Rapid Expansion of Aunty Fay Carroll Programs

28 Apr 2021

In 2014 a local Aboriginal Elder, leader and equality advocate joined forces with St Vincent’s to help our health service address the inequities in health and employment faced by our Nation’s First Peoples. Her name was Aunty Fay Carroll.

Alongside CEO A/Prof Anthony Schembri, Aunty Fay was the inaugural co-chair on the St Vincent’s Dalarinji Aboriginal Health Committee that oversees our Organisation’s response to the complex health issues that Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander people can sometimes face.

During her time with St Vincent’s, Aunty Fay provided invaluable advice, support and mentorship to our health service in the delivery of care to Aboriginal people. She was, and always will be, a very special part of the St Vincent’s team and to honour this, following her illness and subsequent death, St Vincent’s launched the Aunty Fay Carroll Training Program, with the aim to help Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander people gain an entry in to healthcare as a profession.

Commencing with a focus on nursing, the Aunty Fay program was geared toward Aboriginal people looking to start their career as an Enrolled Nurse. Between 2019 and 2020 the program extended to Assistants in Nursing, as well as Wardpersons through the qualification of Certificate III in Health Services Assistance.

This year, St Vincent’s is proud to extend the Aunty Fay Carroll Program to Pathology, as well as Administration, via Certificate IV in Health Administration.

To date, eight Aboriginal people have graduated from the Aunty Fay Program with a further 21 students currently enrolled in the 2021 program, three of whom will start their careers with St Vincent’s Pathology at SydPath on completion of their studies.

This exciting program is dually beneficial for our Aboriginal community and our health service. It is well understood that having more Aboriginal staff within a hospital setting results in better health outcomes for Aboriginal people, and by providing education and employment opportunities, we can move toward achieving employment parity for our Nation’s First People.

Importantly, this program ensures that Aunty Fay’s legacy lives on at St Vincent’s, not just in our hearts but in the next generation of Aboriginal healthcare leaders.

For more information about this program see www.svhs.org.au/joinourmob

Aunty Fay Carroll students 2021 with TAFE and St Vincent's staff.