Healthy Living Practices

The UPK Report in 1987 identified nine principles for healthy living in remote Aboriginal communities. A tenth was later added.

1. Washing (especially the need to wash children under 5 years)
Children especially need to wash, or be washed every day, and faces and hands need to be washed even more often to reduce the prevalence of the 4 most common childhood illnesses:

• diarrhoea and respiratory diseases
• pneumonia
• skin infection
• trachoma

2. Washing clothes and bedding
Washing clothes and bedding is likely to reduce the exposure of adults and children to faeces, secretions, scabies and mites. Washing clothes is therefore likely to reduce the amount of skin infections and diarrhoeal disease.

3. Removing waste water, sewage and rubbish
Improved waste removal systems may help to prevent or reduce the amount of: water borne diseases; diseases carried by insects; parasites; acute and chronic diarrhoeal disease; and skin infections.

4. Maintaining food hygiene and water quality
Gastro-intestinal problems are often related to issues of water quality and food hygiene. The nutritional problems of Aboriginal people contribute to:

• low birth weight and failure to thrive (in infants)
• increased likelihood of picking up communicable diseases in childhood
• obesity, diabetes, hypertension and cardiovascular disease in later adult life

5. Reducing crowding
Crowding in houses contributes to the rapid and easy spread of many diseases in all age groups. These include: respiratory diseases, skin infections, enteric diseases, and a range of diarrhoeal diseases.

6. Improving dog health
Reducing the contact between unhealthy dogs and children in particular may help to reduce the amount of: skin infections, diarrhoeal disease, and chronic gut parasite infections in children and adults.

7. Controlling dust
High levels of dust in the air causes abrasions and inflammation of soft tissues of the body. So, the soft tissues are more likely to get infected. Dust in the air contributes to respiratory, skin and eye diseases. Dust also carries bacterial and viral infections, so levels of respiratory disease, skin infection, TB and asthma are also affected.

8. Controlling temperatures in living areas
Some groups such as children (especially if they are sick), older people, and others with chronic illnesses are more vulnerable to extreme or sudden changes in temperature.

9. Reducing risk situations (trauma)
Many physical injuries result from a range of accidents that could have been prevented. For example, burns, cuts, scalds, electric shocks, and poisoning. Some of these are life threatening.

10. Controlling insects and pests
Control of insects and pest populations is important because they can transmit disease through:

• contamination of food, water and cooking and eating utensils
• direct contact with eyes and ears
• biting

(Adapted from the UPK Report, Nganampa Health Council et al, 1987 by Allison Stewart and Chris Ashby (CAT Productions) in My Job: Better Environmental Health, booklet from Department of Health, WA