During December 6 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Heath Workers graduated from the first ever accredited training in Burns targeting the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Workforce (AHWs). Due to the specialist nature of the training AHWs travelled from as far north as the Tiwi Islands in the NT, and as far west as Ceduna in SA.

In collaboration with the Burns Trust, SA Health and the Aboriginal Health Council of SA, AHWs can now enrol in studies that cover all aspects of burn care including burn prevention, emergency management of a burn injury and rehabilitation.

This accredited training contributes to existing AHW curriculum and acknowledges the important role AHWs play in burns treatment and prevention in the community.

Our congratulations go to the Aboriginal Health Workers (pictured left) now recognised as burn specialists in their communities.

We are excited to announce our partnership with the Royal Adelaide Hospital's Burn Service and SA Health to progress our Aboriginal Strategy. Kurt Towers, our joint Aboriginal Program Coordinator, has many years of experience working with Aboriginal people, both in remote communities and the hospital setting.

Kurt will work closely with our partners including the Aboriginal Health Council of SA and the Metropolitan and Country Fire Services to deliver high quality and sustainable programs to reduce the incidence and impact of burn injury in regional and remote communities. We look forward to the exciting outcomes we are confident this partnership will achieve.

Our Aboriginal Burns Program Coordinator, Kurt Towers, recently was in Yalata to support their 2nd Annual Sports Carnival. The footy culture is so strong in Yalata that over 1000 people and 6 Aboriginal teams from remote communities in South Australia and Western Australia travelled as far as 1700km on rugged roads to attend the event.

Kurt was invited by the community to highlight burns prevention strategies, and the importance of burn first aid at our oval side education stand between the action filled games. Kurt was also honoured to be asked to be the carnivals official sports photographer for the second year running alongside Yalata's Pastor, Malcolm Wilcox.

Pictured is Kurt with Yalata Community Chair Person Mima Smart (OAM) presenting the 2012 footy plaque at this year's Rio Tinto Challenge Cup at AAMI stadium.

Beach Energy and the Julian Burton Burns Trust launched their Aboriginal Burns Program partnership with some traditional assistance from Uncle Moogie, a Ngarrendgeri Elder. Uncle Moogie performed a smoking ceremony; clearing away negative energy and ensuring the partnership retained only its positive energy.

Through the partnership, the Burns Trust will expand its reach into remote Aboriginal communities, and through education, increase traditional owners’ awareness of fire and burn related hazards and first aid, fire risk management, prevention and preparedness.

Aboriginal children have a twenty-five percent higher chance of suffering a life-threatening burn injury than non-Aboriginal children (Burns SA, 2008). The statistics are even more alarming in remote Aboriginal communities.

The BurnSafe team, headed by Burns Trust Aboriginal Education Officer, John Webb, visited the APY communities of Fregon, Mimili, Indulkana and Ernabella in February 2009 to form community-based relationships and consultation processes with an aim to reduce the high incidence of burn injury. The ongoing prevention program will educate families, school groups and educators on community-specific burns prevention and first aid.

Pictured left: John Webb with members of the APY Lands community

In February 2009, John Webb, Burns Trust Aboriginal Education Officer, took the BurnSafe program to Point Pearce Aboriginal School on the Yorke Peninsula. The local students were able to help Lily (puppet) with appropriate first aid for a burn she received when running over the embers of a fire.

The students were given messages about hazard identification, burns safety and first aid and shared their stories of how they had received burn injuries. Students were then able to consolidate their learning through an art activity.

John Webb, Burns Trust Aboriginal Education Officer, and Deb Bates, Manager of Prevention Programs & Community Education at the Burns Trust accompanied Kurt Towers (Burns SA) and Francie Tonkin (MFS) to Pt Augusta to deliver burns and fire prevention education to students attending the VibeAlive festival, a youth-friendly event designed to celebrate Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures.

Students learnt about burns and fire safety in a fun and fast paced quiz-show style lesson. The team were pleased to see the students fully engaged in the activity promoting safe practices and best practice burns first aid.

Pictured left: Francie, Kurt, Kyle van der Kyp (Olympian and VibeAlive role model), Deb and John.

Our focus on burn injury prevention and education has once again been recognised with a grant from the Australian Governments Department of Health and Ageing.

The grant enabled the Burns Trust to employ John Webb as our Aboriginal Education Officer (AEO) to work within remote Aboriginal communities and in schools with high Aboriginal enrolments with the aim to reduce the incidence and severity of burn injuries. The AEO will work closely with Aboriginal Health Workers and school staff to develop and deliver a flexible program identifying community specific burn hazards and local solutions.

This is a collaborative approach with other key partners in this project including the Office for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health, Department of Education and Childrens Services, the Aboriginal Health Council of South Australia and the Aboriginal Burns Program; Burns SA.

For more information please call Deb on 0407 172 230 or email deb@burnstrust.com.au.

Figures often quoted indicate that Aboriginal children living in remote communities are up to 25 times more likely to suffer a life threatening burn than those living in metropolitan areas.

To address this, our Manager of Prevention Programs & Community Education, Deb Bates recently collaborated with Kurt Towers from Burns SA to visit the remote Oak Valley and Yalata regions to work with local Aboriginal school students. Activities were hands-on and focused on prevention and correct first aid practices with the aim of reducing the incidence and severity of burns within these communities.

The Burns Trust is committed to work with the broader Aboriginal community across South Australia.