GPTQ Annual Report 2019

For our communities

We educate, inspire and prepare GPs to deliver quality primary care.

Exploring connections between spirituality and traditional medicine

Dr Danielle Arabena

When Dr Danielle Arabena joined GPTQ as a Medical Educator in 2014 to help develop new training initiatives in the area of Indigenous Health she had already been on her own journey to understanding the impact her Indigenous heritage has on how she practises medicine.

Danielle — a descendant of the Meriam people of the Torres Strait — remembers feeling conflicted as medical student and then as a junior doctor because her instincts as a ‘spiritual healer’ didn’t seem to fit within the scientific parameters of the medicine she was being taught to practise.

“I felt I had to hide my magic, hide the traditional healer in me, because very little in my medical training touched on what Indigenous Health meant,” she says.

“I struggled with this because it really felt like I was operating with only one arm.” A watershed moment arrived while Danielle was a first year medical student in Alice Springs.

She attended an Australian Indigenous Doctors Association conference where she saw two Ngangkari Healers on stage sharing their knowledge.

“It was a defining moment in my mind,” she recalls.

“I saw that the teachings we can get from our Ngangkari and Elders are just as important as science-based medicine. They can operate alongside one another.”

Flash forward to 2019 and in the space of six years with GPTQ Danielle has helped to establish a network of education and training initiatives that offer Registrars, Supervisors, practice staff, and even members of the broader community, greater understanding of Indigenous culture and traditional healing. She describes her journey with GPTQ as both affirming and exciting.

“We [she and her team] have been given plenty of creative freedom to explore the connection between spirituality and traditional medicine,” she says.

“The initiatives we have been able to develop support the delivery of holistic care.”

GPTQ CEO Kathie Sadler agrees.

“We are finding that other Registered Training Organisations want to utilise our initiatives in this space which is wonderful. It demonstrates their value,” she says.

“GPTQ is committed to learning from and supporting the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities we work with and serve.”

“I am passionate about building this side of a Registrar’s education because it can unlock for them an understanding that they can impact the health outcomes of not just the patient sitting in front of them, but the patient’s whole family.”

Dr Danielle Arabena

Indigenous Health education and training initiatives

Cultural Immersion Program

Established in 2016 GPTQ hosts two weekend-long cultural immersion programs for Registrars each year. Registrars spend a weekend at either Stradbroke Island or Cherbourg/Bunya Mountains learning from Dr Danielle Arabena, Aboriginal Elders, community members and cultural educators. Dr Arabena and her team have worked hard to establish strong relationships with local Elders and community members to devise a weekend program that allows participants to be truly immersed. Resounding feedback from Registrars is that they leave the weekend “changed”.

Cultural Mentors

The GPTQ Cultural Mentors Program began in 2019. GPTQ now has three Cultural Mentors — Charlie Rowe, Jodie Bond and Trent Adams — who provide cultural guidance and education for Registrars working with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander patients in both AMS and non-AMS settings.”

Indigenous Health MeDTalk

Indigenous Health MedTalk covers topics related to Indigenous women’s and men’s health, family health and wellness, mental health, sexual health and community. A podcast is hosted by Dr Danielle Arabena as she speaks to innovators, trailblazers and community leaders in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health and medicine, while a Youtube channel explores the knowledge and expertise of various members of local Indigenous communities.

Indigenous Health In-Practice Guide

Launched in 2019, the Indigenous Health In-Practice Guide was created as a resource for Registrars, Practice Managers, Supervisors and Medical Educators. The Guide highlights the importance of holistic health, healing, spirituality and connection to country for Indigenous patients. It also emphasises the value of cultural sensitivity in being able to forge connections with Indigenous patients to achieve stronger health outcomes. The Guide has now been purchased by a number of other Registered Training Organisations and in 2020 volume 2 and 3 of the Guide will be released, covering birth, men’s and women’s health, intergenerational trauma impacts and issues pertinent to death and dying.

Practice Managers’ Workshop

The GPTQ Indigenous Health Team hosts an annual Practice Managers’ Workshop on Stradbroke Island. This full day workshop enables Practice Managers from throughout the GPTQ catchment area to establish connections with local Elders and communities and learn strategies for engaging and supporting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander patients in their practices.