The Medical journal of Australia
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Respect, tolerance and trust in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are needed from government to improve the health and wellbeing of Indigenous Australians.
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Australia's efforts to prevent, diagnose and treat cancer are not as successful for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people as they are for other Australians. There is a need for a nationally coordinated, collaborative, priority-driven research effort to better understand what works, and we need to implement that knowledge. All aspects of the process must involve genuine Indigenous leadership and participation.
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In the next Australian Health Survey, Indigenous people under 18 years of age will be excluded from direct clinical measurements and laboratory tests. Indigenous people of all ages were to be excluded from the opportunity, offered to other Australians, to donate blood and urine samples to a national repository. This component has now been abandoned for the whole cohort. This sets perilous precedents of exclusion from opportunities available to all other Australians, and deprives the medical community of information that could inform strategies to improve health profiles and outcomes in this seriously disadvantaged group.
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To explore attitudes to pregnancy and parenthood among a group of Indigenous young people in Townsville, Australia. ⋯ Accurate parenting information may be necessary to address unrealistic views about parenting among Indigenous young people. Young Indigenous parents often come from extremely disadvantaged backgrounds, and becoming a parent may be the impetus for positive change.