Aunty Beve takes out prestigious essay prize

The winner of the Medical Journal of Australia’s Dr Ross Ingram Memorial Essay Competition for 2009 is Beverley Spiers, a Justice Health Aboriginal Health Worker and Education Officer, based at Cessnock Corrections Centre, New South Wales.

Known by many as “Aunty Beve”, Beverley is a respected Elder of the Darkinoong community, and has been an Aboriginal Health Worker in the criminal justice system for 27 years.

Her essay, entitled Antecedents of chronic kidney disease in Aboriginal offenders in New South Wales prisons, describes a single day at Cessnock Corrections Centre, during which she and a Justice Health nurse screened 88 offenders for markers of kidney disease. In an essay filled with good humour and suspense, she outlines the process.

“I headed into the prison-yards — “Calling all Kooris!” I’d kick that Koori grapevine into gear fast to get the word out. The bait was a Koori-coloured red, yellow and black water bottle. One each. It wasn’t much, but then most of these guys have almost nothing.”

“D-Day arrived. By 7.30am I was already in the yards as the wings were emptying for breakfast. We rallied the Kooris to win the bet as soon as methadone parade was over. We
had 66 for sure, and others signing on, as the transports arrived with more offenders.”

But the project had a serious side: many of those screened in this and several other prisons showed signs of kidney disease, hypertension and diabetes. A tireless advocate for the health needs of Aboriginal people in prison, she concludes her essay with a plea for both education and access.

“For the many Aboriginal people locked in prison — especially those also locked in their self-destructive rituals of negativity, resentment and blame — experience shows that the process of health education in prison is only likely to start when they are targeted, brought together and encouraged into the caring hands of Justice Health’s wonderful Health Centres, with their specially trained and enthusiastic Aboriginal Health Workers.”

The Dr Ross Ingram Memorial Essay Competition runs yearly and is open to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who are working or studying in a health-related field. For more information about the competition, see http://www.mja.com.au/public/information/RossIngramCompetition.html. Beverley Spiers’ winning essay is published in the 18 May issue of the Medical Journal of Australia.