I joined the staff of Anglicare in September 2009 as a PCW (Personal Care Worker), a title which later changed to HCW (Home Care Worker). A HCW looks after clients from top to toe. Help with pills, shower, meal prep, household cleaning, and chauffeur to doctor, hospital, supermarket or any other store. You name it, within the rules I’ve facilitated all manner of care for people from all over the Sunshine Coast!

Better Health with Self-Management

Sometimes during staff meetings there would be mention of the opportunity to train as a leader and then be part of a team to facilitate a course called Better Health with Self-Management. One afternoon in February 2015, a colleague rang me personally with news that a course would be running soon and that she felt I would be very good at it. I had by then made up my mind to say YES to anything that Anglicare offered. With the encouragement of other staff, I confirmed my willingness and was booked in, with my colleague Annie, to be one of the two new Leader Trainer delegates from the Sunshine Coast Branch.

Annie and I drove to Brisbane on Sunday afternoon and checked in to our hotel ready for the morning start of Day one. Monday morning revealed that we were 14 different delegates, mostly from Anglicare, and a couple of people from other community organisations.

Better Health is a two-and-a-half hour course run over six weeks addressing problems and providing solutions for many of the issues that confront people with chronic diseases.  The course originates from the Stanford University in California, USA and is based on leading research from all over America and other countries to help people with chronic illness.

For me it was transformational.  I had at the time completed 8 years’ continuous employment in the aged care and disability care sectors and, since 2011, with Anglicare in the community care sector.  The course brought many aspects of caring into sharp focus.

Self-management is quite simply – “What can I do myself to make my life better?”. The course helps you in a group setting to undertake measures that you can achieve and reap the benefits of wise choices.

I left the Brisbane course a “Trainer” and was empowered!  Not just for Anglicare work but all aspects of life. I know that with action planning and positive thinking life can be and is better.

During the time in Brisbane, our ‘master trainer’, Sue, told us of the course for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people – the LIFE course. Sue had first-hand experience in delivering the course in Townsville and other places. In 2016, our team also had the opportunity to deliver LIFE programs with the Aboriginal community on the Sunshine Coast. The planning for this undertaking was a collaboration between Anglicare and leaders from the local PHN (Primary Health Network) and NCACHS (North Coast Aboriginal Community Health Services).

One of the program sites was Gympie, a warm and cosy space in the PHN office in the main street. Not only did we have the participants in the group but we had a dietician (Sarah) from PHN, another field worker (Julie), and the program manager of Indigenous Health from the University of the Sunshine Coast, Melody. One of her students, Tracie, was going to assess the course and its impact on the participants.

You could forgive me for feeling a little daunted in the company of all these well-educated professionals sitting side-by-side with all the participants, but these feelings soon evaporated when I discovered we were all on the same page and longing for better wellness. Melody opened our time with a “Welcome to Country”. Mel’s understanding of where we were, the traditional owners and the necessity to take a few moments before anything else was said, was a magnificent moment. It set the mood for the day and I am grateful for that start.

The great thing is that no matter what the problem, you can ask to have it solved. Step by step, issue by issue, where you can get professional help etc.

The big event each session is ‘Action Planning’. In other words, what am I going to do in this next week? Go for a walk. See my doctor about issues. Ride a bike. Clean the house. Change my eating, alcohol drinking or smoking habits. Call on the Op shop to come and collect my unwanted stuff etc.

It was a thrill to hear participants proudly tell of their accomplishments.

The big test for me was to know first-hand of any lasting success. I wanted to know the efficacy of what I had been privileged to be a part of. It’s fine to have “feel-good” moments, but lasting improvement is the ultimate satisfaction.

Even though there have been unspeakable acts since the arrival of the first fleet, there is still within everyone’s reach the opportunity to have better health. All the participants had yarns of sorrow and yarns of joy. They knew that they wanted a happier and healthier future.

I have had the opportunity in my career at Anglicare to spend three months on secondment to the Longreach branch, and the chance to meet staff from the Queensland Health office, including the Indigenous staff. There is so much good-will in all of us to reconcile and action-plan our way into the future with new levels of understanding and joy. I hope to see Anglicare at the forefront of Reconciliation endeavours across our nation and will make myself available for any endeavours in which my gifts and talents would be most suitably used.

There is no alternative to reconciliation. We must yarn and confess and be forgiven and forge a new path for all Australians. I am deeply grateful for all that Anglicare has enabled me to undertake and experience.

Yours in Reconciliation – Cameron Webster