When Rishoniy Caine arrived in a tiny outback NSW town with one general store, no gym and the task of fixing its diabetes problem, she decided to do things a differently.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Bundjalung woman knew from her experience as a nurse in remote Kimberly and Cape York communities the difficulties residents faced buying healthy food.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“If you can imagine the nearest town is 1,000 kilometres away, it can be very challenging to get fresh food. It’s almost non-existent,” she said.<\/p>\n
“Also a lettuce might be $16 and two litres of milk $12, while a can of coke is $2, a pie is cheap.”<\/p>\n
She incorporated what she learnt from elders about bush foods and traditional medicine into a pilot program in a rural NSW town that faces similar issues \u2014 Collarenebri, about 75 kilometres from Walgett in the state’s north-west.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Rishoniy Caine knows the challenges of healthy living in remote communities. (ABC Western Plains: Zaarkacha Marlan)<\/p>\n
Cooking and gardening lessons are provided alongside medical treatment and, instead of weights, participants are encouraged to lift cans.<\/p>\n
“Many of my patients are told to stop eating the foods they know and take tablets, but they’re not given the tools or support to make long-term change,” Ms Kaine said.<\/p>\n
“I wanted to educate people on why this is so important and then I needed to actually walk alongside them and support them with how to look after their own health long-term.”<\/p>\n
Tailoring treatment to limited resources<\/p>\n
The Healthy Communities Foundation program includes group and one-on-one sessions, in-home cooking visits, mental health support, nutrition education and culturally safe conversations about type 2 diabetes care and prevention.<\/p>\n
According to the Rural Doctors’ Network, 6.1 per cent of people in western and far western NSW live with type 2 diabetes, higher than the national average of 5.5 per cent.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Western NSW residents are also 40 per cent more likely to die from diabetes-related causes compared to the rest of the state.<\/p>\n
Some of the 29 participants in the program told Ms Caine they struggled to follow dietary advice from a specialist who visited town every three months, and healthy food was often unaffordable or unavailable locally.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Instead, the program promotes traditional foods like kangaroo, fish and native greens, and encourages growing or sharing food locally.\u00a0<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Riverside Collarenebri might not have a gym or specialist health services, but there are healthy options. (ABC Western Plains: Zaarkacha Marlan)<\/p>\n
Exercise is reframed as everyday movement \u2014 not gym workouts or costly routines \u2014 \u00a0but simple tasks like cleaning the house or walking around town.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“In Collarenebri, we don’t have a gym, but we do have a beautiful river and a small community that’s safe to walk around,” Ms Caine said.<\/p>\n
“I’m not asking people to buy expensive weights, I’m asking them to get that can of food out of your cupboard and use that.”<\/p>\n
Community part of the cure\u00a0<\/p>\n
One of Collarenebri’s approximately 600 residents, Kellie Henderson discovered she had diabetes in a consultation with Ms Caine 12 months ago.<\/p>\n
“It came as a great big shock,” she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Since joining the program, the 44-year-old has lost almost 30 kilograms, reduced her blood sugar to near-normal levels and reshaped her daily habits.\u00a0<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Rishoniy Caine says people can exercise with whatever they have on hand, like canned food or even rocks. (ABC Western Plains: Zaarkacha Marlan)<\/p>\n
“I find things fun \u2014 just going for a walk, time to myself, experimenting with different foods,” she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“If something’s worrying me, I’ll just ask Rishoniy and she’ll explain the good and the bad of it. She’s been honest and has explained things to me in a way that I could actually understand.”<\/p>\n
Rishoniy Caine shows Kellie Henderson how to prepare a diabetes-friendly meal. (ABC Western Plains: Zaarkacha Marlan)<\/p>\n
Ms Henderson said she still had “ups and downs” but felt better supported than in the past.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“I’m determined not to go back to where I was,” she said.<\/p>\n
“I’m feeling a lot happier.”<\/p>\n
A model for other communities\u00a0<\/p>\n
Ms Caine said restoring cultural and community connection was as important as managing physical health.<\/p>\n
“If you don’t look after your body, your mind is not well, and if you don’t look after your mind then your spirituality and connection to your community and your culture is not well either,” she said.<\/p>\n
Early results from the pilot program show improvements in weight, blood sugar levels, mood and social connection.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Herbs, vegetables and bush tucker are affordable options in remote communities. (ABC Western Plains: Zaarkacha Marlan)<\/p>\n
“People are becoming healthier, they’re losing weight, they’re happier, their mental health has improved,” Ms Caine said.<\/p>\n
“People are starting to share what they grow in their gardens. Communities are coming together and they’re starting to teach children and other people in the community. It’s become a real community approach.”<\/p>\n
Ms Caine presented the model at the Australian Primary Health Care Nurses Association’s national conference in July, and believes it could be a blueprint for other communities across Australia.<\/p>\n
“You could use this for any chronic disease or for health promotion to keep people well and educate people in holistic wellness before they become unwell,” she said.<\/p>\n
Final results from the pilot program are expected in November.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When Rishoniy Caine arrived in a tiny outback NSW town with one general store, no gym and the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":141369,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[64,63,96383,39708,1835,1298,2555,67473,137,500,9967,39849,96384,11510,22410,96385],"class_list":["post-141368","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-collarenebri","tag-communities","tag-diabetes","tag-diet","tag-education","tag-excercise","tag-health","tag-healthcare","tag-indigenous","tag-nurse","tag-rishoniy-caine","tag-solutions","tag-support","tag-type-2-diabeties"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141368","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=141368"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141368\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/141369"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=141368"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=141368"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=141368"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}