“The intervention in the NT risks producing the opposite - the loss of any sense of mastery and control - and the consequences of such disempowerment are likely to be dire indeed.”

The fact that there was no “…mastery and control” among aboriginal people is the very reason for the intervention.

And how does the “”The Whitehall Study - looking at the long term health of British civil servants” fit in with Australian aborigines? It seems that they suffer the same “allostatic load” (yes, there is such a thing) as British public servants and, supposedly everyone else with in low socio-economic circumstances.

Thankfully, an indigenous doctor in Alice Springs is more down to earth, and refers to broken hearts; something else we can all suffer from.

This pedant also thinks that the intervention, instigated by the previous government with good advice, and wholeheartedly continued by the current government with good advice, is wrong because it: “(removes) administrators to remote Aboriginal communities”. Let’s not worry ourselves with the fact that local ‘management’ has been an abject failure, and one of the reasons for intervention.

The “communities” should also be done away with if the descendants of indigenous Australians are to get the same chances as the wider population.

The hunter gatherer society is gone forever.

“The blanket removal of half of the remaining welfare payments implies that no Indigenous adult in a remote community can manage money or look after their children responsibly”; yes, and the implication has proved to be fact. The same treatment of ALL parents in Australia who do not provide for their children should apply.

The “underlying causes” this author calls for – the latest in a long, dreary list – have been well known for years, and the “simplistic interventions” are the ones needed, as introduced by the Howard Government – which had the guts to ignore impractical do-gooders like Kerin O’Dea and hundreds before her – and the current government which had the guts to continue the program

This is a fine expose of the underlying factors that so largely contribute to poor health and mental outlook
The matter which has to be dealt with is the infrastructure that supports government programs to alleviate this disadvantage.
We can wipe the slate clean on one score and say "yes - we know what is causing this" (as the author explains) but we seem to be unable to do a similar clean sweep of the infrastructure to be able to start again and say "now how can we make it happen". The same programs, guidelines, application forms and approval processes are still there and until the money that they themselves gobble up can be put to better use the Aboriginal person in a remote community will stay in the same disastrous situation.
What is needed first up is a program like the Australian Assistance Plan was in 1972 with the decision making on priorities of need given to the local people. The AAP allowed a community to think freely about projects aware that they would be able to make something happen through the per capita funding that was given to each region. Such a scheme (with the promised bipartisan political support) would give some power back to the people. It may be education, health, housing and employment but how much better is that fixed than with programs devised from the ground up.
It is only then that we can expect an improvement in the health and ability of people to tackle their daily problems with food in their tummy, kids at school, a job to get up for in the morning and a house that has a big enough roof to protect the whole family that wants to live in it.
Explanations such as those of Professor O’Dea are imperative reading for the uninitiated but for those in senior policy positions of government the awareness of the reality must be balanced with some lateral thinking when it comes to solutions. Try the AAP – yes - but that is Aboriginal Assistance Plan.
Rollo

Yes, "chronic activation of our stress systems can be very counter-productive."

So exactly what does O'Dea imagine has been afflicting Aboriginal people for two centuries, if not lethal levels of “Allostatic load”?

Mal Brough didn't invent this one.

"The greater the stress burden, the greater the cost." Yes.

The problem is O'Dea is too sanctimonious to consider this paradox: the thing she assumes will cause greatest allostatic load is proving to be the circuit breaker needed to lift the load from many of the most afflicted victims.

People who carried the daily burden of feeding the addicts' children now find themselves able to relax a bit and worry about their own wellbeing. They have suddenly been empowered, courtesy of the wicked Intervention. Figure that one out, Kerin.

She then proceeds in the same ignorant fashion to damn other productive aspects of the Intervention, characterising the appointment of the Government Business Managers (wrongly calling them "administrators") who help remote communities access grants, programs and services, as somehow disempowering.

Nor does she understand that the Intervention has also provided thousands of properly funded positions to replace the poorly funded jobs formerly being performed by CDEP workers in schools, clinics, language centres, HACC programs, community councils etc.

"The blanket removal of half of the remaining welfare payments" doesn't imply "no Indigenous adult in a remote community can manage money or look after their children responsibly." As responsible community members well realise, it's a tactic to break the hold of the welfare fuelled drug/grog culture that was strangling the wellbeing of most remote communities.

And forget your paraoid delusions of disastrously high school attendance rates, Kerin: The extra teachers are being recruited, the extra classrooms are coming.

Nobody is actually being "threaten[ed] ... with loss of welfare payments" that I have heard of. The school attendance rise is a result of more discussion about parental and individual responsibility.

Come on Kerin & Alex, for God's sake give it a chance before you prophecise doom. Or would you prefer to prejudice the Intervention's chances before it's born, fearing it may undermine your dogmatic assumptions?

The Great Oricle wrote:

"And forget your paraoid delusions of disastrously high school attendance rates, Kerin: The extra teachers are being recruited, the extra classrooms are coming."

Where da teachers man?

Where da classrooms man?

Stop it before you go blind man!

prof o'shea recommends a greater scale of action in northern territory...the fundamental to this is protect the child particularly emotional health and normal development...reference to hypothalamus-pituitary-axis by chronic stress ie hormone called cortisol...google search on its action reveals the broad scale attack on body this hormone can do when stimulated by unresolving stress...

the sad thing is above successful...in one generation aboriginal baby becomes a adult with adaptive skills to maintain their state of 'meaningful happiness' in a constructive, balanced way and act effectively rapid way to any factor that may act to change this state...both in traditional and developed environments...so lives a better life than our average non-traditional child...

two other areas kerin not referred to, 'acute stress'(adrenal cortex and adrenalin in 'flight-fight-response'), and 'emotional memory'(all brain areas that percieves, assesses and responds to emotion...'the emotional brain'...which form part of full picture

abnormal 'acute stress' women know better in abnormal response to situation as 'panic attacks'...and 'emotional memory' men know better as self-destructive acts like alcohol\cigarettes part of meaningless daily life existence...

the key is first 6 years of life...its when 'state of happiness' self-scale is established in person...think of it as a meter with needle at the middle and can deflect to both sides, ie unhappy to happy...a normally developed baby will become adult with needle at the balanced middle point...

The lack of response to this article suggests either people dont want to deal with it or lack knowledge to this medical area which affects each and everyone of us in each moment of our lives...

emotional brain has been known for a long time, the lie-detector uses the bodies natural response to emotional states, what is now becoming known is the areas of brain involved and how functions interlinked http://thebrain.mcgill.ca/flash/a/a_07/a_07_cr/a_07_cr_tra/a_07_cr_tra.html good site

Out of space, will post a general summary to assist those who struggle to understand above medical site soon...

Sam

why know about how brain works;

the key question, and what follows is common knowledge, being doctor I may over estimate...so do a general blab...

Of all things, 'confidently controlling the immediate environment around each' primary need and drive in all living, including us humans...so first identify your 'body space'...walk closer to another person till you start feeling uncomfortable...usually a foot...(this is for men, women differ and a women can give information about themselves)...now dont forget its a range...'bell curve' which statistical description...so take 100 men and plot 'body space border' and you find majority around one feet, with less on either side and dropping so forming'bell'...

it developed as a survival instinct...and innate in all of us...and causes our brain to develop 'powers of assessment' so judge who come close or within that space, particularly people...so by welcome, force or deceit...most important is first detect where peoples 'inner fundamental nature' lies especially 'destructive to constructive' range scale...taking the extremes, the mind set is dramatically different...'destructive' placed in a working balanced environment will work out how to benefit themselves without too much work while disrupting balance, constructive will work out a skill to work hard to benefit while maintaining balance...in religion its evil and good, in law its criminal and 'law-abiding-citizen'...

once this is done, other areas of assessment, doctors commonly use and very good, are the ranges; aggressive to passive, selfish to people centered, mental to emotional...remember the best place to be is the middle of these ranges...so a 'passive, selfish, mental' person would have doctors approach to their health approached differently than if 'aggressive,people centered, mental'...

now here is the butt kicker...you must in 5secs to 6 assess anyone new to place them on above said scale to form ' working-idea'of persons personality...from then depending on their 'acts' start varying their position on said scales...whether conscious or not you have been doing this all the time(why...guess in jungle you dont have luxury of time for assessment)...only issue is how good have you been...and hopefully you want to get better...and why how brain works becomes important...

Sam
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