Carnarvon Environmental Health
The Carnarvon clinic will pilot a project in the Gascoyne area for the provision of an effective environmental health service to Aboriginal people living in the Burringurrah, Gascoyne Junction and Mungullah Communities and a limited Environmental Health Service to the Carnarvon Town site community, this town site service will be limited to, Gardening equipment use, Environmental Health Promotion, Advise and Referrals. We will facilitate and support the delivery of a pilot environmental health program in the Gascoyne regional communities.
Minor Plumbing Repairs/Maintenance will only be provided to the Remote Aboriginal Communities, this service is provided under a SPECIAL PERMIT, issued by and under the, PLUMBERS LICENSING & PLUMBING STANDARDS REGULATIONS act 2000.
Under the direction of the Aboriginal Environmental Health Directorate, Basic Pest Control Management is only provided to Remote Aboriginal Communities.
Funding from the Environmental Health Directorate will employ an Aboriginal Environmental Health Coordinator (AEHC) who will focus on the links between overcrowding and preventable infectious diseases such as scabies, gastro-intestinal infections, trachoma, and life-threatening diseases such as pneumonia, rheumatic heart disease and renal failure which are well established in aboriginal communities.
The AEHC will include this service to provide assistance to other local and regional environmental health practitioners. The environmental health practitioners are required to undertake a wide range of activities including but not limited to home hardware assessments and advocating for additional resources for public health needs and ensuring the home environment supports healthy living practices. This includes, advising community members of the importance of Personal Hygiene, regular washing of personal clothes and bedding, reducing overcrowding and reducing injury risks in the home and referrals to other service agencies.
The support for the targeted communities is very limited in scope and characterized by being a periodic visiting service that does not adequately meet the environmental health needs of these communities. Although the current funding grant does not have the capacity to meet the broad existing needs of the targeted communities; GRAMS GOS will advocate to improve the environmental health program service delivery.
In order to achieve an improvement in personal injury and community environmental health conditions as well as improvements in public health outcomes, a comprehensive and integrated service needs to be implemented by a provider that understands the links between personal and community health outcomes and one that is well connected to the targeted communities. As the local regional community controlled aboriginal medical service, GRAMS GOS is such a provider.
The intended outcomes of the Grant are to pilot a locally based service, that is integrated with the organization’s existing primary health care and health promotion services to deliver improved environmental health outcomes in the Gascoyne based communities, including:
Development of an Environmental Health Plan for GRAMS GOS and the targeted communities
Implementation of an Environmental Health Program for GRAMS GOS and communities
Development and support of a regionally-based Environmental Health Coordinator, with 1 x FTE trainee, as needed, to augment the service
Provide the equipment and storage facilities required to facilitate a locally based environmental health workforce
Develop a program model and evaluate the health outcomes of the people living in the targeted communities.
GRAMS GOS is well placed to provide this service, the existing working relationships with local and regional agencies and the communities themselves. The delivery of our environmental health service in the targeted communities, also provides the opportunity to uniquely measure the efficiency of a referral system and the overall effectiveness of the pilot program in the targeted communities.