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The Champion #90 – November 2020
This issue:
- Peer photoshoot puts a human face to Clearing The Path campaign
- Fair Treatment win for Dubbo
- Testing for hepatitis B campaign
- Centre for Social Research in Health celebrating 30 years of impact
- Celebrating NAIDOC Week 2020
Peer photoshoot puts a human face to Clearing The Path campaign
The Clearing the Path hep C treatment campaign has been running for much of 2020. Developed by Hepatitis NSW in partnership with NUAA, the campaign has seen the roll out of posters, street messaging, leaflets, and branded material to NSPs and other locations in all Local Health Districts across New South Wales.
Essential to the success of the campaign has been a small army of community peer workers from both Hepatitis NSW and NUAA, who attend those sites to speak with clients about hep C prevention, testing and cure. In many cases they also work alongside nurses to help get people a pathway to treatment.
In late October we organised a photoshoot with four peer workers – Grace, Will, Cheryl and Alain – to pose alongside paste-up posters, located alongside busy Livingston Rd, Petersham. The idea was to highlight the role peers play in Clearing the Path through some fun, dynamic photos in front of the colourful campaign material. A good time and much fun was indeed had.
You can expect to see more of these photos and other behind the scenes material across our social media platforms in coming weeks. If you aren’t doing so already, please follow us on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Instagram so that you don’t miss out.
Clearing the Path website >>> CLICK HERE
Fair Treatment win for Dubbo
Funding for the much-needed drug rehab facility in Dubbo has been secured in the NSW State Budget! The NSW Government has announced that $7.5million will be allocated to building the Dubbo facility and providing recurring funding to ensure its operation.
Alongside the Dubbo community, the Fair Treatment Campaign – launched in 2018 through Uniting with a large community coalition – helped secure this win. Dominic Perrottet, the NSW Treasurer acknowledged the work of the Fair Treatment Campaign in winning the funding for this much-needed service.
Hepatitis NSW reported on the launch of the Fair Treatment Campaign, and the Long Walk to raise awareness for the need of a treatment facility in Dubbo, in the October 2018 edition of The Champion. It is wonderful to see this achievement and offer congratulations to everyone involved.
The win demonstrates what can be achieved when elected representatives know that people in the community care about this issue. The Fair Treatment Campaign acknowledges that there is still work needed to ensure that every person in NSW has access to treatment and that the law is changed so drug dependence is treated as a health issue.
More information about Fair Treatment >>> CLICK HERE
Testing for hepatitis B campaign
The Multicultural HIV and Hepatitis Service (MHAHS) has commenced the next phase of their campaign to educate communities of the importance of taking care of their health by testing for hepatitis B.
Chronic hepatitis B is a major cause of serious liver disease and liver cancer. As effective treatments are now available, testing is vital. Of the estimated 83,812 people in NSW living with chronic hepatitis B, many were born overseas.
The state-wide “Are you living with hepatitis B? Find out. Get tested” campaign encourages people from priority, culturally and linguistically diverse communities to ask their doctor for a hepatitis B test.
A range of multilingual print and digital campaign resources are available in English for cross-cultural use, English tailored for African communities, Arabic, Chinese (Simplified), Korean and Vietnamese.
Sharing the digital campaign resources through networks and social media channels and displaying the posters and brochures at key locations aims to raise awareness of hepatitis B testing and enhance the health of many communities.
To access the campaign material >>>CLICK HERE
Free hepatitis B community education sessions, in language, are also being delivered online by trained cultural support workers.
Hepatitis NSW is pleased to support this important campaign, and to help raise awareness of hep B through our local community projects with partners from the Chinese and Korean community.
Any questions about the campaign or to organise an education session contact:
Natali Smud
02 9515 1234
[email protected]
Centre for Social Research in Health celebrating 30 years of impact
The Centre for Social Research in Health (CSHR), at the University of NSW, has recently observed a significant anniversary milestone – celebrating three decades of work to improve community health outcomes. As a long-term collaborator with CSHR, Hepatitis NSW congratulates the Centre on its 30th birthday and celebrates its achievements.
The Centre’s first engagement with the hepatitis C virus came in 1999, at the second Australasian Viral Hepatitis Conference in Christchurch, New Zealand. Max Hopwood gave a presentation on injecting patterns among Sydney gay men, and the risks for hepatitis C transmission. Following that, the Centre went on to develop a program of hepatitis C-related social research.
The Centre’s first study into the lived experience of hepatitis C, again by Max Hopwood, led to The 3D Project: Diagnosis, Disclosure and Discrimination among people living with hepatitis C in 2000. Since then, many viral hepatitis social research studies by the Centre have guided advocacy, policy, resource development and education projects.
Hepatitis NSW has been a strong and supportive partner of, and friend to, CSRH for over 20 years. It has been our pleasure to be part of the Consortium for Social Research in HIV, Hepatitis C and related diseases. We have also assisted with recruitment for many hep C and hep B studies, promoted studies’ findings and worked collaboratively – especially under Carla Treloar’s directorship – as well as advocating for improvements in policy and practice.
As we work to eliminate viral hepatitis, Hepatitis NSW strongly supports CSRH’s continuing leadership role in social research to inform and guide arguably the key challenge to elimination: that of population behaviour change. Here’s to continuing our productive partnership in the years to come.
Read more >>> CLICK HERE
Celebrating NAIDOC Week 2020
It’s currently NAIDOC Week – a time in Australia to celebrate the history, culture, resilience and achievements of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. Postponed from its usual month of July due to COVID-19, this year NAIDOC Week is running 8-15 November.
This year’s theme is ‘Always Was, Always Will Be’ – recognising that First Nations people have occupied and cared for the continent for more than 50,000 years.
As an inter-organisational activity to engage with the themes of NAIDOC Week, Hepatitis NSW and other members of 414 Closing The Gap arranged a community virtual screening of the award winning documentary In My Blood it Runs. A live, educational, Q&A with members of the film team followed the screening.
In My Blood It Runs trailer >>> CLICK HERE
This cultural learning event for staff and community, provided an opportunity for reflection on how to improve engagement, policies, procedures, and impact within Indigenous communities.
Fifty percent of profits from these screenings go towards the impact campaign and supporting First Nations communities to prepare against COVID-19.
More info >>> CLICK HERE
