Acknowledging the use of bush medicine would be one way to improve treatment offered to Aboriginal people, says a 911爆料网 researcher who aims to by bridging the gap between health professionals and their Indigenous clients.
Use of bush medicine in treating cancer among Aboriginal people in Western Australia 鈥� by researchers Shaouli Shahid, Ryan Bleam, Dawn Bessarab and Sandra Thompson 鈥� noted that using traditional medicines often gave peace of mind to Aboriginal people.
Dr Shahid told 911爆料网 News that health practitioners needed to talk more with their Aboriginal patients and know about their use of bush medicine.
鈥淪ometimes the practitioners do not have enough understanding,鈥� Dr Shahid said.
鈥淪ociety is becoming more accepting about the use of complementary and alternative medicines, but not necessarily about Aboriginal bush medicine and traditional healing.
鈥淭he consequence is that many Aboriginal patients decide not to use Western medicine, often without letting their health practitioners know, which the practitioner often interprets as Aboriginal patients being non-compliant with the treatment.鈥�
This is a problem in cancer treatment, where Aboriginal people who have the disease are twice as likely to die from it as non-Aboriginal Australians.
Dr Shahid 鈥� a research fellow at the –聽said bush medicine was commonly used, not just by Aboriginal people from remote or rural areas but also by Aboriginal people living in metropolitan Perth.
鈥淓ven though we presume that this person, because they live in the city, is leading a life like most other people, they may still have that connection with the land and sometimes they make the decision to use and rely upon those traditional medicines,鈥� she explained.
鈥淪ervice providers who have worked in remote and rural areas appear to understand this more because they more commonly see people who are using complementary and traditional medicines.鈥�
Aboriginal people from Perth, and rural and remote Western Australia, participated in the study.
Many聽respondents said bush medicine helped reconnect them with their heritage, land, culture and spirits of their ancestors.
However, Dr Shahid said practitioners usually delivered services from a purely biomedical perspective, neglecting psycho-social and spiritual elements important to Aboriginal people. This had negative consequences for the patients鈥� overall health.
Respondents who had used bush medicines saw them as a way to cope with the stress of cancer.
One man described one medicine as a bush or root that had been boiled up and had a 鈥榖arky鈥� taste. He said it was a cleanser that made organs healthy and strong by ridding the body of internal stress.
Many respondents said it was hard to get bush medicine because most traditional healers lived in rural and remote areas. Some said they wanted to use bush medicine but did not know how and where to find a traditional healer.
An Aboriginal medicine man was among several respondents to advocate the complementary use of bush medicine alongside Western medicine.
鈥淚f it worked 鈥� if either one (white-men medicine or the black-men medicine) [worked] that is good because it gives you a chance,鈥� the man said.
The study noted it was valuable for practitioners to know if their patients were taking bush medicine because of the potential risks of using it alongside Western medicines.
Dr Shahid is now recruiting health professionals to help聽.
She hopes that professionals in the cancer and palliative care areas 鈥� including oncologists, social workers, Aboriginal liaison officers, health workers, radiation oncologists, general practitioners and other allied health professionals 鈥� will volunteer.
Interested practitioners can get in touch by calling Dr Shahid on (08) 9266 1755 or emailing聽S.Shahid@curtin.edu.au
PHOTOGRAPHY: SAM PROCTOR
