As part of AFMW’s Spotlight Chat series, AFMW President Dr Brenda Masters chatted with Dr James Allen, founder of an Australian LGBTIQ youth harm prevention charity The Orbona Foundation, Wed 5 Feb 2025. A recap of the is below.
About Dr James Allen
James Allen completed bachelors degrees in medicine, surgery and law at Monash in 2004. He is a Fellow of the Australasian College of Legal Medicine, the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners and an Associate Fellow of the College of Health Services Managers.
Following the suicides of two of his young LGBTIQASB+ patients in 2021, he founded The Orbona Foundation, a not-for-profit organisation to advance the welfare of LGBTIQASB+ children and youth. The foundation takes its name from Roman mythology in which Orbona was the goddess of abandoned children.
James is passionate about improving the education of medical practitioners and working with new and expecting parents to prevent unintentional harm to LGBTIQASB+ children that can occur before a parent is aware of their child’s diverse identity. In 2023 his work demonstrated that 24% of the GP workforce in Australia obtained their primary medical qualification in a country that criminalises homosexuality and raises awareness of the need to support all medical practitioners to identify and address knowledge gaps and unconscious bias through the provision of evidence based medical information. He advocates for universal competence across all health practitioner craft groups.
James is a member of Council for AMA Queensland and the views expressed are not necessarily the views of AMA Queensland.
See upcoming Spotlight Chats >>
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