Health Promotion Program Grant Application 2019

HEALTH PROMOTION
PROGRAM Grant
Application form 2019

PLEASE READ THE GRANTS GUIDELINESBEFORE PROCEEDING.
Please answer all of the questions in the application in full and submit this form. This is the only form you will
be submitting.
Application closing date is: Tuesday 1st October 2019 5.00pm
Please enter your application through the AT2 dropbox via TURNITIN.
For further information or assistance contact:
Teresa Capetola
Email: [e-mail]
APPLICATION SUMMARY
Program title
A short statement capturing the nature and intent of
the program.
Prevention of obesity in aboriginal children aged
5y -15yrs in Northern Territory, Belyuen,
Australia
Location
Where will the program take place? (local area)
Who is the lead agency?
Northern Territory, Belyuen, Australia
Duration
What is the start and finish date for the program?
January 2020 – September 2020
Amount of funding requested
This should be between $250, 000 – 300,000 and be
supported with a budget as an Appendix.
$ 271,200.00
CONTACT PERSON FOR DAY-TO-DAY ENQUIRIES

APPLICATION SUMMARY
Name
Organisational ID (Deakin):
Email address
Who will the program benefit? The children aged 5-15 years of the Aboriginal
community living in Belyuen, Northern Territories
How many people will attend, participate, or
benefit from the program?
Include an actual estimated number of people or
estimate of the minimum and maximum numbers.
The whole aboriginal community, children, parents,
family, school staff, community stores, will
participate. According to Australian Census 2016,
there are 164 people living in Belyuen of aboriginal
ancestry who will benefit from the program
holistically.
THE PROBLEM (NEED) - 1000 words
Health issue and community context
 Provide a clear description of the community and the need the program is responding to.
 What evidence is there that this is an issue? What is the data and literature saying (at an national, state and
local level)?
There exists a phenomenal disproportion of mortality and morbidity figures among Aboriginal Australians in

comparison to the non-indigenous population of Australia, which can be proved from the gap exceeding 10 years in
the average life expectancy. One of the main reasons, which contribute, to the widening gap is obesity, which is a
problems that needs to be tackled from childhood. As per Thurber et al, (2014) 2012-2013 figures show that more
than 1/3rd of the aboriginal children suffers from obesity between the age group 2-14 years. As the rate continues, by
the time the child reaches adulthood, the percentage increases to being 66%. This is a major factor contributing to
lower average life expectancies in comparison to their non-indigenous counterparts. Moreover, some other affects of
childhood obesity increases with rise in Type2-diabetes, among the aboriginal children, which decreases the average
life expectancy by 27 years. Moreover, the childhood obesity is another risk factor, which contributes to other
chronic diseases, cardiac problems, weakening muscular-skeletal systems etc. Being overweight since childhood has
other repercussions on the emotional, psychological and social parts of life that wholly contributes to economic
consequences, loss in productivity among individual and community level (Mihrshahi et al., 2018). Hence, reducing
obesity should be tackled from the grass-root level from childhood, as it is the right time for prevention of obesity
and over-eating; and to reduce morbidity in adulthood. Early intervention hence is seen as the right approach in
tackling risk of obesity and lessening the gap.
Figure: Prevalence of obesity among school-going children according to SES status
Source: (Mihrshahi et al., 2018)
The current interventions at reducing childhood obesity have found various interacting factors, which leads to
childhood obesity, namely behaviour, environment, genetics, culture metabolism rate and socio-economic factors.
However, the current intervention plans ignores the main factors involving environmental, socio-economic and
cultural factors, which leads to childhood obesity among the aboriginals (Thurber et al., 2014). The interventions
fail to include health behaviour and habits corresponding to poor nutrition and physical inactivity, due to lower
socio-economic status and environmental factors contributing to the disease. Even though diet pattern, genetics and
metabolism rate have a major effect in increasing obesity, socio-economic and cultural reason also do exist, that
raises risk of obesity and other risk behaviours. Among the disadvantaged group, there exist various barriers of
socio-economic and cultural patterns, which make it impossible for these SES communities to imbibe and modify
their habits and behaviours to reduce obesity. Such factors include low-income status, poor education levels,
cultural gap, insecure housing, low access to social needs and unemployment. The obesity figures among children
aged 2-17 among aboriginal communities in Australia is more among boys than among girls (Dawson et al., 2017).

Figure: obese children 2-17 years in indigenous communities
Source: (Dawson et al., 2017)
The people from low-SES communities, mostly children focus most on food, which is promoted through advertising
that appeals to taste and eyes, without understanding the health repercussions. Heavily marketed food, rich in trans-
fats, oil, high cholesterol, are least healthy and more uptake by these children. Moreover, in Australia the most
advertised food near primary schools are soft drinks and sweetened drinks, which rises diabetes and obesity
(Thurber et al., 2014). Cheap food, which is unhealthy, is more readily available and is bought by low-SES children,
thereby increasing their risk of obesity. Conducting obesity programs without invigorating the socio-economic and
cultural elements cannot provide heavy impact on prevention or reduction in obesity.
Hence, the need arises to generate a health program, which properly envisages imbibing socio-economic, cultural
and environmental factors while tackling obesity among the aboriginal children aged 5-15 years. In indigenous level
studies, health programs that include the broad socio-structural issues like education, poverty, and cultural gap are
more likely to be successful, as it brings a holistic approach to the health program, instead of changing only diet-
pattern. The main success is attributed to the holistic approach of dealing with the problem-areas, instead of just
focusing on the solution. Hence, the wider determinants of health and social determinants of health need to be
linked through this program to effectively improve the reduction of obesity in children of aboriginal Low-SES
communities (Mihrshahi et al., 2018). Moreover, along with including social factor, the context that brings in
change, namely availability of food, accessibility and affordability of food must also be addressed.