Yarrabah Member service, Gindaja Treatment and Healing Centre, has taken to the global stage to showcase its Indigenous-led model of care.
The organisation was invited to discuss the Gindaja Model of Care at the Healing our Spirit Worldwide (HOSW) Conference: the Ninth Gathering in Vancouver, Canada in September.
HOSW brings together thousands of Indigenous leaders and health care professionals from around the world to share and celebrate the healing power of traditional Indigenous knowledge and cultures.
Gindaja Treatment and Healing Centre Chief Executive Officer Ailsa Lively said the conference had been an amazing opportunity to highlight her team’s commitment to delivering quality health care.
“We embarked on a journey to develop our model of care to drive the focus of service provision across a full continuum of care and within a strong Indigenous led framework,” she said.
“The Model of Care had to unite the organisation and provide our stakeholders, including non-Indigenous stakeholders, with our own self-determined framework and evidence base.
“It also had to inspire new and innovative Indigenous approaches and responses that could be developed and trialled.”
In line with the team’s commitment as a Gindaja family, every one of the seven team members at the conference delivered parts of the presentation.
Team members that presented were Board Chairperson Lynese Hari; Board Director Jasmine Canendo; Ms Lively, Learning and Wellbeing Coordinator Hezron Murgha, Finance Officer Ashleigh Schrieber, Aboriginal Health Worker Kerry-Anne Yeatman and
Residential Coordinator Tamara Yeatman.
The Gindaja Model of Care is framed by the organisation’s mission statement:
To provide culturally appropriate, specialised alcohol and other drugs care and support services in the areas of education, treatment, recovery and healing to people with alcohol and substance dependencies in Yarrabah and beyond.
The Model of Care focuses on the following areas: health promotion and education, learning and wellbeing, residential recovery, Step Up Recovery (relating to the Step Up supported accommodation program) and its after care and its continuing care.
Gindaja is dedicated to an approach that is: grounded in social and emotional wellbeing; evidence informed; holistic and empowering; flexible and responsive; person, family and community centred; culturally secure and respectful; confidential and inclusive; and non-judgemental and compassionate.
For more information on the Gindaja Model of Care visit https://gindaja.org.au/model-of-care
