27 March 2024

Acknowledging Country and Connection 

We acknowledge that this land on which we meet, work, live, and play is the traditional lands of the Kaurna people. We respect their spiritual relationship with this country. 

We pay our respects to their leaders, past, present and emerging and acknowledge that their language, cultural and traditional beliefs held for over 60,000 years are still as important and relevant to the living Kaurna and all Aboriginal people today. 

Vale Dr Lowitja O’Donoghue 

Central Adelaide Local Health Network Board, management and staff wish to express their deep sorrow at the passing of Dr Lowitja O’Donoghue AC CBE DSG in February. 

Dr O’Donoghue was a pre-eminent and persistent force in improving the lives of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and has left a legacy as South Australia’s first Aboriginal nurse. 

Central Adelaide Local Health Network Board, management and staff wish to express their deep sorrow at the passing of Dr Lowitja O’Donoghue AC CBE DSG in February. 

Dr O’Donoghue was a pre-eminent and persistent force in improving the lives of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and has left a legacy as South Australia’s first Aboriginal nurse. 

Healing together: SA Pharmacy launches new Reconciliation Action Plan

SA Pharmacy takes another step forward in its commitment to improving Aboriginal health and wellbeing with the launch of its new Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP). 

The RAP builds upon the SA Pharmacy Aboriginal Health Strategic Plan 2023 -2027+, emphasising collaboration and learning from Aboriginal people. 

The RAP outlines concrete actions guided by cultural solid, strategic, and clinical governance. SA Pharmacy promises transparency in its progress and outcomes and actively seeks feedback from the communities it serves. 

"Aboriginal health and wellbeing is more than just physical health," says Cheyne Sullivan, SA Pharmacy Aboriginal Health Lead. 

“It embodies cultural, social, emotional and spiritual needs of the family and community.”  

She says SA Pharmacy recognises reconciliation's crucial role in achieving positive health outcomes for Aboriginal people and communities. 

“More than a document, the RAP charts a course for us to work alongside Aboriginal people, where understanding, listening and unity prevail.  

“When we work, share and learn, we can create real and lasting change.” 

The RAP’s development involved extensive dialogue and a shared vision with the SA Pharmacy Aboriginal Health/RAP Working Group. 

The plan's release coincided with the 16th anniversary of the National Apology, a formal apology to Stolen Generations members by the Australian Parliament to acknowledge the harm inflicted upon them and their descendants. It serves as a reminder of the ongoing impacts and intergenerational trauma experienced by the Stolen Generations, their families, and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. 

The SA Pharmacy RAP represents a vital step towards reconciliation, acknowledging past injustices while paving the way for a future where Aboriginal health and wellbeing truly thrive. 

About SA Pharmacy:

SA Pharmacy provides clinically led, cost-efficient, professional pharmacy services to 21 of South Australia’s public metropolitan and regional hospitals, which have on-site pharmacy departments and associated outreach sites. 

It delivers pharmacy services for patients admitted to the hospital, discharged from the hospital or attending an outpatient appointment. It is a Statewide Clinical Support Service part of the Central Adelaide Local Health Network (CALHN). 

Could you be our next Consumer Representative or Advocate?

Acute and Urgent Care Services are looking for consumers, carers, and community members with lived experience in the South Australian healthcare system to join us as consumer representatives and advocates. 

Consumer Representatives and Advocates provide a non-clinical perspective of patients' and families' needs and experiences to help shape healthcare at CALHN. 

If you'd like to get involved, contact us at Central Adelaide Local Health Network - Consumer Partnering Acute & Urgent Care (office.com).

There are always lots of opportunities to become involved in consumer partnering at CALHN, visit our website for further information Central Adelaide Local Health Network.

Closing the Gap Medicines Access Program 

SA Pharmacy has introduced the Closing the Gap (CTG) Medicines Access Program, offering support to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander individuals in South Australian public hospitals. This program is a significant step towards making essential medicines more accessible and affordable, particularly during transitions like hospital discharge or outpatient clinic visits. 

Eligibility criteria  

To be a part of the SA Health CTG Medicines Access Program, individuals need to meet one of the following criteria: 

1. Identify as an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander person. 

2. Access medicines through the Remote Area Aboriginal Health Services (RAAHS) Program. 

It is essential to highlight that to qualify for the program, all prescribed medicines and associated devices must be obtained through a hospital prescription. 

Program benefits and accessible medicines

Eligible Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander individuals can access a range of benefits under the program at SA public hospital pharmacies: 

• Free Access: Individuals holding a Centrelink or Department of Veteran Affairs concession card or utilising the RAAHS program can access all prescribed medicines free of charge. 
• Concessional Rate: Medicines are available at a concessional rate for those without a Centrelink or Department of Veteran Affairs concession card, making them more affordable. 

Additional support for eligible individuals

For all eligible Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people there is also no charge for:

• medication packing on discharge (if medication packing cannot be facilitated through a community pharmacy) 
• medicine postage 
• medicine devices (spacers, tablet cutters). 
• A person is eligible for the SA Health CTG Medicines Access Program if they 
• Identify as an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander person, or 
• If they access their medicines through the Remote Area Aboriginal Health Services (RAAHS) Program.

Please note that all medicines and medicine devices need to be prescribed on a hospital prescription.

For more information, please call SA Pharmacy (08) 8226 7114

The 2023 CALHN Reconciliation Cup

The recent CALHN Reconciliation Cup spurred healthy workplace competition among staff and partner organisations, including Celsus, Spotless, and ISS. 

Despite what the title suggests, The Cup was not centred on sport. Still, it aimed to advance CALHN's vision of reconciliation between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people, focusing on relationships, respect, opportunities, and governance. 

The 33 participating teams engaged in reconciliation-themed activities, judged based on criteria like understanding of reconciliation, team unity, impact, creativity, sustainability, innovation, and alignment with CALHN's RAP pillars. 

Team Kuma from SA Dental emerged as the 2023 winners, distinguished by hosting educational activities and placing resources in common areas during National Reconciliation Week.

Click here to learn more about CALHN’s second Innovate Reconciliation Action Plan 2023 -2025 

Meet Dr Janine Mohamed, Board member and proud Narungga Kaurna woman.

Adjunct Professor Janine Mohamed is a proud Narungga Kaurna woman and former CEO of Lowitja Institute. She grew up at the Point Pearce Mission on the Yorke Peninsula and is now proudly working in Melbourne/Naarm on the lands of the Wurrundjeri people of the Kulin nation. Janine’s complete bio can be accessed here.  

To celebrate our first newsletter for 2024, we sat down with CALHN Board Member Dr Janine Mohamed for an in-depth interview. Here is part one of the three-part series.  

Janine, congratulations on being named Victorian Australian of the Year for 2024—what an incredible honour. Thanks for making the time to chat with us today so that we can learn a little bit more about you and your work to date.  

You've had an incredible journey, from studying nursing at the University of South Australia to becoming the CEO of the Lowitja Institute. Can you share some pivotal moments that shaped your leadership path? 

I’m proud and lucky to say there have been many, but I’ll just highlight a few:

• Being introduced, while I was nursing, to the concept of cultural safety that was developed in the 1980s by Maori nurse Irihapeti Ramsden and later to Critical Race Theory, which helped me to unpack the deficit discourse about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, where we are seen as ‘the problem’ versus the systems that have caused us harm. 
• A chance encounter as a trainee nurse with the extraordinary Dr Lowitja O’Donoghue led to me having coffee with her every week in West Lakes for two months. She imparted her wisdom and took a genuine interest in my future. 

You've humorously referred to yourself as an "accidental CEO". What unexpected challenges or rewards have you encountered in your leadership roles, and how have they shaped your perspective on leadership? 

I hadn’t planned to take on senior management roles, but I stepped up, at the invitation of Elders whom I deeply respected, to be CEO of the Congress of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Nurses and Midwives (CATSINaM) and, most recently, CEO of the Lowitja Institute. 

Perhaps it’s just that old ‘imposter syndrome’, where I felt I didn’t have all the needed skills and had to push myself to do aspects of the role that did not come naturally or easily to me, like public speaking and talking to the media. But I have given everything I’ve got, no matter how unnatural it felt; I’ve learnt from my mistakes and grown in those areas. 

I think I’ve also brought fresh approaches to being a CEO, not to let the Western framework define me. I’m my authentic self, and I am vulnerable with my staff — we share our lives and the vision for the organisation, and I think that’s a bit different to many CEOs. And, of course, I have embedded cultural safety into my recruiting practices. I feel pride and pleasure from positively impacting people’s lives. I follow the motto ‘people won’t remember what you say, they’ll remember how they felt’. 

My guiding force is to highlight and support Blak excellence and to amplify the voices, needs, wants and desires of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. And racism and injustice are rocket fuel to me! 

The rewards are being part of something bigger than yourself, walking in the footsteps of those who have come before you, and knowing there will be unfinished business for others to take on.  

At the heart of my leadership approach is the understanding that I’m human and not perfect. Therefore, I allow myself to make mistakes, learn from them, and, most importantly, laugh at myself. 

That was too perfectly illustrated when, during a lockdown, my husband Justin was doing a virtual interview on live national TV. I had to go into the next room, so I crawled carefully behind him, like a stealthy cat, I thought! Unfortunately, the camera caught me in full glory — not how I wanted to debut on The Drum! 

As an Adjunct Professor and Alumni of the Year at the University of South Australia, how do you see education's role in empowering Indigenous individuals in the health sector? 

Again, I’d like to turn that question around to point to the critical role that the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health sector has played in educating the education sector, shining a light on how it has built the narrative of ‘the sick Aboriginal person’ versus the system that causes harm, shining on light on its blind spots, where it has been devoid of any strengths-based Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander content, including the role of Dr Lowijta O’Donoghue in nursing. 

Of course, education has opened doors for me, and its importance was instilled in me as a child. I was the first person in my extended family to complete Year 12, much less go to university, and a fantastic outcome is that all five of my children will have completed their degrees. I made the most of the opportunities that were afforded to me. Still, there were plenty of barriers along the way and plenty of times, I wanted to give up. 

But most importantly for me, education has not yet solved racism. Unlike non-Indigenous colleagues, I will still often be racially profiled in many places. What’s different and empowering now is that Critical Race Theory has taught me why it happens. 

Read more in our next newsletter.

*Photo courtesy Salty Dingo 2023

Close the Gap Day 

On 21 March, the CALHN team attended the Close the Gap Day event at the Adelaide Showgrounds to celebrate First Nations’ cultures and provide information and education on healthcare services. Thanks to everyone who stopped past and had a yarn with the team. 

Community Feedback

Patients are encouraged to let us know when they have had a positive experience with our services, or if the care they have received did not meet their expectations. 

This feedback can be provided by contacting the Consumer Experience Team (CET) on (08) 7074 1377 or via email HealthCALHNConsumerExperience@sa.gov.au.
 
For more information visit the website www.centraladelaide.health.sa.gov.au.