The Albury Wodonga Aboriginal Health Service has reconnected community at a men's health check day, their first event since the lifting of COVID-19 restrictions.
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Men's health nurse Matthew Warry said the AWAHS men's pit stop program was designed to engage Indigenous men with health professionals and promote discussion about their physical and emotional health.
"We're trying to make men's health a normal behavior, basically," Mr Warry said.
"Men are pretty poor for getting together and talking about feelings, so that's why a day like today is pretty important."
He said men "didn't go to the doctor until something is going to fall off".
Mr Warry said after boys got their last vaccination at about the age of 16, they didn't tend to go see a doctor until they turned 50 and needed various check ups.
"Whereas women, on the other hand, there's lots of sexual health, even through pregnancy, childcare, there's lots of incidental opportunity for the doctors to see them," he said.
"Usually, it's mum that takes the kid to the GP for vaccinations, so it's that opportunistic time for the doctor to ask the mum a few questions, whereas dad typically doesn't go to these appointments."
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Mr Warry believes this is why men had lower health outcomes than women, but he said that for Indigenous men, the health outcomes were lower again.
"The disparity in health outcomes is quite significant between a non-Aboriginal female and an Aboriginal male," he said.
Data from the Australian Institute for Health and Welfare showed that in 2015-2017, life expectancy at birth for Indigenous Australians was estimated to be 71.6 years for males and 75.6 years for females, but for their non-Indigenous counterparts it was 80.2 years and 83.4 years, respectively.
Mr Warry said he thought the event had been successful at helping men discuss their health more easily and encouraged new people to visit the health service.
"I think there seems to be a lot of people here quite eager to get in and get checked," he said.
"It's good to see others are getting involved and not just regular attendants at the clinic."
About 30 men attended the event, going through various "stations" to check blood sugar, blood pressure, skin, height, weight and emotional health.
"The idea is to 'put your health over the pits', that's the tagline," Mr Warry said.
"If anything is flagged as needing follow up at the finish line, they'll get an appointment made to follow up with the appropriate health care professional."
AWAHS plans to run the event annually.
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