South Australian peak body for Aboriginal health
Thursday, June 11, 2009
On Monday 8 June, the Queens Birthday Honours List announced that David Scrimgeour, Public Health Medical Officer for the Aboriginal Health Council of South Australia Inc. (AHCSA) will receive an Order of Australia (AM) for service to medicine through the development and delivery of services and programs in remote Indigenous communities and to public health research.
AHCSA Chief Executive Officer Mary Buckskin said Dr Scrimgeour is an extremely worthy recipient and congratulates him on behalf of staff, the Board of Management, and community members. “He has demonstrated a long term commitment to Aboriginal health and is well respected amongst our members. We are pleased to have him as a staff member of the Aboriginal Health Council of SA.”
The Order of Australia (AM) will be presented to Dr Scrimgeour in September by the Governor at Government House.
Dr Scrimgeour has worked in Aboriginal health as a general practitioner and public health practitioner for most of the last 30 years. He first worked with ‘Congress’, the Aboriginal medical service in Alice Springs in 1977 and then with the Pitjantjatjara, Ngaanyatjarra and Yankutjatjarra people in the north-west of SA and adjoining area of WA with the ‘Strelley mob’ in the Pilbara region of WA, the Pintupi people at Kintore and Kiwirrkura, and the Jigalong mob in WA, and then at Yalata as Medical Director for Tullawon Health Service until joining AHCSA in late 2007.
He has worked as Research Fellow with the Menzies School of Health Research in the NT and is currently a part-time Senior Lecturer in Public Health at the University of Adelaide. As well as treating individuals, Dr Scrimgeour is able to investigate the health problems of whole communities and look at community-level strategies for dealing with these problems.
Dr Scrimgeour’s interests cover just about all aspects of Aboriginal health but particularly health policy and broader policy issues which impact on health. Having worked for Aboriginal community controlled health services for much of his career, he is committed to the concept of self-determination.
Dr Scrimgeour said, “I believe that a strong primary health care sector controlled by communities is essential if the gap in life expectancy between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people is to be closed. I hope to try and ensure that Aboriginal community controlled health services in South Australia are recognised, respected and adequately resourced to provide high quality comprehensive primary health care to the Aboriginal people of South Australia.”
AHCSA is South Australia’s peak body for Aboriginal health. As an Aboriginal community controlled organisation, AHCSA is managed and governed by an Aboriginal Board comprising members from Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisations, Substance Misuse Services and Aboriginal Health Advisory Committees who represent the interests of the communities through AHCSA at a state and national level.
