In a community-led initiative, Flinders University Rural and Remote Health and Wakaid Tribal Council are working together to plan the building of a new renal unit that will provide vital dialysis treatment for patients with advanced kidney disease on Badu Island (Queensland).
The project has received $3.5 million from the Federal Department of Health and Aged Care Better Renal Services for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples' program to establish a four-chair nurse/ health worker assisted haemodialysis unit in Badu Island, servicing families of Badu Island, Mao Island and Mabuyag Island.
Flinders University's Professor Jaquelyne Hughes, a Wagadagam woman of Mabuyag Island is delighted to be part of the team contributing to health advancement within communities of the near western region (Badu, Kubin, St Paul and Mabuyag).
"My cultural acceptance within that community is important, as both family and in terms of the research technical leadership, because the project is such a community-led initiative," says Professor Hughes a clinical research professor at Flinders University and a consultant nephrologist.
"By opening a renal unit on Badu Island, it means people will have options to receive care locally, as they have previously needed to relocate to Waibene, or mainland Australia, to receive treatment."
Professor Hughes and Associate Professor Karla Canuto have been standing with Badu Island Elders since late 2022 and led the community voices feedback during late 2023, contained within the Kikirriu Dan Walmai (KDW) project report.
Their team recently presented abstracts related to the KDW project's health restoration work in scientific meetings, and conferences in Adelaide, Cairns and San Francisco, and later this year will share them in Canada and the US.
"Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are at least five times more likely to be treated for kidney failure than other Australians," says Associate Professor Karla Canuto, Director Indigenous Health Leadership (Rural and Remote Health).
"The experience of patients has a big impact on their family because family members will often join their loved-one if they have to move to a different town and city.
"This federally funded dialysis building infrastructure program is gratefully received as we work towards restoring family wellbeing for the communities on Badu Island and the near west Torres Strait region.
"Improvements in wellbeing are integral to healthy families and communities, and individuals. This project forms part of a broader regional dialogue of the importance of dialysis services that are sustainable in very remote Australia," she adds.
The Badu Island haemodialysis unit project is one of several current and anticipated projects within the Kikirriu Dan Walmai project, which means "Our life is resurrected through overcoming sickness" in Kalalagaw Ya language.
