What it does: Hospitals and Health Care
Mission: Ensuring we provide quality preventative and primary healthcare services to communities we service
Size and presence: Around 40 headquartered in Broome, Western Australia.
Best known for: Providing leadership and advocacy on Kimberley Aboriginal health issues.
The good bits: Best management, access to amazing knowledge & history, great colleagues
The not so good bits: Being non-Aboriginal & taking a job that by rights would be filled by an Aboriginal person
Frustrated with mainstream health services that did not meet the needs of the people, Aboriginal community groups in towns across the Kimberley began to set up their own medical services.
The Kimberley Aboriginal Medical Service Council (KAMSC) was established in 1986.
KAMS was initially formed as a cooperative between the BRAMS and EKAMS (now OVAHS) with membership from the then developing Halls Creek health service committee and Fitzroy Crossing community representatives.
These communities saw the benefit of sharing pooled resources and collective effort in the region. KAMSC changed to KAMS in late 2014.
The Kimberley Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Services come together to form KAMS. Through partnership these services form the KAMS governing body.
BRAMS was the first AMS established in 1979, in response to perceived deficiencies in the available health services. An aboriginal community action group elected a committee of management following a series of meetings.
BRAMS original used space at the St John of God Convent in Broome and consisted initially of a volunteer administrator, driver, Aboriginal registered nurse and receptionist. A doctor was later obtained from Congress in Alice Springs.
After years of community struggle, the support of other services such as Redfern Aboriginal Medical Service in Sydney and after a period of funding from Bread for the World, Commonwealth government funding was eventually secured through the then Department of Aboriginal Affairs (DAA) in 1986.
The East Kimberley Aboriginal Medical Service (Kununurra) EKAMS was incorporated in 1984 to meet the medical needs of the Aboriginal people who came to live in Kununurra after leaving the surrounding stations.
The fledgling service ran out of a fibro cottage in the town and employed 4 Aboriginal health workers, a nurse and later a GP. BRAMS provided a support role for the EKAMS governing committee during this early period of establishment.
EKAMS changed its name to Ord Valley Aboriginal Health Service (OVAHS) in 2001.
In 1994/1995 Winun Ngari Aboriginal Corporation in Derby decided to form a Health Working Party and seek funding to carry out consultations for the development of an Aboriginal community controlled health service in Derby.
In early 1995 Winun Ngari received funding from the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission (ATSIC) to carry out a comprehensive health planning exercise for the Aboriginal people and communities in the Jayida Buru region.
In April 1997 the Winun Ngari Aboriginal Corporation Committee agreed to establish a Derby Aboriginal Medical Service (DAHS) Committee. Funding from the Office of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health (OATSIH) was received in early 1997.
Derby Aboriginal Health Service (DAHS) was incorporated in June 1997 and opened its doors to the public in December 1998, with an official opening ceremony on December 10, 1998.
Yura Yungi Medical Services (YYMS) in Halls Creek was established in 1987 after community leaders lobbied for a health service to meet the needs of the Aboriginal people who left stations from surrounding communities to live in Halls Creek.
Here’s how organizational culture might have been handled in the past: The CEO commissions the Human Resources department to produce an effective company culture. HR designs a campaign to tout a mission statement and core values that the CEO and senior management developed. HR also implements some employee perks like free snacks in the break room or monthly birthday celebrations. Maybe they also field an annual employee engagement survey and report results back to the CEO. And then with their culture-building to-do lists completed, the CEO and HR move on to other priorities.
This approach no longer works for several reasons. For one, Covid-19 has upended how leaders interact with employees and how coworkers connect with each other. The need to adapt quickly and remain flexible during the pandemic has also revealed the ineffectiveness of a top-down leadership approach. Next, company culture has grown in importance, thanks to recent high-profile culture crises, the intensified push for DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion), and the continuing battle for talent. Culture has become a strategic priority with impact on the bottom line. It can’t just be delegated and compartmentalized anymore.
At KAMS this approach is already in place, one in which everyone in the organization is responsible. Importantly, this model doesn’t relegate culture-building to an amorphous concept that everyone influences but no one leads or is accountable for. Shared responsibility for culture throughout an organization involves different people and functions within the organization playing different roles in developing and maintaining the culture.
Standard recruitment process.
For people working at KRS, there are opportunities to gain experience by doing relief work across the Kimberley and exploring a variety of roles. Some of our roles at KRS include pre-dialysis nurses, renal access nurses, chronic disease management roles, transplant coordinators, chronic kidney disease educator roles, Aboriginal Health Workers and a variety of other roles.
Our healthcare workers are brilliant. I have the opportunity to work with an amazing Aboriginal Health Worker and this enriches our work. They understand family connections, which is great for patients.
At KAMS, our people support and care for one another, at work and beyond.
Enjoy an attractive salary package including a base salary of $61,790 to $64,780 plus super and a further host of benefits
Aboriginal communities in the Kimberley have long advocated for community-led culturally appropriate strategies and resourcing to reduce self-harm and prevent suicide in the region.
Aboriginal individuals, families, and communities in the Kimberley have long advocated for Aboriginal-led, place-based strategies to reduce and prevent self-harm and suicidal behaviours in the region. Supported by significant investment and long-term commitments, Aboriginal people and communities are best placed to coordinate culturally secure suicide prevention activities which achieve meaningful outcomes. While various commitments have been made and activities undertaken over the years to reduce the impacts of self-harm and suicide for Aboriginal communities in the Kimberley, these have not been designed as a single and cohesive plan for the region.
The KAMS SEWB Team delivers SEWB training and information sessions to SEWB services and community members across the Kimberley region, as well as building capacity to become SEWB training facilitators for selected programs (Train the Trainer).
Training and information sessions are provided free of charge, and prioritised to community members, KAMS member services and priority organisations identified within funding contracts. Where possible, other staff of organisations not listed as a priority within our funding contracts will be able to participate in training and information sessions as places are available.