My name is Casey Slade, I’m a Ngiyampaa man from Ivanhoe NSW. I was born at Lismore base hospital but shortly moved to my dad’s hometown of Ivanhoe. We lived there for a few years before moving to Mildura and finally settling in Wentworth where I live when not at university. I was never sure what I wanted to do after high school until a few close family members needed to see specialists and I realised just how big of a barrier travelling so far for healthcare was, let alone the impacts it has on the person and their families.

The financial stress of having to travel so far, the mental stress from isolation if they cannot afford to have their mob stay with them, in addition being so far off country. It is situations like these that pushed me to healthcare and hopefully into a speciality where I can make some change and reduce the need to travel so far for life saving care.

This scholarship will allow me to dedicate my time completely to my medical education in hopes of bridging the gap so many rural and indigenous communities face. I’ve seen first hand how when in need of life saving or end of life care, people of these communities must travel hundreds or thousands of kilometres, off their country and isolated from their kin. It’s these experiences that motivate me in my studies and drive me toward my goals in research, practice and advocacy.

I’ll also have the freedom to pursue unpaid academic and clinical opportunities I otherwise wouldn’t have access to. Things such as internships, research or volunteering at Indigenous health initiatives, things that would be vital for me and my aspiration to publish research that would make more doctors aware of just how much of an impact receiving healthcare on country has on indigenous people and communities, while developing skills to better my future practice.

In addition to my research aspirations and my hopes to take down the barriers rural Indigenous communities face when accessing healthcare, I also hope to be a role model for the next generation of indigenous students. Through the continuation of my studies, as I am part of the Extended Rural Cohort, I will undergo placements in rural Victoria, and likely subsequently practice there, I hope to inspire Indigenous kids within these communities, showing them that tertiary education is not only attainable, but it can also be a catalyst for change, especially within healthcare.

Semester 1 of this year proved to be the hardest for me so far, both academically and otherwise. The body systems we studied went right over my head initially and I needed to dedicate a lot more time to studying, something that wouldn’t be possible without the support from the ARH scholarship. Despite the difficulty, when the results were released, I was able to fly out of my bed back home in Wentworth and share my success with my parents. I fear without this support, with less time to study from working to support myself, the result would have been different. That being said, for the relief and joy I was able to share with my parents, I am immensely grateful.

As of writing this, I recently got back from a brief rural placement in Bendigo as part of the year 2 medicine program. This has been a highlight of the course so far as it is my first exposure to the clinical setting. Particularly of note were three activities, a day at a GP clinic, a day at the hospital and the community visit. All of which gave me greater insight into the barriers rural communities such as those surrounding Bendigo face when accessing healthcare, for both acute and chronic conditions.

Where the hospital and GP visit reinforced my passion for medicine as a whole, the community visit reinforced my drive to bring healthcare closer to rural and indigenous communities. This was after visiting an ACCHO in Echuca where a presentation highlighted the additional barriers Indigenous people living rurally face when seeking healthcare, that being disconnect from country and isolation from mob. Being both a medical student and an Indigenous man, I have the privilege of seeing both perspectives. As a medical student, one can see that statement with no evidence presented and simply dismiss it and think “well anyone would have poorer health outcomes if they had to travel far for treatment and were alone during it” but as an Indigenous man I know it runs deeper than that. It effects our spiritual health and in turn our physical and mental health as well as engagement with healthcare, something vital for positive health outcomes. It is with this perspective I hope to pursue research to show numerical correlation to health outcomes of Indigenous people and distance from spiritually connected lands. This is something I only have the luxury of pursuing due to the support from this scholarship. For that I ca not express my gratitude enough.