#endingtrachoma

Follow us on X: @endingtrachoma and on Facebook: Environmental Health Trachoma Project (EHTP).

The #endingtrachoma project is highly effective at improving outcomes for remote communities. Headed by Dr Mel Stoneham, the team service around 40 “trachoma at-risk” remote communities across WA and aim to prevent trachoma. The team works alongside the Environmental Health Directorate in WA Health.

Trachoma is a bacterial infection that affects the eyes. It is the leading preventable cause of blindness worldwide. It’s very contagious. It can be prevented by ensuring clean faces and by promoting household hygiene.

Learn more about the #endingtrachoma project: team actions

The team builds the capacity of Aboriginal Environment Health Practitioners (AEHPs) employed across sectors including Aboriginal Medical Services (AMS), local governments, Aboriginal Corporations and Public Health Units, to identify risk factor for trachoma inside community houses. Capacity is built through in-field mentoring, regional workshops and online support.

The #endingtrachoma team, work alongside AEHPs to provide emergency plumbing fixes enabling tenants to wash their hands and face. Any plumbing issues which cannot be fixed by the AEHPs are referred to the Housing provider using an App that generates PDFs complete with photographs. These are emailed directly to the Housing provider.

The #endingtrachoma team has increased the AEHP’s capacity to yarn with tenants about the importance of hygiene utilising the Indigenous Eye Health’s (Uni of Melbourne) co-designed message of 6 steps to stop germs.

Rotary’s Endtrachoma program has been working with the #endingtrachoma team to fund hygiene kits that complement the key message. SoapAid provide soap for the project. Provided to every house, the hygiene kits correlate with the 6 steps to stop germs message and also yarn about this important key message. This ensures a holistic approach and service. Contents of the hygiene kits include soap, coloured face flannels, shampoo and conditioner, toothpaste and toothbrushes, tissues, bandaids and coloured towels.

#endingtrachoma in the community

The #endingtrachoma team trains the AEHPs on how to use the App and facilitate follow up visits to communities on a 3 monthly basis. This ensures:

  • AEHPs reinforce the key message
  • the household health hardware is functional, or reported
  • reported issues have been managed, and
  • a high level of trust. 

In most regions, the #endingtrachoma team has forged relationships with local Housing Officers, who often come along to community visits and report maintenance issues directly to the Department of Communities.

To meet additional needs identified whilst conducting healthy home assessments, the #endingtrachoma team provide light bulbs so people can see their faces at night, install mirrors at child height, as many children cannot reach the mirror in the bathroom and provide towels hooks.

More recently, the #endingtrachoma team has commenced training the AEHPs 
on how to provide an environmental health response to diseases (e.g. RHD, scabies, otitis media, etc) that are the subject of an environmental health 
clinical referral (EHCR). View the fact sheets here.

This encompasses training the AEHPs on the risk factors for a range of environmental health related diseases, so they can plan appropriate responses for the family. The team has developed disease specific, picture-based factsheets for tenants to show what actions they can take within the home environment to reduce transmission of that disease to family or community members.

The team provide support to the AEHPs to develop the EHCR response which may include sourcing mattresses, providing pest sprays or ensuring families can wash their bed linen and clothes.

Rotary’s EndTrachoma program, funds two portable washer dryer trailers, to assist with EHCR responses and for use during routine healthy home assessments. These washer dryer trailers are managed by the #endingtrachoma team and located with regional partners to integrate into their environmental health programs.

Currently the washer dryer trailers are with NG Health in Warburton and Pilbara Meta Maya in the Pilbara. The washing machines are commercial grade, can wash and dry blankets and reach temperatures required to kill the scabies mite. The trailers are transported to communities throughout the NG Lands and Pilbara to support healthy home assessments and EHCRs.

Community Events

In the spirit of giving back, the #endingtrachoma team often organise a community event after a visit to thank the community for hosting them and allowing the team into their homes. The events vary but can include a visit from Milpa the trachoma goanna, a jumping castle, a BBQ and a movie night.

About the impact of #endingtrachoma

Evaluation of #endingtrachoma’s work has shown a reduction in the number of urgent or very serious plumbing issues within homes, an increase in community’s members awareness of home hygiene and use of tools such as towels, and a high entry rate into homes.

The #endingtrachoma team has developed several innovative health promotion resources and videos with community members and offered these back to local clinics to play in their waiting rooms. You can access these here.

Recently, the team joined forces with a large array of stakeholders to provide a community event that included healthy home audits, a community clean up, school health promotion sessions, eye checks, community BBQs and and we offered free clothes and a free haircut to all residents. We even painted one of the Elder’s homes! It was a great week. You can read the ABC coverage of the week here.

This project is achieving great success towards preventing trachoma and using key advocacy principles to do so. Building the capacity of local AEHPs is a key strategy to ensure sustainability. Entering people’s homes is a critical and successful point of difference with this program. Targeting adults through yarning and understanding the importance of functional health hardware complements existing school-based health education.

The creation of new partnerships has improved corporate understanding that a house is more than an asset and improved the process for reporting maintenance issues. The data generated through the project has been used to advocate with and on behalf of communities to get better housing standards.

Local partnerships and regular visits have instilled a level of trust, and the provision of this holistic program reinforces the important philosophy of ‘no survey without service’.

We would like to acknowledge and thank our key advocacy partners

Read more about #endingtrachoma