Victorian Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organization Case Study

The National Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation (NACCHO) was established in 1992, as the new national ACCHS umbrella organisation replaced the NAIHO. Many Indigenous communities have recognized their own independent since the 1970’s. In 1975, The Community-controlled health services (ACCHs) and an

Aboriginal health standards are so low today that all most half aboriginal men and a third of the women die before they are 45. Aboriginal people can expect to live 20 years less than non-indigenous Australians. Aboriginals generally suffer from more health problem and are more likely to suffer from diabetes, liver disease and glaucoma. The causes of their poor health and low life expectancy are poverty, poor nutrition, poor housing, dispossession of their traditional land, low education level, high unemployment, drug and substance use, unsafe sex, limited health care and diseases.

This paper will examine the healthcare of Indigenous Australian peoples compared to non-indigenous Australians. The life expectancy gaps between the two are a cause for alarm when statistics show Indigenous Australian peoples die on average 17 years earlier than non-indigenous Australians (Dick 2017). This paper will examine the social determinants of health to explore these factors and what interventions are in place to improve health status and life expectancy gaps for equality. The Federal Government has seen the implementation of the Northern Territory Intervention and the Closing the Gap Initiative. This essay will examine these two strategies and discuss the effectiveness of both policies. It will explain the differences, similarities and look at the success so far to

As health professionals, we must look beyond individual attributes of Indigenous Australians to gain a greater understanding and a possible explanation of why there are such high rates of ill health issues such as alcoholism, depression, abuse, shorter life expectancy and higher prevalence of diseases including diabetes, heart disease and obesity in our indigenous population. Looking at just the individual aspects and the biomedical health model, we don’t get the context of Aboriginal health. This is why we need to explore in further detail what events could have created such inequities in Aboriginal health. Other details that we should consider are the historical and cultural factors such as, ‘terra nullius’, dispossession and social

This essay will discuss the structure of Australia’s healthcare system, known as Medicare. It will also discuss the role of the Government and Non-Government agencies, and Medicare’s strengths and weaknesses. It will also address the health and illness issues that aboriginal and people from overseas face, and also the significance of implementing best practice and quality management

The Indigenous Australian people have practiced traditional “healthcare” for thousands of years, only since 1811, when the first hospital was built by convicts in Sydney, has there been any sort of “structured” healthcare, albeit basic. Nurses, both male and female convicts, that cared for the sick and infirm, were untrained and said to be of questionable character.

The inequalities in today’s indigenous communities are still strongly evident. Heard, Khoo & Birrell (2009), argued that while there has been an attempt in narrowing the gap between Indigenous and non Indigenous Australians, a barrier still exists in appropriate health care reaching indigenous people. The Indigenous people believe, health is more than the individual, it is

This has a number of perceived benefits such as being able to provide additional public dental care by expanding the public dental labour force significantly3. In particular, this is envisioned to allow for greater access to public dental care in rural areas3. The NHHRC report has suggested that this would also allow for graduate dentists to expand their skill set in an environment where they have more supervision and support before they potentially work independently in the private system1,2. Furthermore, the Department of Health suggests that this also might increase the retention of graduate dentists in the public sector, citing the high retention rate with the Voluntary Dental Graduate Year

Since the 1970’s, many Indigenous communities have established their own independent, community-controlled health services (ACCHs) and an over-arching representatives advocacy body, the National Aboriginal Controlled Community Health Organisation (NACCHO previously NAIHO) was formed in 1975.

During colonization, there was less facility of medication in rural or remote areas, this can be reflected even today. People living in rural or remote areas do not have the facility to travel to get the medical facilities for their treatment. In some remote areas of Australia, health care providers travel around to treat the indigenous people in remote areas.

Access to the communities is provided year round by Wasaya Airline and airstrips that are maintained by the Ontario Ministry of Transportation. Of course, each Aboriginal community is unique with its own set of traditions and ways of healing but my observation after working within the communities for over ten years is that they all suffer from improperished conditions and substandard housing. The local economies are primarily based upon government services (Indian and Northern Affairs) (INAC) and small business. Most of the reserves have six hundred people or less, and each community has a nursing station. The nursing stations are well-maintained functional buildings built in or about the early 1960’s and are maintained by Health Canada. First Nations and Inuit Health (FNIH) maintains responsibility for primary care services in the majority of the northwest Ontario reserve communities. In the north, nurses are the primary care givers working in an extended scope of practice, and client care is centrally coordinated by nurses working within interdisciplinary teams. The majority of the nursing and medical staff working for FNIH in the Sioux Lookout zone are Caucasian and do not come from local communities. This could outwardly appear as a reinforcement of power relations in the racial identities. There is only very limited cultural training given to employees when they are employed by FNIH. Medical advice and

There are a number of primary healthcare services that are provided by National Aboriginal Community Controlled Health and Clinical Services (NACCHO) such as 24 hour emergency care, preventive care, immunisation and early intervention i.e. health check-ups for all and prevention of complications in chronic illness etc. (NACCHO 2016).

The Commonwealth also expanded into other parts of health care, including Indigenous health[22] and community health and welfare in local communities.[23] At the same time, increasing community expectations regarding improved health care led to South Australia establishing a health commission to improve coordination of health services.

There are two Ballarat services that cater specifically for The Indigenous population. The Ballarat and District Cooperative, and The Ballarat Health

Whilst Fred was working in New South Wales, he was soon to establish the first Aboriginal Medical Clinic as he was becoming aware of the poor health conditions of the Indigenous Australians.