Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / Matt Hepworth spoke with Ilija Jacobs who is now a qualified Aboriginal Health Practitioner in Mental Health, Alcohol and Other Drugs division

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Matt Hepworth spoke with Ilija Jacobs who is now a qualified Aboriginal Health Practitioner in Mental Health, Alcohol and Other Drugs division · 360 with Katie Woolf

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  Speaker 1: Three sixty with Katie Wolf. Join the conversation with Katie Wolf.
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  Speaker 1: You are our eyes and ears in the Territory Mix
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  Speaker 1: one oh four point nine. Matt Hepworth with you this morning.
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  Speaker 1: Tomorrow is Close the Gap Day. It's held on the
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  Speaker 1: third Tuesday in March each year and it's all about
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  Speaker 1: embracing value. Health equality is a fundamental right for all
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  Speaker 1: here in the territory. Well, joining me on the line now,
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  Speaker 1: I should say, as a bloke who's just qualified as
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  Speaker 1: an Aboriginal health practitioner in mental health at the top
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  Speaker 1: end Health Service, it's Illia Jacobs, a man I know
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  Speaker 1: well from Hillsong on a Sunday evening early A good morning,
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  Speaker 1: good mate. Good to chat to you on the radio
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  Speaker 1: and not with a coffee at hand at church on
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  Speaker 1: a Sunday morning.
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  Speaker 2: Mate. I tell you what, I'm a little bit nervous, buddy.
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  Speaker 1: Mate's all right, It's just it's you and me. There's
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  Speaker 1: absolutely no one else listening. I promise maybe maybe just
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  Speaker 1: a few.
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  Speaker 2: Elia.
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  Speaker 1: I saw this on Facebook the other week. You've recently
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  Speaker 1: graduated as the first Aboriginal health practitioner in the mental
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  Speaker 1: health forensic team at the top end Mental health Service,
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  Speaker 1: And first of all, congratulations, Can you tell us a
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  Speaker 1: little bit about your new role.
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  Speaker 2: Uh, I got to get it clear. I just got
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  Speaker 2: my registration on in February as an Aboriginal health practitioner.
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  Speaker 2: I am still holding a position as an Aboriginal mental
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  Speaker 2: health worker. Yeah, but that's changing, suit, It's just the
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  Speaker 2: position's got to change over. So yeah.
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  Speaker 1: How important is it though? I mean we talk about
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  Speaker 1: this qualification that you know you've received as the first
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  Speaker 1: Aboriginal health practitioner that you know soon being the mental
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  Speaker 1: health forensic team. I mean, how important is it for you,
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  Speaker 1: you know, as an Aboriginal man working in this area
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  Speaker 1: with other Aboriginal people.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah. I'll tell you what mate. Firstly, I'm so excited
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  Speaker 2: about it. I I I'm so happy to be in
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  Speaker 2: this role because mental health mate. It's you know, I've
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  Speaker 2: been in this role as an Ariaginal mental health worker
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  Speaker 2: for the last two years with the forensic team and
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  Speaker 2: just being a part of that and and helping people
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  Speaker 2: to get on track and get well. It really gives
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  Speaker 2: me great joy and a feeling of pride when I'm
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  Speaker 2: able to be a part of that that treating process
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  Speaker 2: and and and making sure that Indigenous Indigenous culture obligation
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  Speaker 2: and upbringing is always considered in in UH treatment and
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  Speaker 2: assess assessing and reviews. So I'm so happy to be
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  Speaker 2: in this role and now as coming into being a
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  Speaker 2: practitioner myself. Yeah, it's really good. It's a good feeling.
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  Speaker 1: You mentioned you've only been, you know, in this role
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  Speaker 1: for the last couple of years. What made you decide
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  Speaker 1: to get into this line of work.
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  Speaker 2: Well, prior to coming into the forensic team, I was doing.
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  Speaker 2: I was a security officer at a mental health facility.
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  Speaker 2: I was in there for about five years and and
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  Speaker 2: I guess when the new manager come in, she's seen
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  Speaker 2: some qualities in me with how I how I, I
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  Speaker 2: guess communicated and worked with the Indigenous clients that was there,
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  Speaker 2: and she encouraged me to apply for the average and
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  Speaker 2: mental health position that was then It was available at
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  Speaker 2: that time, and I applied for it and I wanted
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  Speaker 2: you know, So, yeah, that's how I got into this.
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  Speaker 1: Was there a bit of like study or training involved
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  Speaker 1: to get from that transition of you know, being security
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  Speaker 1: on the front doors are now working inside the building.
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  Speaker 2: I'll tell you what. I got a background in youth
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  Speaker 2: work so I've worked in territory and families, and I
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  Speaker 2: worked with Mission Australia as a youth worker as well,
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  Speaker 2: and I gained some skills and worked with some mental
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  Speaker 2: health clients back then, which helped me and got me
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  Speaker 2: over to line into the role that I won, you know,
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  Speaker 2: but as a practitioner, I went to Bachelor and did
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  Speaker 2: a two year study down there to achieve that one.
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  Speaker 1: You've obviously, as you mentioned, you know, you've been a
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  Speaker 1: youth worker and you've been working in this space for
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  Speaker 1: a long time. Now twenty years I've got here. How
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  Speaker 1: do you think we're getting better in addressing the stigma
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  Speaker 1: around mental health? I mean, you know, twenty years ago,
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  Speaker 1: the words mental health is probably not even something that
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  Speaker 1: we would have spoken about on the radio. Do you
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  Speaker 1: think it's something that the conversations that people are starting
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  Speaker 1: to find easier.
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  Speaker 2: I think I think that just within like within my
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  Speaker 2: team and the space that I work in, especially the
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  Speaker 2: doctors and the psychologists and the mental health nurses and
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  Speaker 2: the I guess that those guys they really they consider
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  Speaker 2: the cultural the cultural I guess cultural obligations in the
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  Speaker 2: way that they look at mental health within the Indigenous community.
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  Speaker 2: So just like with the medical with the medical side
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  Speaker 2: of things, I see that it's more it's more seen.
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  Speaker 2: I guess through the medical side. I guess there's a
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  Speaker 2: lot of people that they've experienced mental health personally or
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  Speaker 2: they know someone. I guess there's a I think like
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  Speaker 2: even on Facebook, you know, people people are always sending
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  Speaker 2: things out regarding mental health. I think it is something
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  Speaker 2: that is it's starting to be more knowing in the community.
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  Speaker 2: But it's really good when that when the people that
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  Speaker 2: I work with accept cultural ways because you know, Indigenous
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  Speaker 2: more but very spiritual, you know, and there's a lot
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  Speaker 2: of things that they believe that other people don't believe,
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  Speaker 2: you know. So I guess it's I'm coming more from
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  Speaker 2: the space that I work in, and and I kind
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  Speaker 2: of get a lot of words.
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  Speaker 1: No, no, I can I can see what you're saying,
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  Speaker 1: and you know, from what you're saying, it sounds like
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  Speaker 1: the complexities about you know, dealing with mental health issues
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  Speaker 1: within the indigenous community is so different and far more
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  Speaker 1: complex than what it is in our non Indigenous communities.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, so, and it's it's also the indigenous mob
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  Speaker 2: being able to sit down and talking to a doctor
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  Speaker 2: you know, and understanding what's been said, and understanding their
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  Speaker 2: treatment and especially their diagnosis, and is that all plays
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  Speaker 2: a big part, you know, them having the education around
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  Speaker 2: what's going on with them.
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  Speaker 1: You know, well, you've done done the hard yards. You're
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  Speaker 1: you know, you're on the inside there now. As an
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  Speaker 1: Aboriginal health practitioner, what would you say to other Indigenous
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  Speaker 1: people listening the small warning that want to pursue a
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  Speaker 1: career in this field.
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  Speaker 2: I would say that I would encourage them. I would
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  Speaker 2: encourage them to to to do this training. And because
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  Speaker 2: you know, it starts with ourselves mate, as the individual.
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  Speaker 2: You know that where we can bring about change, and
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  Speaker 2: and when family mobs starts seeing us really caring and
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  Speaker 2: making the effort to bring change, you know, then you
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  Speaker 2: develop that role model and you know, and people want
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  Speaker 2: to I guess they look up to their leaders, or
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  Speaker 2: they look up to the people that are doing good
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  Speaker 2: and want to help, you know, and hopefully that influences
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  Speaker 2: people to to want to do the same. I guess. Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: So important, not just you know, within the health space,
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  Speaker 1: but you know within some of the issues in our
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  Speaker 1: community that we talk about at the moment as well,
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  Speaker 1: whether it be youth crime, some of the stuff we've
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  Speaker 1: seen in Alice Springs. You know, it is so important
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  Speaker 1: to have these role models.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, role models are very important, you know, to have
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  Speaker 2: that mental ship and the guidance and someone to pull
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  Speaker 2: you up every now and again when you step out.
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  Speaker 1: You know, I guess we all need it.
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  Speaker 2: Well.
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  Speaker 1: Ilia Jacobs, congratulations once again on this new role that
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  Speaker 1: you've secured. It's a wonderful achievement. And coffee's on me
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  Speaker 1: next time I see you at church, mate.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, thanks, Mattie, mate. I appreciate it having good
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  Speaker 2: on you. Ilia.
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  Speaker 1: That's Ilia Jacob's there. He's just qualified as an Aboriginal
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  Speaker 1: health practitioner in mental health at the top end health
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  Speaker 1: service there. And that transition that he was talking about
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  Speaker 1: in his career amazing. I worked as a security guard
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  Speaker 1: on the outside there and now he's in there helping
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  Speaker 1: Indigenous people, you know, within that mental health space. And
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  Speaker 1: he spoke about those complexities of how different it is,
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  Speaker 1: whether that be language barriers, cultural barriers, and the delivery
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  Speaker 1: of those services and the complexities of it. So big
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  Speaker 1: congratulations to Ilia there