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July 1, 2014

Harvard teaching hospital and UOW to offer Global Indigenous Trauma Recovery Program

America’s Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) cast a wide net across Australian universities seeking a potential partner to deliver an Indigenous Trauma Recovery Program.

The third oldest general hospital in the United States and one of the major teaching hospitals affiliated with Harvard University has chosen UOW, recognising its leadership in First People’s health.

In March this year, Debra Hocking from UOW’s School of Medicine was contacted by Richard Mollica who is the Director of the Harvard Program in Refugee Trauma at MGH and Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School.

Professor Mollica through his research, clinical work and training is recognised as a leader in the treatment and rehabilitation of traumatised people and their communities.

He informed UOW that he had visited Australian Aboriginal communities, including communities in the Northern Territory and New South Wales, to examine the incidence of trauma.

Professor Mollica found an alarming amount of mental trauma resulting from colonisation processes and the government policies which affected, and still affect, the lives of Aboriginal people in Australia.

On his return to Boston, he undertook extensive enquiries across Australia with a view to establishing a new joint trauma recovery program which could integrate Western medicine and primary health care with culturally valid and scientifically effective approaches to Australia’s Indigenous communities. Professor Mollica identified UOW’s Faculty of Science, Medicine and Health (SMAH) as a fitting partner for this initiative.

Professor Mollica has invited Ms Hocking to be the Australian coordinator for a new Harvard Global Indigenous Trauma Recovery program. This program will need to be contextualised for the Australian Aboriginal environment and cultural requirements, as well as to meet Australian Qualifications Framework (AQF) criteria. Ms Hocking has a team of leading Aboriginal psychologists and trauma experts who are willing to contribute to this curriculum re-design. The first offering of this program, will be introduced at UOW in Spring Session 2015 and will also be offered globally. MGH has awarded Ms Hocking a scholarship to travel to Italy in November this year to undertake the Harvard Trauma and Recovery program, in preparation for the introduction of the MGH program at UOW.

At the same time, Ms Hocking is also renewing a SMAH, Masters of Indigenous Health, which will include specialised subjects that have been developed by a graduate of the Harvard Program, Emeritus Professor Judy Atkinson. Professor Atkinson, who has now retired, won The Dr Fritz Redlich Global Mental Health and Human Rights Award in Italy last year for a Master’s program she designed that incorporated similar specialised subjects. Professor Atkinson is enthusiastic about continuing her life’s work through her association with Ms Hocking and involvement in the re-design of the SMAH Masters course.

Ms Hocking is now in a position to blend the specialised subjects developed by Professor Atkinson, the Harvard Medical School Global Mental Health and Trauma Recovery program and the existing UOW postgraduate Indigenous Health courses, to offer what no other Australian university can offer, which is a specialised suite of Indigenous health and wellbeing postgraduate programs. Collectively, the courses in this suite will provide graduates with evidence based understanding of Indigenous health and wellbeing issues and a vital set of skills that will equip them to work with Aboriginal individuals, families and communities.

“This is a significant addition to UOW’s Master’s degree portfolio. The Indigenous suite allows us to deliver a globally recognised program devoted to improving the lives of Indigenous people of Australia and elsewhere” UOW Vice-Chancellor Professor Paul Wellings, CBE, said.

Media contact: Debra Hocking on + 61 417 074 696.