety of innovations throughout Australia. The Rural Chemotherapy Mentoring Program (RCMP) forms part of this drive to improve access to chemotherapy for rural based cancer sufferers in South Australia (SA). The key strategy of this program was the provision of opportunities for rural health clinicians (nurses and GPs) to enhance their knowledge and skills in the delivery of chemotherapy and cancer care through clinical placements at metropolitan oncology units. The RCMP enrolled 43 current SA rural clinicians (five GPs and 38 nurses). This evaluation was undertaken at the end of RCMP's initial 18 months. It considered how those involved in the RCMP perceived development and delivery of the RCMP, identifying key aspects of the program that were successful. This report emphasises lessons learnt which may be of relevance more widely in the development of other rural health professional education. ⋯ Knowledge acquisition was a key to the success of the program, and the transfer of experience between rural and urban based clinicians was an important aspect of this. Generalisable recommendations for further improvement of the RCMP include: (1) clearly define and articulate a precise learning objective of the program; (2) involve staff who will directly deliver mentoring in planning of the program; (3) allow time in the planning phase to resolve complex indemnity issues across workplaces; and (4) provide funding for a dedicated trainer (preferably a staff member within the unit) to supervise placements in busy urban oncology clinics.