Three Indigenous Liaison Officers (ILOs) have been recruited to the North West Hospital and Health Service (NWHHS) to help folks see the hospital as a place of healing, and not something to fear.

Robert Warren, Rhonda West and Melissa Nathan have discovered many people think they are everything but trained liaison officers.

“We’ve been mistaken for travel agents, Centrelink workers, counsellors, transport drivers, and Child Safety officers,” Ms Nathan said.

The experienced former community worker covers maternity, paediatrics and palliative care.

Former miner Robert Warren is working towards a Certificate in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander primary health care practice.

Mr Warren now covers surgical and medical wards, including nurse handovers.

Kalkadoon woman, Rhonda West, has a Certificate 4 in Primary Health Care in Community, and a degree in Primary Health Care.

Ms West previously worked in Melbourne and Rockhampton, and now covers the Emergency Department and Intensive Care.

She sees follow up of the patient and transitioning them back into the community as being critical to better health care.

“If they’ve been discharged from hospital and need to come back for a check-up we will follow up on them,” Ms West said.

Also of concern to her, is the fear many Indigenous people have of the hospital and health service.

“Mothers won’t bring their children in, because they’re scared their children will be taken away from them,” she said.

Director of Social Work, Linda Ford, says the new team is essential to better health outcomes for Indigenous patients.

“The position of Indigenous Liaison Officer has been recently upgraded to a higher level, which makes it a lot more attractive to applicants, and means we as a Health Service can offer high quality patient care, with the ILOs being able to undertake more complex work.

“ILOs can use screening tools, educate staff and promote our work in the community,” Ms Ford said.

The expectation of government is to employ 3% of Indigenous people which matches the percentage of population of indigenous people in Australia, however as Ms Ford pointed out, in the North West the indigenous population is 23.4% of the entire population.

“In terms of employment, we as a Health Service should try and match the percentage of the Indigenous population here in Mount Isa and the North West, or even exceed that, as the health challenges amongst Indigenous people are so much greater than for the non-Indigenous population,” Ms Ford said.

Currently the Indigenous work force at the NWHHS is more than 10% of the total NWHHS workforce.