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Remote Australia (remote + australia)
Selected AbstractsCOMMERCIAL DEVELOPMENT AND NATURAL RESOURCE MANAGEMENT ON THE INDIGENOUS ESTATE: A PROFIT-RELATED INVESTMENT PROPOSALECONOMIC PAPERS: A JOURNAL OF APPLIED ECONOMICS AND POLICY, Issue 3 2005Jon Altman This article assesses the state of commercial development and resource management on Indigenous land in remote Australia. Indigenous landowners control significant assets,over one million square kilometres of land,often with substantial resource rights and income earning potential. The inactivity and missed opportunities on the Indigenous estate are of such magnitude as to represent a major risk both for Indigenous landowning communities, in terms of their future economic and social well-being, and for national and international interests in terms of ecological vulnerability. The article explores the role of government as risk manager in such circumstances and outlines the principles that might underpin any intervention program targeted to the commercial development of Indigenous land. Using the analytical framework for profit-related loans and elements of an existing venture capital support programme, the Innovation Investment Fund Program, we outline the hypothetical skeleton of a new investment scheme to assist development and natural resource management on the Indigenous estate. Our proposal can be conceptualised as a profit-related loan scheme or as a form of capped public investment. It seeks to address key elements of the market failure that exists in relation to financing development on remote Indigenous land, provides incentives for greater private sector investment, and ensures that commercial and social risks are shared equitably between government, private sector investors and Indigenous-owned corporations to avoid problems of adverse selection and moral hazard. [source] Harm minimization strategies: opinions of health professionals in rural and remote AustraliaJOURNAL OF CLINICAL PHARMACY & THERAPEUTICS, Issue 5 2007G. M. Peterson BPharm (Hons) PhD MBA Summary Background and objective: There is some evidence that the problem of illicit drug use (IDU) is increasing in rural areas of Australia. Lack of access to harm minimization (HM) strategies is potentially exacerbated by a shortage of health care facilities and health care professionals in rural areas. This study was conducted to determine barriers to implementation, access to, and success of HM strategies, as seen by health professionals presently working in rural Australia. Methods: Four hundred rural pharmacists Australia-wide and 425 doctors in rural Victoria and Tasmania were sent postal surveys to assess their opinions on the level of IDU in their area, the types of drugs commonly used, the adequacy of HM strategies and facilities, and the barriers faced by doctors, pharmacists and clients. Results: The overall response rate was almost 50%. Slightly less than half of surveyed health professionals felt that IDU was increasing in their area, with heroin perceived to be the most prevalent drug used in all States except Tasmania and the Northern Territory. Both methadone prescribers and dispensers believed the methadone maintenance programmes were highly valuable to the community, but not without problems (e.g. risk of overdose). A lack of time or staff was the greatest influence on doctors not participating in the methadone programmes, whereas safety concerns were prominent with pharmacists. The majority of doctors felt HM facilities were inadequate, with needle-syringe exchange being the most frequently nominated HM strategy lacking. Conclusion: Despite best intentions, there are still problems with HM strategies in these areas. Improving the number and expertise of health professionals in rural areas, and providing adequate support for them, would address some of these problems. [source] Protocols, particularities, and problematising Indigenous ,engagement' in community-based environmental management in settled AustraliaTHE GEOGRAPHICAL JOURNAL, Issue 3 2010JENNIFER CARTER Many Aboriginal Australians in regional and urban Australia hold attachments to their homelands that have been compromised by policies of removal and dispossession. Government agencies and community groups have ,protocols' for engaging with Aboriginal communities, but these protocols have been transferred from remote parts of Australia where land tenure and rights are relatively secure and people can readily claim their community of belonging. The efficacy and applicability of engagement protocols are rarely evaluated, and have not been evaluated with respect to the differing tenure regimes of settled Australia under which rights to land and its resources remain contested and unfolding. This paper describes research conducted in three study areas of regional Australia, where resource management practitioners apply projects according to engagement protocols transferred from remote Australia. Analysis of government and community-based documents, and interviews with agency staff and Aboriginal people, identifies that genuine participation, cultural awareness, agreement-making, appropriate representation and the unique place-based factors affecting engagement remain key barriers to effective engagement with Aboriginal people by institutions in urbanising Australia. In particular, appropriate representation and a need for place-based approaches emerge as critical to engagement in settled Australia. This paper recommends that engagement be considered as a multi-layered approach in which generic ,engagement' threads are selected and re-selected in different combinations to suit contexts, places and purposes. Thus each place-based engagement initiative is not readily typified at the local scale, but taken together, make up a regional mosaic of different engagement structures and processes. [source] Antenatal screening for sexually transmitted infections in remote AustraliaAUSTRALIAN AND NEW ZEALAND JOURNAL OF OBSTETRICS AND GYNAECOLOGY, Issue 6 2003Donna B. Mak Abstract Background:, Antenatal screening for, and prompt management of, sexually transmitted infections (STI) can prevent adverse maternal, fetal and perinatal outcomes. This is particularly important in areas of high STI endemicity. Aims:, To assess adherence with antenatal STI screening guidelines in a large remote region, and whether completeness of antenatal syphilis screening improved after the onset of a regional syphilis outbreak in April 2001. Methods:, Data from the regional antenatal syphilis screening database from 1997 to 2002 were analysed to identify time trends in the completeness of antenatal syphilis screening. Adherence to antenatal screening guidelines was assessed by examining pathology request forms of women undergoing antenatal syphilis screening to determine whether screening for gonorrhoea, chlamydia, hepatitis B and HIV had also been carried out. Logistic regression was used to analyse associations between adherence to the guidelines and patient's age and race, and health service characteristics. Results:, Adherence to syphilis screening guidelines improved from 44.6% in 1997 to 68.9% in 2001 and 81.4% in 2002. After controlling for the time interval between the first antenatal syphilis test and date of delivery, being younger and Aboriginal, and delivering after the syphilis outbreak had been identified were positively associated with adherence to syphilis screening guidelines. Proportions of antenates screened for gonorrhoea/chlamydia, hepatitis B and HIV at booking and for gonorrhoea/chlamydia in the third trimester were 69%, 91%, 68% and 77%, respectively. Aboriginal women were more likely to have been screened for gonorrhoea and chlamydia. Women seen by a doctor were more likely to have undergone HIV screening than those who saw a nurse. Conclusions:, Significant improvement in adherence to antenatal syphilis screening guidelines occurred after identification of a syphilis outbreak. This achievement is reason for optimism regarding the potential to achieve more complete antenatal screening of other STI. [source] Medical students out of town but not out of touch: Use of personal digital assistants to improve access to clinical information and enhance learning at the point of care in rural and remote AustraliaAUSTRALIAN JOURNAL OF RURAL HEALTH, Issue 2 2010Kaye Lasserre No abstract is available for this article. [source] Meeting rehabilitation service needs in rural and remote Australia: A focus group workshop with rehabilitation service health care providersAUSTRALIAN JOURNAL OF RURAL HEALTH, Issue 2 2009Susan K. Graham No abstract is available for this article. [source] Health status differentials across rural and remote AustraliaAUSTRALIAN JOURNAL OF RURAL HEALTH, Issue 1 2009Andrew Phillips Abstract This paper describes mortality and disease patterns across five broad remoteness categories of Australia, with reference to the context in which those outcomes develop and are treated. Health and its outcomes become worse as remoteness increases. Some of this phenomenon reflects proportionally greater numbers of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in remote areas coupled with their poorer overall health outcomes; however, mortality for non-indigenous people is clearly higher outside compared with inside major cities. Migration of people seeking services likely reduces the size of interregional health disparity. Poorer health outcomes stem from worse risk factor profiles and average lower levels of income and of education, poorer physical and financial access to services, higher occupational and environmental risk, as well as factors unique to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health. Little is known about the health benefits of living outside major cities. Diseases of the circulatory system and injuries account, respectively, for 40% and 18% of the excess mortality outside major cities. Death rates are declining over time in all (particularly remote) areas, but rates of death due to certain lung diseases in rural women are not, and rates of suicide have increased in remote areas. Ostensibly, prevalence of mental ill-health appears roughly similar in all remoteness areas. Dental health is poorer and disability is more prevalent outside major cities, as are a range of infectious diseases. Although pertinent, the effects on rural health of climate change and resource degradation generally have not been addressed in this paper. [source] | |||||||||||||