Establishing health-promoting workplaces in Aboriginal community organisations: healthy eating policies
Catherine MacDonald A C , Bill Genat B , Sharon Thorpe A and Jennifer Browne AA Victorian Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation, PO Box 1328, Collingwood, Vic. 3066, Australia.
B Victoria University, PO Box 14428, Melbourne, Vic. 8001, Australia.
C Corresponding author. Email: catherinem@vaccho.com.au
Australian Journal of Primary Health 22(3) 239-243 https://doi.org/10.1071/PY14144
Submitted: 7 March 2014 Accepted: 18 December 2014 Published: 27 February 2015
Abstract
Aboriginal community controlled health organisations (ACCHOs) and cooperatives function at the centre of community life for local Aboriginal people across Victoria. Local Aboriginal people govern them, work within them as managers and service providers, access health and community services from them and form the constituents who determine their directions. Victorian ACCHOs reflect the unique characteristics of the local Aboriginal community. Thus, potentially, Victorian ACCHOs are key strategic sites for health promotion activities that seek to establish and nurture healthy community, family and peer norms. The Victorian Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation (VACCHO) partnered five metropolitan, regional and rural ACCHOs in a pilot project towards the establishment of healthy food policies and practices in their organisations. Project activities combined both ‘top-down’ policy-oriented and ‘bottom-up’ practice-oriented strategies. This paper, drawing upon both baseline and follow-up quantitative and qualitative data, describes initiatives leading to increases in healthy catering choices and related challenges for Aboriginal workplace health promotion practice.
Additional keywords: Aboriginal health, food policy, healthy settings, Indigenous health, nutrition, organisational development.
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