Ghanian refugee Bright Achirem has just finished the HSC and landed a full-time job in the food industry, but three years ago he thought he had no future.
“I was really nervous when the doctor told me I had an infection in the brain,” the 19-year-old said.
“Really nervous I wouldn’t survive.”
Mr Achirem was desperately sick with a cerebral epidural abscess, which caused eye problems and debilitating headaches and required medication and surgery.
“It was really bad because my eye would just swerve in and just go up,” Mr Achirem said.
“I told the doctor and I had to have an operation, and I was sad.”
The condition was diagnosed through the Optimising Health and Learning project, a school-based screening service for new migrants and refugees.
“The school noticed that I got sick sometimes, so they took me to the hospital and then they sent me to a specialist and they gave me some antibiotics and I got better,” Mr Achirem said.
The service has been credited with helping hundreds of new arrivals deal with medical issues that otherwise may have gone undetected and untreated.
In many cases, such as Mr Achirem’s, the treatment has been vital to removing barriers to success in education and employment.
However, there are fears funding issues could spell the end of the service, which started as a pilot program at Sydney’s Beverly Hills Intensive Learning Centre with funding from the National Australia Bank.
The program also receives State Government funding via a local area health service, but that is due to expire at the end of the financial year.
‘Almost every child has one condition’
Rob Lindsay, who was the deputy principal at Menai High School when Mr Achirem was a student, said the condition caused major problems for his studies.
“He often had headaches and so wasn’t able to concentrate,” Mr Lindsay said.
“He wasn’t doing particularly well at school.”
Mr Lindsay said he feared other refugee students and migrants would not be able to access the same help Mr Achirem had, with the screening program due to run out of funding mid-next year.
He said, without the program, hundreds of children would leave Intensive English Centres to begin school with “a significant health issue that’s going to impact their capacity to learn”.
The program involves nurse-led screening to check for hearing and vision problems as well as iron and vitamin deficiencies and more serious illnesses.
It differs from other programs because it is based in schools.
The Sydney Children’s Hospital provides health professionals for the program.
The head of the hospital’s Department of Community Child Health, Dr Karen Zwi, said the program had proven cost-effective.
“We’re not wasting our time screening because almost every child [we see] has almost one condition,” she said.
“In fact I think we found 80 per cent had two or more conditions that we were able to do something about.
“Our dream always has been to expand to every Intensive English Centre in New South Wales.”
Health department considers options for future
Katherine Burchfield, the integrated care executive director at NSW Health, said options were being explored to continue the program.
“NSW Health is also looking at how to align it with other programs such as the network of refugee health services,” she said.
Mr Lindsay said he could not understand “why the Minister can’t or won’t make a simple decision to embed it in the budget”.
“It would cost less than 0.005 per cent of the health budget and we can demonstrate that it’s going to save hundreds of thousands of dollars on the other side of the ledger,” he said.
Greens MP John Kaye agrees.
“It’s not a lot of money but it will save money in the long run,” he said.
“NSW Health say they recognise the value [of the program] but they’re not prepared to put the money into it.”
Mr Achirem has now learnt how to manage his condition and is preparing to study a hospitality course in 2015 funded by his employer.
He said he felt lucky and loved his job.
“You feel happy to know that you’ve got a career in front of you,” he said.
“Just happy all the time because the people are nice.”