Shirley Ramos (Practice Manager) and SEWB team (from front) Rhonda Brim, Josie King (Team Leader) and Tracey Izumi. Picture courtesy Mookai Rosie Bi-Bayan.
Health services and accommodation provider Mookai Rosie Bi-Bayan is celebrating the official opening of a new clinic location for its medical service in Earlville, Cairns, referred to as Mookai Family Health.
Mookai Family Health will provide a new, fit-for-purpose home for Mookai Rosie’s medical service, which commenced operations 18 months ago. The service is available to all Torres Strait and Cape York clients including women and children, and now men.
The renovated Earlville facility features two doctors’ rooms, a treatment room, and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Worker rooms. There are also plans for an antenatal service including a birthing centre for the future.
Mookai Rosie has expanded its team to support the medical clinic, with new midwives, registered nurses, a nurse practitioner, and an additional GP.
Mookai Rose Chief Executive Officer Theresa Simpson, who was awarded the Leader of the Year at the QAIHC Awards for Excellence in 2022, said the new facility responded to an identified need for a culturally safe medical service for Torres Strait and Cape York clients.
“We pride ourselves on the relationships we build with our clients,” she said. “The clinic in Earlville will provide a culturally safe space for our clients where we can sit down and have a yarn about all sorts of things.
“We do not provide 10-minute consults. Our people really need to sit down and have a conversation, so they can open up. Our meetings might be an hour, so we can get down to the root of our clients’ health problems. It’s a very different environment.”
Until now, Ms Simpson said the medical service had been operating from Mookai Rosie’s Edmonton facility where its accommodation services are located. The accommodation service is for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women and children attending medical treatment in Cairns.
Ms Simpson said the organisation started looking for new premises when the Edmonton office reached capacity.
“We had received funding from the Queensland Health Growing Deadly Families Program to lease a new property, but after looking at local commercial leases, we realised the answer was right in front of us,” she said.
The organisation had operated from the Earlville facility for many years before its current location, but had been under used as an office space and venue for ad hoc service provision.
The Mookai Rosie team is looking forward to continuing its commitment to quality health services for clients who live in the Torres Strait and Cape York region.
“Many of our clients come to Cairns for medical treatment and they are expected to navigate the medical system, including finding accommodation and transport, by themselves,” said Mookai Rosie Quality and Compliance Officer Lavinia Coyle.
“It can be a very overwhelming experience, particularly for some clients who are away from home for long periods of time. We are here to help them navigate the system.”
As Mookai Rosie moves forward with the birthing centre, the service will a provide an alternative arrangement to the HHS/hospital in provision of midwifery services for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women.
This includes comprehensive and collaborative practice in culturally safe space, offering 7-10 day postnatal checks, postnatal and breastfeeding support, and a transportation service. Services will work in collaboration with the Cape Hospital and Health Service diabetes educator, endocrine team, and other key partners to ensure clients are linked with the right supports.
Mookai Rosie will also be introducing its very own Indigenous birth support (doulas) who will provide advocacy, and liaise for women birthing at the Cairns and Hinterland Hospital and Health Service.
This in turn, will increase support for the provision of primary health and complex care, where community and government health providers are integrated through proximity relationships.
Mookai Rosie offers health services and accommodation to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families from Queensland’s Cape York, NPA and Torres Strait regions while they are in Cairns.
Mookai Rosie also has medical, nurse practitioner and midwife clinics, a social and emotional wellbeing team, and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Workers to support clients’ health needs.
For more information, visit mookairosie.org.au.
