Kimberley Aboriginal Medical Services (KAMS) Health Report - HSC203

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of the Kimberley Aboriginal Medical Services (KAMS), a regional Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Service (ACCHO) established in 1986 to serve the Aboriginal communities in the Kimberley region of Western Australia. The report details KAMS's health service profile, including its vision to improve the health and well-being of Aboriginal people by supporting member services and providing high-quality primary and preventative healthcare. It explores the external factors that influenced the establishment of KAMS, such as the frustration of Aboriginal communities with mainstream healthcare services that did not align with their worldview and cultural expectations. The report also examines specific healthcare practices, such as the Kimberley Renal Services and Social and Emotional Well-being (SEWB) services, and their impact on the health and well-being of Indigenous Australians. The conclusion highlights KAMS's success in meeting the health needs of Aboriginal communities by aligning healthcare services with their cultural preferences, emphasizing principles like accountability, leadership, and community control.

Running head: KIMBERLEY HEALTHCARE SERVICES
KIMBERLEY HEALTHCARE SERVICES
Name of the student:
Name of the university:
Author note:
1. Introduction:

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Kimberley Aboriginal Medical Services (KAMS) can be explained as
the member-based regional Aboriginal Community controlled health
service (ACCHO) which was established in the year 1986. It is mainly seen
to support and represent the interests of about seven independent
Kimberley ACCHOs (member services). These are the Beagle Bay
Community Aboriginal Corporation, Broome Regional aboriginal Medical
services as well as Bidyadanga Aboriginal Community. The other four
member services are Derby Aboriginal Health Services, Ord Valley
Aboriginal Health Services Aboriginal Corporation, Nirrumbuk
Environmental Health and Services as well as the Yura Yungi Medical
Service Aboriginal Corporation. This assignment will mainly show how
KAMS is successfully serving the community of aboriginal people and
helping them to provide health equity so that they can enjoy the same
health status as that of the non-indigenous people in the nation.
2.1. Description of the health service profile:
The main vision of this organisation was improvement of the health
as well as well-being of the Aboriginal people in Kimberley. The
organisation has mainly planned to achieve this supporting each of the
member services to become strong and independent and effective
ACCHO. They had also focused on ensuring primary as well as
preventative health care services to the communities, which would be of
high quality. The organisation had also successfully taken the
responsibility of providing leadership as well as advocacy on the health
issues faced by the Kimberley Aboriginal communities. Their organisation
also ensured to become an effective, accountable and sustainable
organisation and develop a skilled workforce that can meet the healthcare
needs of the people (Soldatic et al., 2017). Presently, the seven member
groups are collaboratively working together to provide a wide range of
services that are seen to include financial and accounting services. They
are also seen to provide regional population health program services and
ensure providing social and emotional wellbeing support. One of the most
important approaches to development of health taken by this organisation

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is the health promotion approach where they educate people about
proper lifestyle and healthy eating habits that prevent development of
chronic ailments. They also have research teams who are continuing their
researches by keenly focusing on development of health of the Aboriginal
community. They also have services like information and community
technology support as well as pharmacy support and training along with
corporate services and accredited health training and education. One of a
very interesting feature of this organisation that gains attention is that
this organisation is a smoke free organisation where they have prohibited
smoking in and around vehicles, buildings and grounds. The smoking of
tobacco is a cultural traditions keenly followed by Aboriginals as their
ancestral customs (Marley et al., 2016). However, they have overcome
such customs, which have negative consequences on health and have
emerged victorious in their quest for a better health.
2.2. External factors that have influenced establishment of the health
service:
At one time, the Aboriginal Community cohorts in the different
towns across the Kimberley had become frustrated about the mainstream
health services, which were not matching up the worldview and principle
of healthcare of the Aboriginal people. They were mainly following
biomedical approach of care, which considered treating only the biological
factors that contributed to the disorder. This was very different from the
SEWB or the social and emotional well-being concept of health believed by
the Aboriginals. This approach of the Aboriginals also considered
developing the social and emotional factors affecting a person to ensure
that the patients can have better quality lives. Moreover, the healthcare
providers of the mainstream healthcare services were not able to meet
the cultural expectations and traditions of the Aboriginal community
(Stanley et al., 2019). Therefore, they had set up their own medical
services to help the people of the community provide care that aligns with
their culture and suffice their healthcare needs. The organisation was
seen to fully ensure meeting the “Aboriginal Health” through varieties of

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their services. The Aboriginal health is a whole of life world-view and
mainly covers the cyclical concept of life-death-life. The services they
have developed had ensured not only meeting the physical well-being of
the individuals but also meeting their social, emotional and cultural
wellbeing of the entire community. It was important for the communities
to ensure services where each of the individuals would have achieved
their full potential as human beings so that they could bring out the total
well-being of the community (Hyde et al., 2018). It had been noted that
during the time of its establishment, the western healthcare system not
only followed biomedical approach but they were also judgemental about
the Aboriginal people (Best & Fredericks, 2017). The western care
providers were culturally biased and had preconceived notions and were
full of prejudices. Reports of discriminations, stigmatisation and racism
had been found among the Kimberly community of aboriginals. Hence, it
was important to develop health education system where the
communities could enjoy self-determination.
2.3. Healthcare care practices and impact on the Australian Indigenous
people’s health and wellbeing:
One of the services provided by this organisation is the Kimberly
Renal services. The incidence of renal disorders in this region is one of the
highest. The prevalence of end stage kidney disorder and chronic kidney
disorder had been found to exceed the national burden of the disorder
(Mohan et al., 2019)). Dialysis prevalence had been also found to triple in
the last ten years in the region and is increasing at a very fast rate than in
rest of Western Australia. Hence, this service had been found to be utmost
importance. Social as well as emotional well-being services is another
form of service which are seen to work alongside that of the families,
individuals and the communities for restoration of physical, spiritual,
cultural, environmental and social factors. These are found to be
significant for sustenance of the resilience, strength and overall well-being
of the communities (McHugh et al., 2016). The SEWB team is also seen to
deliver a huge number of training sessions like Mental Health First Aid like

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among the Aboriginal, Youth and Teen Mental Health First Aid along with
the Applied Suicide Intervention Skills, Hey Das program, Mooditj training,
Protective behaviours community and many others (KAMS, 2018).
3. Conclusion:
KAMS had been able successfully met the health needs of the
Aboriginal Communities of Kimberley by developing healthcare services
that aligned with their cultural preferences. Some of the important
principles that are followed by them which make them an expectation
organisation are their accountability and responsibility, leadership,
sustainability, innovation and continuous improvement, culture, aboriginal
community control and others. They had overcome the poor services they
used to get from mainstream services and developed care support
services that aligned with cultural expectations helping them to live better
quality lives.
References:
Best,O.,& Fredericks,B. (Eds).(2017), Yatdjuligin: Aboriginal and Torres
Strait Islander Nursing and Midwifery Care., Cambridge University
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+Aboriginal+and+Torres+Strait+Islander+Nursing+and+Midwifery
+Care&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwierpbvjO7hAhXTXisKHYtrBo8Q6

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AEIMDAB#v=onepage&q=%3A%20Aboriginal%20and%20Torres
%20Strait%20Islander%20Nursing%20and%20Midwifery
%20Care&f=false
Hyde, Z., Flicker, L., Smith, K., Atkinson, D., Fenner, S., Skeaf, L., ... &
Giudice, D. L. (2016). Prevalence and incidence of frailty in
Aboriginal Australians, and associations with mortality and
disability. Maturitas, 87, 89-94.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.maturitas.2016.02.013
Hyde, Z., Smith, K., Flicker, L., Atkinson, D., Almeida, O. P.,
Lautenschlager, N. T., ... & LoGiudice, D. (2018). Mortality in a
cohort of remote-living Aboriginal Australians and associated
factors. PloS one, 13(4), e0195030.
https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.01
95030
Kams.org.au (2018) Kimberley Aboriginal Medical Services (KAMS),
Retrieved from: https://kams.org.au/
Marley, J. V., Singleton, S., Griffiths, E., Cutter, M., Wright, K., Falcocchio,
L., ... & Atkinson, D. (2016). Integrating best practice and filling
knowledge gaps in remote Aboriginal diabetes detection and care:
Improving case detection and service delivery. https://openresearch-
repository.anu.edu.au/handle/1885/139203
McHugh, C., Campbell, A., Chapman, M., & Balaratnasingam, S. (2016).
Increasing Indigenous self-harm and suicide in the Kimberley: an
audit of the 2005–2014 data. The Medical Journal of
Australia, 205(1), 33. doi: 10.5694/mja15.01368
Mohan, J. V., Atkinson, D. N., Rosman, J. B., & Griffiths, E. K. (2019). Acute
kidney injury in Indigenous Australians in the Kimberley: age
distribution and associated diagnoses. Medical Journal of Australia.
https://doi.org/10.5694/mja2.50061

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Soldatic, K., Somers, K., Spurway, K., & van Toorn, G. (2017). Emplacing
Indigeneity and rurality in neoliberal disability welfare reform: The
lived experience of Aboriginal people with disabilities in the West
Kimberley, Australia. Environment and Planning A, 49(10), 2342-
2361. https://doi.org/10.1177/0308518X17718374
Stanley, S. H., Laugharne, J. D., Chapman, M., & Balaratnasingam, S.
(2019). The physical health of Indigenous people with a mental
illness in the Kimberley: is ongoing monitoring
effective?. Australasian Psychiatry, 1039856219833776.
https://doi.org/10.1177/1039856219833776