A LIFELONG passion for First Nations health has come full circle for Mount Gambier general practitioner Lucy Walters.
Entering a new chapter in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health, Dr Walters will join Pangula Mannamurna Aboriginal Corporation each Monday to provide health advice and diagnosis for clients.
Dr Walters expressed excitement to further her First Nations community health journey, which follows her involvement in Pangula Mannamurna’s establishment in 2007.
“ The service Pangula Mannamurna provides to the community is fantastic,” Dr Walters said.
“It was exciting to be a part of those early days and I was initially a little worried about how to help but not to take over.
“It was early in my understanding and following of Aboriginal communities and how we can help as non-Aboriginal people in Aboriginal health and it was really about understanding the community and responding to that.”
Dr Walters has since worked with Flinders University as an academic where she helped establish a rural training program for medical students and junior doctors.
She now works four days a week with Adelaide University as director and professor of rural medicine, visiting 11 rural sites and supporting medical students.
“This really reignited my interest in Aboriginal health as I did not have time previously to fit it into my work,” she said.
“Working in Aboriginal health service it gives a more holistic view of health and the funding model at Pangula allows me to spend more time with my patients and for them to engage with Aboriginal health workers and the wrap around services such as childcare.
“It is a really good opportunity to look at health not only through beating sickness but also considering their physical and mental well-being in the context of their family and community.”
Dr Walters said she looked forward to building relationships across the community.
“Health can bring our the best and worst in people,” she said.
“It can bring out their strengths and vulnerabilities in people and you get to know them and become privileged through seeing them through their health journey.”
Dr Walters said her initial interest in First Nations health was sparked in her final year of medical school where she received the opportunity to travel to New Zealand’s north island, working with a small community of Maori residents.
“I was immediately adopted by the Maori doctors and midwives who took me under their wings and made me feel so safe,” she said.
“It was amazing to be a part of that however you could also see the disadvantage that people suffered.”
Eager to bring that passion into the Mount Gambier clinic, Dr Walters said she was proud of Pangula’s journey over the decades.
“To see a well-established organisation and the impact it has made on the community and the engagement with elders is wonderful,” she said.
