First Nations Working Party seeking volunteers

Do you have an interest in sharing your knowledge of sleep health with First Nations communities? Do you have an interest in understanding more about First Nations people’s sleep and how this might differ from a non-First Nations view?

The ASA First Nations Sleep Health Working party might be just the thing for you! The ASA First Nations Sleep Health Working party has been around for almost 10 years.

Over the years we have achieved significant inroads in working with and for First Nations peoples to improve sleep health, and in the process have created a body of knowledge and evidence with several co-developed sleep assessment tools, academic publications and government reports.

In this year of the referendum to give First Nations Australians the voice in our constitution, we would love to hear your voice in the The ASA First Nations Sleep Health Working party!

As we are not an official committee but only a working party, our meetings are two to three times a year, including one face to face at the annual meeting. Being a member of this working party does not have to be onerous but can be very rewarding.
Please see below our aims and objectives.

Aims:   

1. Improve awareness about the state of sleep health in First Nations populations (including First Nations Australians and New Zealand Maori) in Australasian health and clinical services,  for clinicians, researchers, sleep health professionals and policy makers and consequently improve sleep health in communities.

Objectives in no particular order:   

To facilitate the:

1. Promotion and importance of improving First Nation sleep health through high quality research and clinical practice amongst the ASA/ASTA membership and other associated professional organisations.
2. Investigation of the nature of sleep health in First Nations peoples.
3. Evaluation of the impact of poor sleep on development, performance, wellbeing and mental and physical health in First Nation peoples.
4. Investigation of the current barriers to sleep health for First Nations peoples and how to decrease these barriers.
5. Promotion of research and clinical practice in sleep within First Nations communities perhaps by co-developing evidence-based resources for conducting robust sleep research with First Nations peoples.
6. Collaboration with and training of First Nations health workers, and health systems in order to increase the First Nation workforce in sleep health. 

If you would like to join our working party please contact the chair, Stephanie Yiallourou [email protected] or Cassie Real, ASA Executive & Team Support [email protected]