ryan health

my grandmother raised me. from when i firststarted high school, she was a very sick lady, disabled and in a wheelchair. and in 2008,when i lost her, i didn’t want to lose any other family members, so it kind of inspiredme to get into this line of work so i could help my people break the chain, and make thenext step. my name’s ryan mcdonald, i’m the socialhealth worker at the townsville aboriginal and islander health service. my job is basicallylooking for emergency relief funding, and i also run the men’s health group. we makesure men are up-to-date with their health checks, checking for prostate cancer and allround health and wellbeing. you’ve got to be a team player to be inthis type of job because, especially in my

organisation, we don’t just work amongstourselves. we work with all the different units to get the best possible outcome forour clients. i’ve currently signed up to do my cert. iv in mental health. i also wantto go back to uni and become a doctor. well, for me, because me and my cousins runningaround, we didn’t really worry about doing the op and stuff at school. so for me to getinto uni, i’d have to do a bridging course and then, after that, six years down the track,hopefully i’ll be working for an indigenous organisation helping my people.i’ve spoken to my work and they’re quite happy to help me with my studies and thenput me on as an internship. i’ll be working and studying part-time. i think getting intohealth is one of the best opportunities you

could possibly take, because there’s somany different areas that you can move into. seeing my people healthier, live longer isa long term goal that i think the majority of indigenous people want to see.