Hawthorn Football Club’s Cyril Rioli joined Menzies School of Health Researcher, Dr Sheree Cairney who developed the flip charts and Illustrator Joseph Fitz at the St Vincent’s Education Centre in Melbourne.
Cyril’s image appears in the flip-charts, in an action shot to demonstrate what can be achieved with a healthy brain and body.
Cyril attended the launch of the flip-charts to show support for The Rioli Fund for Aboriginal Health, as a friend of the fund, which began in 2007 as a fundraising arm of the Menzies School of Health Research.
This particular project was funded by a $100,000 grant from the Lord Mayor’s Charitable Foundation, the Department of Addiction Medicine at St Vincent’s Melbourne and the Menzies School of Health Research who have developed the flip-charts as a culturally appropriate way to assist in the management of alcohol and cannabis problems for Indigenous people in urban, rural and remote settings.
The new flipcharts – The Grog Brain Story and The Gunja Brain Story –present their information in a format that is easily understood and appreciated as ‘truthful’ and the ‘full story’.
They describe how a healthy brain and nervous system work, the effects of alcohol (grog) and cannabis (gunja/yarndi) on the brain, lifestyle and behaviour; how addiction and the brain are related; how and why treatment programs work and the importance of treatment to overcome alcohol and drug problems.
The educational ‘flip-charts’ use plain English language and informative, culturally relevant images to explain complex scientific information about alcohol and cannabis and their effects on the brain and behaviour.
Project leader and Menzies researcher, Dr Sheree Cariney, said that the flipcharts were particularly important in helping to educate Indigenous people about the long term effects of drugs and alcohol.
“There are may tools around which have been developed to help health workers communicate with people about the impact of drugs, alcohol and other addictions."
“However, they are often not appropriate for use with Indigenous people due to language and cultural differences."
“The flipcharts we have developed use images which have been developed by an Indigenous illustrator and have been tested and found to be an appropriate tool to use in an Indigenous setting whether it be remote or urban.”
For more information about the flipcharts please visit www.menzies.edu.au/resources or to make a donation to the Rioli Fund for Aboriginal Health go to www.rioli.org.au to download a form.
