Rita has worked her entire career, spanning over 30 years, for the Children’s Hospital at Westmead, within the Social Work department, moving recently to the newly established Aboriginal Health Unit.
An inspirational and proud Aboriginal woman, she went on a journey of community collaboration across NSW to talk about kidney health and chronic disease, which led to the establishment of a public health surveillance program looking at the kidney health of Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal children.
Rita is always available and willing to share the painful history of Aboriginal health from her experiences of Aboriginal children being segregated from non-Aboriginal children at Royal Alexandra Hospital for Children at Camperdown.
A testament to Rita’s tireless work, the Antecedents of Renal Disease in Aboriginal Children and Young People Study was established in 2002 and has progressed into an 18-year prospective, population-based cohort study, involving 3758 young people (2155 Aboriginal and 1603 non-Aboriginal) across NSW
This is an example of self-determination for communities to develop Indigenous specific interventions to change the story of chronic disease in our mob.
Transcript - Rita Williams
