Content
USC graduate helps town achieve healthy goals
The health of residents in the north Queensland township of Normanton is certainly looking up since USC Public Health graduate Michelle Costello of Noosa arrived there last year.
And much of that change has occurred because Michelle, 28, who works for North and West Queensland Primary Health Care (NWQPHC) as a health promotion officer, has enlisted the help of the townsfolk in deciding what they need most.
Among these are better drug and alcohol education, an improved diet, a supportive approach for reducing domestic violence and the implementation of community ideas for improved health and well-being.
Strategies to bring these about have been implemented as part of a two-year healthy lifestyle program, “Healthy Normanton”, that Michelle helped develop.
Michelle said NWQPHC was funded by the Federal Department of Health and Ageing and had an outreach visitation health team, based in Mount Isa. This team works closely with Normanton’s doctor to provide a lot of clinical help in the town but it wanted to do more education and prevention activities.
“The idea of my job is to link the team into what is happening in the community and develop activities based on what the community says they need,’’ she said.
“Petrol sniffing and alcohol misuse with youth is a significant issue here, so we do a lot of talks with the kids and we show them real lambs brains so they can see what actually happens to your brain when you sniff petrol.
“We run community cooking groups aimed at whole families. The families tell us what they like to eat and we show them healthier ways to make the same meal.
“Diabetes is an issue the community is concerned about because rates are so high in Normanton. The cooking group is a great way to help people living with diabetes to learn healthy recipes.”
Michelle said she worked closely with Oxfam, the school, police, ambulance, the town’s three main Aboriginal organisations and NWQPHC’s indigenous staff.
“While there’s a bit of dysfunction – like alcoholism and domestic violence – there’s a lot of hope in the air,’’ she said. “What keeps me going is that there are a lot of good people here with motivation to make things better.”
Michelle went to school at St Johns College, Nambour, gained a business degree in Brisbane, taught English in Japan for a couple of years before deciding to study a Bachelor of Science, majoring in Public Health, at USC.
“The Public Health degree is wonderfully relevant to my job and I think it’s designed extremely well,’’ she said. “I’m constantly referring back to my assignments and text books and my lecturers are now my workplace mentors. “
Michelle said working in Normanton had opened her eyes to issues she had never come across living in South-East Queensland.
“You have to become more resourceful and creative,’’ she said. “You can’t rely on big buckets of money to come along and you have to learn to work outside the box to get things done.”
Michelle said an example of this was the “No Alcohol and Drugs Family” community project that was launched last year and was gaining momentum.
“The community expressed a need for people to have signs on their fences that show no alcohol and drugs are allowed in their homes,’’ she said.
“Normanton is not a dry community but many families were reporting problems with people coming into their homes who were drunk or on drugs and causing disruption.”
Michelle said the community suggested the project as a way of communicating if alcohol and drugs were not welcome in their homes. If people in homes who display this sign call the police to report unwelcome behaviour, their call is given priority.
“Mt Isa Police have heard about the project and are now looking to develop a similar project,” she said. “This is a great example of what can happen when local and visiting service providers come together and support community needs.”