В Западном НСВ запускают проект по преодолению страха онкологии в аборигенных общинах

You can survive a cancer diagnosis. Subscribe now for unlimited access. or signup to continue reading That's the message Rod Hammond and Daymon Bell want Aboriginal communities to understand. Mr Hammond, the Western NSW Local Health District acting director of cancer services, recently undertook a project called Yarning for Change. As part of it, he interviewed six Aboriginal men across the district who had undergone radiation treatment to get a better understanding of their experiences and find out how to reduce the barriers to accessing healthcare. "We found that Aboriginal men and women were both underrepresented in our cancer services... There's a lot of fear around cancer in Aboriginal communities - they see it as a death sentence and don't really want to go to hospital because they think that's where you go to die. We're trying to change that message," he said. In NSW, Aboriginal people are 1.5 times more likely to be diagnosed with cancer than non-Aboriginal people. They're also two times more likely to die, according to the Cancer Institute NSW. Even at the five-year survival rate there are disparities. For Aboriginal patients, the five-year all-cause survival rate is 56 per cent, compared to the general NSW average of 73 per cent. Part of Mr Hammond's plan to change the message about cancer as a death sentence is to recruit more Aboriginal health workers. There's currently one Aboriginal cancer care coordinator in Dubbo but Mr Hammond wants to see Aboriginal cancer navigators across the district. He's already applied for funding to make it possible. Mr Bell is an Aboriginal population health trainee and a registered Aboriginal health practitioner. When someone came into Orange Health Service needing cancer treatment he would help the patient from the moment of diagnosis until they've completed their treatment. "History's taught us that Aboriginal people have a lot of reluctance to engage with health for many reasons. To me, it's because they've had bad experiences. Having an Aboriginal health practitioner like myself, who's lived in a similar stance as what they've lived - so Aboriginal family upbringing - they can relate to you, and they trust you because you've lived a similar life to them. They trust you wearing the uniform," Mr Bell said. Mr Bell said the Aboriginal health practitioner can be the navigator, translator and personal support system who is able to hold the patient's hand throughout their journey. While the need for more Aboriginal faces was one of the issues that came up during the project, another was the need for more information. Mr Hammond realised there was a lack of understanding from both members of the community and health staff about what health services were available in the region, such as knowing Dubbo had a PET scanner. Overall, Mr Hammond said being non-Indigenous, the project highlighted how hard it could be for some people to access cancer care. Once Mr Hammond gathered the information for the Yarning for Change project, he also made sure to go back to those men and show them how their information was being used to improve healthcare.