Closing the Gap Policy and its Impact on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health

HEALTH ASIGNMENT 1
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Health Assignment
Student’s Name
Institutional Affiliation
Professor’s Name
City
Date

HEALTH ASIGNMENT 2
Question 1
It is a government strategy whose objective is to advance the lives of the Aboriginal
along with the Torres Strait Islander individuals by minimizing disadvantage among them with
respect to child mortality, educational accomplishment, employment outcomes, and life
expectancy together with access to early childhood education (Brown, O’shea, Mott, McBride,
Lawson and Jennings, 2015). Rudd administration instituted the National Indigenous Health
Equality Council in 2008 and COAG endorsed the National Indigenous Reform Agreement the
same year November that set out six closing the gap objectives. Moreover, it is a formal
commitment created by all Australian authorities to accomplish Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander health equality in 25 years.
History
Policy of closing the gap was created in retaliation to the call of the social justice
report of 2005 along with the Close the Gap social justice campaign (Brown, O’shea, Mott,
McBride, Lawson and Jennings, 2015). Australian government agreed to operate in line with
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander individuals around March 2008 for the purpose of
accomplishing equity in well-being status along with life expectancy amidst Aboriginal and
Torres Strait Islander people and non-indigenous Australians by 2030 when they signed the
“Indigenous health equality summit statement of intent.” Here, they spend one point six billion
dollars over four years on its Indigenous Chronic Disorder Package and the package focused on
preventive health, primary healthcare, and expansion of the Indigenous workforce (Brown,
O’shea, Mott, McBride, Lawson and Jennings, 2015).
Through the policy of closing the Gap p the health results have improved since fewer
indigenous individuals are dying from chronic diseases. The mortality rate of aboriginal children

HEALTH ASIGNMENT 3
under five years since 1998 has reduced by 35 percent (Doran, Ling, Searles, and Hill, 2016).
From 1998 to 2016, Indigenous mortality proportions from circulatory diseases fell by around 45
percent. Also, since 2006 until 2015 death rates from kidney disease reduced by 47 percent and
since 1998 till 2015 death rates due to respiratory disease declined by 24 percent. Between 2008
and 2016 the percentage of site impairment along with blindness among Indigenous Australians
has dropped from six times to three times that of non-Indigenous Australians (Doran, Ling,
Searles, and Hill, 2016).
Moreover, the proportion of Indigenous individuals of the age of 18 years and above who
smoke has reduced significantly between 1994 and 2014-15 from 55 to 45 percent. As
Australians are on track to terminate trachoma as a public health issue by 2020, the frequency of
active trachoma in Indigenous children of five to nine years in at-risk communities reduced from
14 percent to 4.7 percent between 2009 and 2016 (Doran, Ling, Searles, and Hill, 2016).
There are several barriers or challenges which influenced the change in the health
outcomes of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander individuals. The direct costs of
consultations, medication, lack of knowledge on bulk billing operations and absence of financing
for indigenous health programs was one of the challenges (Gibson et al., 2015). Furthermore,
insufficient public transport services, poor timetabling, health services not available by public
transport and the absence of cultural awareness along with responsiveness in mainstream
attention. The health services being not aware of the number of indigenous clients, because staffs
are not self-assured of querying patients on their indigenous situation and the Indigenous
Australians, are not willing to identify themselves (Gibson et al., 2015). The last challenge is
concerning staffing issues whereby there are staff shortages specifically in rural and remote