HCA Highlight: Meet the team - Rob Curry
This week we would like to highlight the vital work of our long-term colleague but comparatively new staff consultant – Rob Curry.
Situated on the North Coast of NSW, Rob is a health consultant who has worked for over 30 years in Aboriginal Health, mainly in the Northern Territory. He started out in a clinical role as a physiotherapist and later became a health programs manager with the Tiwi Health Board and with AMSANT, the peak body for Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisations in the NT. After 30 years in the Top End, Rob relocated to the Mid North Coast NSW in 2013 where he established a health consultancy business and undertook a range of small projects in the region in this capacity. In 2016 he developed resources and the narrative for the Mid North Coast Aboriginal Health Accord working with the Mid North Coast LHD, the local ACCHSs and the North Coast Primary Healthcare Network in collaborative action for Aboriginal health.
Rob has significant experience in cross-cultural primary health care planning, service delivery and program management in rural and remote health care. In these contexts he has paid particular attention to aged and disability care in remote Aboriginal Australia and remote area health workforce planning and development. His approach to working in these areas has been influenced by the international philosophy of Primary Health Care and the Australian model of Aboriginal community-controlled health service provision. At the same time Rob has played representative roles for rural allied health, having been a long-term member and past President of SARRAH (Services for Australian Rural & Remote Allied Health), and was an inaugural director of the North Coast Allied Health Association in NSW.
Throughout his career Rob has become familiar with the principles and practice of adult learning and community development to build capacity in marginalised communities. He is also accustomed to the ‘learning by doing’ approach to training and skills development, this being the learning form adopted by remote Aboriginal people within a cross-cultural context, and his efforts to support the Aboriginal Health Worker profession and the concept of community-based rehabilitation have affirmed for him the merits and relevance of LBD.
This all evinces Rob’s invaluable knowledge and experience towards our work and research into Aboriginal health, as well as the broader health sector.
Rob admits to being a bit of a ‘dag’ (he is a Collingwood supporter after all), but his commitment to attaining quality outcomes for all projects in which he is involved is second to none, and especially for projects that target vulnerable populations. Rob relaxes with bush regeneration on his rural property, beach walks and enthusiastic, but inexpert, forays on the golf course.
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