Closing the Gap Strategy for Improving Health and Education of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples

The Closing the Gap strategy was introduced to improve the health and education of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples. It has led to an improvement in life expectancy, a decline in child mortality rates, and an increase in education attainment. The strategy has the potential to impact social determinants of health and education attainment. Recent statistics show progress towards achieving the targets set by the Council of Australian Governments.

CLOSING THE GAP STRATEGY
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PART 1:Closing the Gap strategy
The social justice report of 2005 released by professor Tom Calma who was by then
serving asAboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner led to the
introduction of the Closing the Gap strategy .In the report, the Social justice commissioner called
for a commitment by the Australian Government into the realization of life expectancy and
health equality for Torres Strait Islanders peoples and the Aboriginals in a period of 25 years
(Australian Indigenous HealthInfoNet,2015).
Since its introduction the strategy has been of major significance to the health of the
Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islander Peoples. On an average Torres Strait Islander Peoples and
the Aboriginals have a longer life expectancy than before. The main causes of death among these
groups such as stroke and heart attack are on the decline. Among the indigenous males, their life
expectancy has increased by 0.32 years since the period 2005/2007 while that of the females has
increased by 0.12 years. These statistics are expected to keep rising.
The strategy has also led to a decline in child mortality rates among the Indigenous
populations especially for deaths associated with chromosomal and congenital conditions as well
as other conditions characteristic of the prenatal period. The period between 2006 and 2015 has
recorded a major decline in major causes of child mortality among the Aboriginal and Torres
Strait Islanders. Statistics from 1998- 2015 shows a significant decline in Infant mortality rate by
66 percent. A decline of 18% was also recorded in the period between 2008 and 2015.Data from
2016 analysis has shown progress towards the target. This is an improvement from the
2015 Statistics which had indicated that the track was not on track (Australian Human
Right Commission, 2017).

An improvement in the health quality and life expectancy among the two groups has
also enabled them to engage more in business as demonstrated by a 12.5 percent growth
rate among Indigenous businesses. This is deemed the highest compared to other sectors
making up the Australian Economy .In addition, the strategy has also led to an
improvement in numeracy and literacy among the two indigenous groups besides
improving the number of enrollments of Torres Strait Islanders and Aboriginal Children
in early childhood education to over 14,700. In addition it has increased the number of
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children staying in school throughout the year. Data
from 2015 shows an 87% ECE enrollment rate in among indigenous children as compared
to 98 enrollment for non-Indigenous children. In addition, the attendance rate for the
enrolled Indigenous children was found to be 92% compared to the 96% attendance rate
among the non-indigenous children(Australian Human Right Commission, 2017).
With an improvement in education attainment, it is expected that the strategy will
continue to open greater economic opportunities for the Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander hence improving their lives. Data from 2016 indicates that the early childhood
education target is on track (Australian Human Right Commission, 2017).
PART 2: Engaging with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples.
Social determinants of heath refer to the social and economic conditions in which
individuals are born, work, live, grow and age .The main determinants of these conditions are the
distribution of resources, power and money. These circumstances are responsible for differences
in group and individual’s health status. Social determinants of health associated with the
socioeconomic position are used to explain the variations of health outcomes among the
indigenous Populations as well as explaining the gaps witnessed in the health status of Non-

Indigenous and Indigenous Australians. As a reason for these disparities the well-off have better
health and live longer as compared to individuals of lower incomes. The lower the
socioeconomic position the worse the heath status and vice versa, research has shown that an
understanding of social determinants of health is of major importance in understanding and
finding solutions to the health gap between the Indigenous and Non-indigenous Australians
(Zhao, Wright, Begg & Guthridge,2013).
An empowered community Initiative is collaboration between governments and
indigenous communities in setting up priorities effectively apply for to fund and improve
services at the community level. In an empowered community Initiative the culture of indigenous
communities as well as their participation is highly prioritized. Empowered community initiative
is aimed at empowering communities, individuals and families to better their lives. Empowered
community initiative works on the assumption that communities, individuals and families are
better placed to understand what their priorities are as well as what works and what doesn’t work
for them. The initiative seeks to institute the necessary changes among the community by
prioritizing the input of communities by ensuring that they make as many decisions as possible.
It also seeks to ensure that communities influence decisions touching on their health and overall
well being (Altman & Taylor,2018). Empowered community initiative seeks to build decision
making abilities and capacities to enable them to take part in decisions making processes
confidently.
Among the Indigenous Australian communities, the initiative seeks to establish a
balanced and authentic collaboration between Corporate Australia, the Government and
indigenous Organizations. It is a transformational reform centered on empowering communities
through empowering individuals. The initiative is led by indigenous people due to the fact that

because it is them whose lives are affected they should have a bigger say and influence over
decisions touching on their well being (Ilton, Walsh, Brown, Tideman, Zeitz & Wilson,2014).
Closing the Gap strategy was introduced with the aim of improving the lives of Torres Strait
Islanders and the Aboriginal (Australian Indigenous HealthInfoNet, 2015).
The Introduction of the strategy was followed by setting up of targets by the Council of
Australian Government s (COAG) in 2008.These targets were aimed at bridging the gap between
health outcomes of the non indigenous and non-indigenous Australians (National Congress of
Australia’s First Peoples,2017). The targets set by the Council include closing the gap in life
expectancy by 2030; reductuion of mortality rates among the indigenous Children below five
years within a decade; ensuring a 95% enrolment rate among the indigenous children aged four
in ECE by 2018; reduction of the numeracy, writing and literacy gap among indigenous children
by 2018 and bridging the gap in employment outcomes between the indigenous and non-
indigenous by half by 2018 (Australian Human Right Commission, 2017).
The closing the gap initiative has the potential of impacting the Social determinants of
health for the Torres strait Islanders and The Aboriginals .it has the potential of reducing the life
expectancy gap between the Indigenous Australians and the non-Indigenous Australians. Before
the initiative was rolled out, a huge disparity existed in the life expectancy gap between these
groups (Durey & Thompson, 2012). Successful implementation of the initiative also has the
potential of reducing the mortality rates among the Aboriginal’s and Torres Strait Islanders.
Statistics have shown the life expectancy of the Indigenous Australians born between the period
2010 and 2012 to be 10.6 years lower compared to that of the Non-Indigenous Australians
(Parker & Milroy, 2014). One potential impact of this strategy is therefore bridging this gap. The
health Inequality between the Indigenous and non indigenous Australians is a known fact.

Substantial inequalities have been noted in the areas of mental health, infant health, chronic and
communicable diseases. An additional potential impact of this strategy will be enhancing the
equality in the health status of the Indigenous and non indigenous Australians (Markwick,
Ansari, Sullivan,Parsons & McNeil, 2014).
A huge proportion of the Indigenous Australian’s Students achieving Numeracy and
literacy benchmarks has remained considerably lower compared to the Non-Indigenous
Australians (Behrendt, Larkin,Griew & Kelly, 2012). This has also been the case with the
number of students above or at the Minimum reading and Numeracy standards, although this has
recorded major improvement between 2008 and 2014.The initiative has the potential of bridging
this gap in numeracy and literacy among the Torres Strait Islanders and The Aboriginals. By
empowering the individual’s through education and other strategies, the initiative will also
enhance the economic participation of the two groups by bridging the gap in employment and
capacitating them to initiate and run businesses.
Recent statistics show that three of the targets set in the closing the gap initiative are
on the on the path of their achievement. These include the target to reduce child mortality
gap which has declined by 35%.The target to increase the number of enrollments in early
childhood education for all indigenous children aged five is also on the right
course(Australian Human Right Commission, 2017). In 2016 alone the rate of enrollment was
at 91%.This is also the case with the target of closing the gap in school attendance (Australian
Human Right Commission,2017).2017 statistics showed an 83.2% percent enrollment rate
which was 9.8% lower compared to that of the students belonging to Non-Indigenous
Australians. This is therefore a major improvement. The near achievement of these targets
shows that successful implementation of the closing the gap strategy can have a major

positive impact on the Torres Strait Islander and Aboriginal’s social determinants of
health (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare,2017).
References
Altman, J., & Taylor, J. (2018). The 1994 National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Survey:
Findings and Future Prospects. Canberra, ACT: Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy
Research, Research School of Social Sciences, College of Arts & Social Sciences, The
Australian National University.
Australian Human Right Commission,. (2017). Social determinants and the health of Indigenous
peoples in Australia – a human rights based approach | Australian Human Rights
Commission. Retrieved from https://www.humanrights.gov.au/news/speeches/social-
determinants-and-health-indigenous-peoples-australia-human-rights-based
Australian Indigenous HealthInfoNet. (2015). what is closing the gap? Retrieved from
https://healthinfonet.ecu.edu.au/learn/health-system/closing-the-gap/gap
Australian Human Right Commission,. (2017). Close the Gap - Progress & Priorities report 2017
| Australian Human Rights Commission. Retrieved from
https://www.humanrights.gov.au/our-work/aboriginal-and-torres-strait-islander-social-
justice/publications/close-gap-progress-0
Australian Institute of Health and Welfare,. (2017). Indigenous Australians Overview -
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https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports-statistics/population-groups/indigenous-australians/
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Behrendt, L. Y., Larkin, S., Griew, R., & Kelly, P. (2012). Review of higher education access
and outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
Durey, A., & Thompson, S. C. (2012). Reducing the health disparities of Indigenous Australians:
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Ilton, M. K., Walsh, W. F., Brown, A. D. H., Tideman, P. A., Zeitz, C. J., & Wilson, J. (2014). A
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Markwick, A., Ansari, Z., Sullivan, M., Parsons, L., & McNeil, J. (2014). Inequalities in the
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National Congress of Australia’s First Peoples,. (2017). Redfern Statement | National Congress
of Australia's First Peoples. Retrieved from https://nationalcongress.com.au/redfern-
statement/
Parker, R., & Milroy, H. (2014). Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander mental health: an
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Zhao, Y., Wright, J., Begg, S., & Guthridge, S. (2013). Decomposing Indigenous life expectancy
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