In 2016, Assistant Minister for Health and Aged Care, Ken Wyatt AM, MP announced the funding of seven organisations through to June 2018 under the Australian Government’s Tackling Indigenous Smoking program. This funding has now ceased.
The seven innovation projects were funded to deliver intensive smoking prevention and cessation activities, coupled with research and evaluation, to address the most difficult and critical smoking behaviours within Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities.
A number of the Innovation Grants are still active, with data collection ongoing. It is anticipated that once all projects are complete, learning from the studies will be made available to NBPU TIS, and we will be able to share these with you.
This project will establish a gathering place for men, a Male Health Shed, where Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art, social and cultural activities can be practiced. It will promote smoking cessation and preventative health, targeting the communities of Yalata and Coober Pedy. The program will utilise the shed to provide Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander males with a holistic tobacco cessation program that is tailored to their individual needs.
Contact Aboriginal Health Council of South Australia
This project focuses on the creation of a smoke-free story in the community of Inala, adopting a holistic approach to smoking cessation and prevention of uptake during pregnancy for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young people. The project will reduce barriers to smoking cessation by using a culturally-based, whole of person approach to improve participants mental, physical, social and cultural health.
Contact Metro South Hospital and Health Service
This project aims to support households in three Top End (East, Central and West Arnhem Land) communities to establish or extend smoke-free spaces in the home. Households will be invited to participate in the program and receive ongoing support from ARDS and local project workers to take up strategies that ensure their homes, or parts of their homes, are smoke-free.
Contact Aboriginal Resource and Development Services Aboriginal Corporation
This project will undertake a randomised controlled study of the health intervention SNAP in Northern Territory (NT) prisons (where smoking is banned), to prevent a smoking relapse upon release from prison. The research will assess the feasibility of delivering SNAP in NT prisons; determine if the SNAP program can significantly reduce smoking relapse in the treated group; determine if the SNAP program can significantly reduce lifestyle risk factors; conduct a cost benefit analysis to determine if SNAP is cost effective in reducing risk factors; and establish a cohort for a longitudinal study of prisoner health in the NT.
Contact the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre
This project will target Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women living in south east New South Wales, with a focus on teenage women who smoke and pregnant women who smoke. There are three key objectives of the program: to encourage and support attendance at Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women’s and young women’s groups; reduce psychological distress; and reduce nicotine dependence and increase quit attempts. The project is based on the suggestion that the failure to reduce smoking in target populations across Australia is a result of a failure to: ensure access and maintain engagement; address underlying social and emotional wellbeing issues; and replace a ‘smoke and a yarn’ with alternative social connections.
Contact Waminda South Coast Women’s Health & Welfare Aboriginal Corporation
This project is a smoking cessation program targeting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander 10-18 year olds in two remote communities (Maningrida and Gunbalanya) in Arnhem Land, Northern Territory. The project is a peer-led intervention, which aims to engage young people with services that support tobacco cessation and change their peers’ views about smoking. It will involve the development of ‘peer leaders’, who will be part of an integrated service response delivering holistic smoking cessation support. Peer Leaders will receive accredited training to develop their skills and knowledge. Additionally, development of family and community strategies that aim to restrict access to tobacco for young people will be implemented.
Contact the Northern Territory Department of Health
This project seeks to apply a women-centered approach to explore the function of smoking in Aboriginal women’s lives and deliver a relevant, culturally meaningful smoking cessation program for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women living in the Hedland and Western Desert communities. The project will address smoking in an integrated and holistic manner, as part of healthcare received before, during and after pregnancy, within a community based primary health care setting. The project also seeks to contribute to the evidence base on the effectiveness of a women-centered approach for women’s self-efficacy and motivation for change. The primary target group for this project is Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women aged from 15 years from the communities serviced by Wirraka Maya Health Service Aboriginal Corporation (Port Hedland and Pilbara) and Puntukurnu Aboriginal Medical Service (Newman, Jigalong, Parnngurr, Punmu and Kunawarritji). Some further information about this project and its outcomes are available in this publication
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Contact Rural Health West
