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@ElsevierAUS
My name is Jacinta Elston. I’m
Professor and Associate Dean of
Indigenous Education and Strategy
in the Division of Tropical Health and
Medicine at James Cook University.
I’ve been working in Indigenous health
for all of my career and I guess I came
to Indigenous health and working
in areas relating to indigenous and
remote health because I grew up in
North Queensland in a regional centre.
As a child I spent a lot of time in rural
farming and agricultural communities
with my family. From this I have a
natural attachment to the beauty of
being in small, rural communities.
What is different about
working in rural and
remote areas?
The difference about working in rural and
remote communities, from the context
that I’m coming at this from, is really to do
with the indigenous health aspects of it.
It’s the fact that when working in rural and
remote communities, you’re going to see
Aboriginal andTorresStrait islanderpeople
at amuch higher portion than you would if
you were working in a large urban centre.
In a large urban centre, you might not
come across many Aboriginal Torres Strait
islander people at all in the hospital care
system, but in rural remote communities,
JacintaElston