The manual is for staff who would be working in Aboriginal communities, before attending cross-cultural workshop.

Cyclone Tracy devastated the city of Darwin during the night of December 24, 1974. By morning a city, of some 45,000 people and of 12,000 homes, had ceased to exist. The following is an account of how the health personnel in Darwin, both Government and private, dealt with this unique and overwhelming disaster. The situation can be considered to have been composed of six phases: Phase I, Preparation; II, The Cyclone; III, Casualties; IV, Emergency Centres - Air Evacuation; V, Health Clean Up; and VI, Reconstruction.

No abstract available

Physical, mental and social health depends on the conditions under which people live, where the environment has to be cleanly maintained to avoid spread of diseases. Settled existences have to take care that the houses are not too close, prevent drinking water from pollution, proper sanitation, systematic garbage collection services, to lead to a healthy disease free living.

Queensland Mines Ltd., proposed to mine, concentrate and export uranium from a deposit discovered in 1970 at Nabarlek, Arnhem Land, Northern Territory. Detailed knowledge of mosquitoes, including their occurrence at different times of the year, the species present, the relative numbers, and the actual breeding sites, was needed for the Nabarlek area. The Department of Health was approached by the Environmental Officer of Queensland Mines, after preliminary talks on health matters, and requested the Department to conduct entomological investigations in the area.

Report on a visit to Tennant Creek 27/9/78 by medical entomologist. The previous entomology inspection of Tennant Creek was carried out in September 19760 During this visit there were a number of mosquito breeding sites located, including septic tanks, leaking water meters and fire hydrants, and storm water drains. Potential mosquito breeding was noted in the upper reaches of the proposed recreation lake and the last ponds at the sewage treatment works.

This report is part of a continuing investigation being conducted in the Jabiru area to assess: (1) the potential of mosquitoes to cause pest and disease problems (2) the impact of man's activities upon local mosquito breeding. The previous entomological surveys of June 1977 and May 1978 revealed sufficient numbers of mosquitoes in the area to constitute pest problems and a disease potential at those times. Seasonal variability in the type and availability of mosquito breeding sites necessitates a number of investigations be conducted at different times during the year. This survey considers the mosquito situation in the latter part of the wet season. As developments of the mining site and the nearby regional town proceeds, later surveys will consider the impact of man, as regards the creation of new breeding sites and the alteration of known breeding sites.

The First National Aboriginal Health Workers Conference was organised by the Department of Health, Northern Territory, to enable Aboriginal health workers from all parts of Australia to meet and share ideas about their work, their training programs and those aspects of health which are of importance to Aboriginal people. A secondary function of the conference was to enable other people involved in the training and employment of health workers to attend the discussion sessions, largely as observers, and to exchange ideas on their own particular problems and progress. Concurrent sessions were arranged for this purpose. A total of 140 delegates from all mainland States and the Northern Territory attended the conference which was held over three days from 10 to 12 October.

When anaesthetising an Aboriginal patient, Aboriginal health workers should consider make-up factors, like the presence of special anatomical features, variations from a white person in physiological terms, personal habits and the patient's psychological condition.

Aboriginal people in olden days learned about the food from their forefathers where everybody helped each other to know about the foods and how to use them. However, now the situation has changed and most of the foods are bought from the stores. Health workers need to help the store manager and the people working there to enable the people to learn more about food by way of posters, attractively arranging foods on shelves and providing different sizes of packets or tins of foods.

The advantages of breast feeding and maintaining good health of lactating mothers are highlighted and the problems faced by babies who are deprived of breast-feeding are mentioned. Health workers must impart knowledge about bottle-feeding such as the measurement and preparation of milk mixture, hygiene and sterility to be maintained in case of mothers and guardians who need to bottle feed their babies, and encourage breast-feeding wherever possible.

This is your first Post Basic Health Worker Course Study Book. It has been written to accompany the topics included in Unit 1 through to Unit 2.1 0f the Aboriginal Health Worker Training Programme, Post Basic Health Course, Teacher Guide - First Edition. In this book you will read about what health is and about the common needs that all humans have if they are to stay healthy.

This book covers Unit 2.2 of the Post Basic Health Worker Course. Information in the book tells you about food and how people use it. There are notes about nutrients and how our bodies use them for development, growth and health. We talk about nutrition problems in other parts of the world and in our own Communities, and learn about assessing and improving the local food supply. As a Health Worker you will be able to develop and use educational programmes about food and nutrition to help the people of your own Community understand these things better.

Although leprosy was originally introduced into the Northern Territory in the 1880s, it was not until a decade later that it appeared amongst Aborigines from the Alligator rivers region. It subsequently spread slowly at the periphery involving tribe after Aboriginal tribe until, by 1970, more than 80 different ·groups were affected. Initially there was a high proportion of infectious cases (those with a poor cell-mediated immunity); later the relative proportion dropped. At the same time the incidence of new, active cases and the prevalence of active leprosy both declined in the Northern half of the Northern Territory. In the Southern Division the situation was different since leprosy only arrived there in comparatively recent times: there have been relatively few new diagnoses, but the proportion of lepromatous cases has been high, and the incidence, measured over two decades (1951-1970) has risen very slowly. The overall picture of leprosy amongst Aborigines in the Northern Territory now is therefore one in which the incidence and the prevalence of active leprosy have both declined in the north while it continues to spread very slowly at the periphery.

Preparation of the Teacher's Guide has been largely the work of the Environmental Health Worker Training Task Force which operated from December 1978 to June 1979. The approach adopted in this Guide is similar to that taken in the Postbasic Health Course, Aboriginal Health Worker Training Programme.

The admission of patients to the Casuarina Hospital is expected early in 1980. The actual date is dependent upon the successful completion on time of the construction not only of the Casuarina Hospital but also of the Central Laboratories Facility. Darwin Hospital and Casuarina Hospital are to be managed under one hospital administration and to be known as the Darwin Hospitals' Group.

In our developed urban societies beneficial modification of the environment by provision of ample safe water supplies, domestic and municipal sanitation and the application of building and accommodation standards is taken for granted. The poor health standards of Australian Aborigines are now widely publicised but the extent to which basic facilities are involved is less appreciated. This survey examined Aboriginal communities in the Northern Territory, a number of which are equal in size to many typical rural towns which are provided with full municipal services. The population surveyed represents approximately 40% of the Aboriginal population of the Northern Territory or approximately 10% of the total Territory population. The Department of Health's experience and observations are that the survey findings are representative for the entire Aboriginal population in the Northern Territory.

The two most common and troublesome filth flies in the Darwin area are CHRYSOMYIA, MEGACEPHALA, the green blow fly, and MUSCA DOMESTICA, the common housefly. These species, although not particularly numerous in the Darwin area when compared to other regions of Australia, do sometimes become more abundant than normal and result in public complaints.

This short Study Book about Medical Tests and their uses is Unit 5 of the Post Basic Aboriginal Health Worker Training Programme. It has been written to help with background information about the common tests made in medical diagnosis.