Picture Opportunity
24 June 2008
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CLOSE THE GAP EVENT
VICTORIAN ABORIGINAL HEALTH SERVICE OPEN DAY
WEDNESDAY 25 JUNE 2008
186 Nicholson Street, Fitzroy
10 – 11am
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North Melbourne Kangaroo Eddie Sansbury will join Aboriginal health workers, elders and children to help
launch an open day at the Victorian Aboriginal Health Service tomorrow, Wednesday, 25 June at 10am.
The Close the Gap Open Day will showcase 35 years’ work of Victoria’s oldest and largest Aboriginal health
service, promote healthy living and give the wider community a chance to learn about Aboriginal health
issues.
Aboriginal health workers will be available to answer questions, and a series of talks will include community
elder Aunty Alma Thorpe delivering an oral history of the service, which began in Gertrude Street in 1973.
Information on healthy living also will be available.
A film and photo exhibition will also be part of the event, which is organised by VAHS and Oxfam Australia.
VAHS CEO Rod Jackson said the Fitzroy service’s approach to health was holistic, with programs including
financial wellbeing, ‘Active Elders’, diabetes clubs, family counselling, dental, women’s and children’s, adult
mental health, a carer group and alcohol and drug support.
The service has 15,000 dental patients and 18,000 medical patients from throughout Victoria on its books,
and receives around 300 telephone calls every day.
“VAHS has excellent immunisation rates, and reports consistently show an average of 91 per cent of
children are fully immunised,” Mr Jackson said. “This compares with 85.4 per cent of children across inner
Melbourne and rates of less than 50 per cent for Aboriginal children across Victoria.
“It is ‘Close the Gap’ in action,” he said, referring to the campaign aiming to close the 17-year life
expectancy gap between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Australians. “We are an organisation that is working
every day to Close the Gap on Aboriginal health and life expectancy, and we do it on a small budget.”
More than 115 000 Australians have signed the Close the Gap pledge, calling on governments to increase
annual Aboriginal primary health funding, ensure equal access to health services and Aboriginal
participation in their delivery, and take action on social determinants such as housing and education that are
leading contributors to the poor health of Aboriginal people.
The Close the Gap Open Day will run from 10am – 2pm.
Media enquiries to Laurelle Keough at Oxfam on 03 9289 9336 / 0409 960 100,
lkeough@oxfam.org.au
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