ABSTRACT

This chapter provides examples of interventions, and describes some lessons learned from various areas of Indigenous health. ‘The challenges of a community-based intervention: The Looma Healthy Lifestyle project’ describes an intervention that aimed to improve nutritional knowledge and practice in a remote community setting in Western Australia. A national review of injury prevention and safety promotion activity conducted in 2003–04 identified over 300 Indigenous injury prevention projects. The review revealed that a considerable amount of injury- and safety-related activity is currently carried out within Indigenous communities, although relatively few of the interventions were specifically set up as ‘injury-prevention’ programs. Despite the larger Indigenous populations of the major cities and their similar health profiles, very few injury- and safety-related interventions targeted Indigenous people living in urban or suburban areas. Interventions and sustainable programs are a way of improving the health of Indigenous people and communities.