Bayview Beach Resort, Batu Ferringhi Beach, Penang, Malaysia

27-30 September 1999

The Aboriginal Family Futures Training Program - A community based Training Program for Aboriginal people.

John Mallard

Gerard McKelvie

Centre for Aboriginal Studies, Curtin University, Perth, Western Australia.

Abstract

The Aboriginal Family Futures Training Program was established in early 1999 by the Office of Aboriginal Health, through the Health Department of Western Australia with the aim of enhancing Aboriginal family health outcomes. The Aboriginal Health Unit at the Centre for Aboriginal Studies, Curtin University of Technology, developed this Training Program which is currently being conducted at two Regional Centres in Western Australia, namely Port Hedland and Albany.

The one year Program is based on a block system of education and provides opportunities for introducing alternative ways of delivering health care services to Aboriginal families based on the history, and cultural environment of their community settings. A major goal of the Program is to provide training and skills to Aboriginal people within a culturally appropriate, primary health care perspective that would equip them to work with Aboriginal families at the grass roots level. Aboriginal Terms of Reference underpins all the learning within the Program.