At helm: ERH Aboriginal Health liaison team members Gilbert Wanganeen, Sonya Parsons and John Mitchell.
Photo by
Sarah Crossman
Echuca Regional Health has welcomed two new faces to its Aboriginal Health liaison team.
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Emotional wellbeing worker Gilbert Wanganeen and Aboriginal Health liaison officer John Mitchell have now joined Sonya Parsons in making sure that culturally appropriate care is available for everyone in the community.
Ms Parsons said it was important to make sure that all people within the community had someone that they felt they could talk to.
“When the guys came in, they would talk to me, but it wasn’t the same. I felt like I was encroaching culture wise,” she said.
The introduction of the male AHL positions came through as a need and recommendation in ERH’s recent co-design work with the community. It has been many years of planning and advocating.
Mr Wanganeen and Mr Mitchell understand the “generational mistreatment” that First Nations people experienced nationwide, for example, the experience of the “segregation policy”.
“A lot of our mob are traumatised from past wrongdoings … all my siblings were born out on the verandah here at the hospital,” Mr Mitchell said.
“They (my siblings) say I’m the golden child that was born in a ward. So that’s not that long ago. That was the policy of the hospital.”
Mr Mitchell said the team had no interest in sweeping the harder parts of history away but rather making sure that people learn from them.
As part of the Aboriginal Health liaison team both Mr Mitchell and Mr Wanganeen will be there to talk to people about how they’re feeling, what they need as well as running men’s workshops.
Mr Wanganeen said he wanted to be part of this work because of the things he had had to deal with throughout his own life.
“I deal around trauma and grief, supporting people in dealing with anger and things like that,” he said.
“I suppose for myself, I like to impart my own journey. My own travels around how I coped with being angry or why I was angry.
“We’re going to be here as that safety net for everyone. If they feel comfortable talking and yarning, well I think that’s what we’re going to be all about in a therapeutic way.”
There has been real work done by the health service and the board to make sure that people are aware of why these changes need to be implemented, according to Mr Mitchell.
“All of the board have been on Country and done cultural history … they know the things that have happened through ERH in past years,” he said.
“They know the importance of acknowledging that trauma and past atrocities and making amends and this is the way that we do that by working collaboratively with us and with community.
“Community has always got to be a part of this because they’re the ones that have been affected and they’re the ones that are still carrying that trauma.”
Teaming up: ERH Aboriginal liaison team members John Mitchell, Sonya Parsons and Gilbert Wanganeen.
Photo by
Sarah Crossman
Ms Parsons said she is grateful that ERH has worked so hard to make sure that the health service is a safe place for First Nations Australians.
“Since I started here, our CEO, the board and the exec team have been behind me 200 per cent. They have acknowledged me as a cultural specialist and have taken under advisement the things I’m saying we need to do for communities to feel safe to be here,” she said.
“We want our children to be able to say I want to work in that hospital and become nurses, become whatever they want to become.”
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