Elders act to keep ambulance crews safe
Senior Miriuwung elders have called on Kununurra’s Aboriginal residents to show more respect to St John Ambulance staff and volunteers responding to medical call-outs in Kununurra.
The elders were appalled to hear reports of ambulance crews being harassed, abused and even threatened with physical violence in recent incidents that have occurred in Kununurra’s Aboriginal Living Areas.
Miriuwung elders Button Jones and Ronnie Carlton and MG Corporation acting chairman Teddy Carlton said they were keen to tackle the issue of abuse towards ambulance staff and volunteers “head-on”.
“The ambulance service is very important for our mob,” Mr Jones said.
“It makes me really angry to hear about people abusing ambulance staff and volunteers who are just doing their job and trying to help.”
The ambulance service has identified about 20 houses in the ALAs where they will only attend with a male present as part of the attending crew or a police escort.
This can result in unwanted lengthy delays to response times.
“It’s not just abuse — some people think the ambulance is a taxi service but they’re really just abusing a system that’s there to help all of Kununurra, not just our people,” Mr Jones said.
St John Ambulance volunteer Rachelle Irving praised the local Miriuwung elders and MG Corporation for taking a proactive approach to improving links between the ambulance service and local Aboriginal people.
“It’s something that needs to come from the ground up and when it’s driven by the community, especially the elders in the community, I think that’s going to get the message through to the people who are causing problems for us,” she said.
Ms Irving said abuse of ambulance staff was an ongoing issue in Kununurra and made it difficult to recruit and retain volunteer staff.
“Sometimes it’s verbal abuse, sometimes there’s been things thrown at people,” she said.
“The ambulance has been punched on several occasions while we’re inside treating people and there have been times where we’ve had to evacuate.” MG Corporation will ramp up the Respecting Ambos awareness campaign.
