Queensland Health Minister Cameron Dick was in Mount Isa on Wednesday to make two important announcements.
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The first was with Gidgee Healing as the Minister announced a second Gidgee facility would be built on the site of the old IGA building at the Barkly Hwy end of Abel Smith Parade.
The placement of the new building is strategic as over half of Mount Isa’s 3000 Indigenous residents live around the Pioneer area so this will improve access to health services, especially for people without transport.
Gidgee Healing chairperson Shaun Solomon said they would do community consultation to find out what kind of services they should offer with the centre expected to open in early January 2017.
He said the Pioneer clinic would be linked to the Burke St clinic and also by visiting health services through the region.
The $3m funding to build and operate the clinic for three years is part of the government’s ambitious “Making Tracks Investment Strategy” plan to close the Indigenous health gap in Queensland by 2033.
Minister Dick had good news for two other organisations in a second announcement later in the day.
He went to the Royal Flying Doctors Service headquarters on the Barkly Highway to announce a further $600,000 in grants to tackle drought and adversity in rural and regional Queensland.
The funding specifically addresses mental health and wellbeing of people living in the bush and is part of a plan that outlines a range of actions.
The action plan includes the rollout of the telehelp service (1300 MH CALL) which provides people with mental illness and their carers access to family and mental health services seven days a week.
It also includes funding for mobile early childhood support with a remote kindy pilot operating across 11 sites.
Of the 16 projects that got funding across the state, two were in the North West.
The RFDS got $50,000 while the Uniting Community Care outreach office also got $50,00.
See Saturday’s paper for more details on this announcement.
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