Closing the Gap: A Policy for Improving Indigenous Health in Australia

This essay explores the 'Closing the Gap' policy in Australia, which aims to improve the health status of indigenous Australians. It discusses the effectiveness of the policy and alternative strategies for closing the health gap. The essay also examines the progress made so far and the challenges that still exist.

Running head: HEALTHCARE
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Introduction
The health status of the indigenous Australian have been the topic of debate for centuries.
There lies strong evidence regarding the fact that indigenous population of the country
experience greater risk of disease as compared to the non-indigenous population. According to
the data from the hospital, the indigenous people do not get equivalent care and the victims of
discrimination (Altman, Biddle & Hunter, 2018). The government of Australia has thus
committed towards the achievement of equality in terms of stats of health and life expectancy for
the indigenous people of Australia by the year 2031. The thesis statement of the essay argues
with the effectiveness of the governmental policy. The essay will explore the public health,
‘Closing the Gap’; towards the improvement of the health status of the indigenous Australians.
Discussion
Closing the Gap Strategy, COAG was developed by the government of Australia
following the sign of the close the gap statement of Intent at March 2008. The council of the
Australian governments including the leaders of the federal, territory and state committed to this
strategy for closing the gap among the health status of the indigenous and the non-indigenous
population in Australia. Closing the gap is the governmental strategy aiming to reduction of the
disadvantage among the aboriginal and the Torres Strait islander population in the context of
their life expectancy, mortality rate among the children and the aged population within the
community (Georges et al., 2017). Furthermore closing the gap was developed in response to the
call of the report of the social justice of 2005 and the campaign of the close the gap social justice.
The historical context of the policy can be illustrated a the formal commitment that is made by
the government of Australia for the achievement of the health equality of the aboriginal and the

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Torres strait islander people within the range of 25 years. Apart from the life expectancy, access
to health care habits and the , mortality rates, this strategy of the government of nation was
developed for targeting the educational achievement and the employment outcomes together
with the addressing the racism and the colonialism faced or experienced by the aboriginal and
Torres strait islander people n Australia.
Closing the Gap is the overarching strategy of the nation for overcoming the persistent
disadvantages by the indigenous community of people in Australia (Cashman et al., 2016). The
policy has in total six of key goals throughout the social and health policy spectrum with the
collaboration of the commonwealth Government which is held accountable for the progress via
the annual reports of the public release (Lawton et al., 2015). There has been significant gain in
some areas due to the result of the concerned efforts for overcoming the disparities that the
indigenous community people had been facing, though no progress has been reported regarding
closing the gap in the context of life expectancy among the aboriginal Australians and non-
aboriginal people.
Source – (Angell, Eades & Jan, 2017)
The figure above illustrate progress of the targets of the policy of Closing the gap
towards overcoming the disadvantages and the challenges faced by the aboriginals and Torres

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strait islander population of the Australia (Trivedi et al., 2017). The effectiveness of the policy
has been widely questioned in several of the academic literature, in the media and the
governmental annual report. Some of the evidences that were used for the development and the
implementation of the closing the gap policy includes the investments of resource,
implementation of effective strategies that are vital for closing the gap (Closing The Gap, 2019).
Furthermore the decisions of resource allocation together with the recognition of the imperative
factors influencing the policy success rates were gathered as evidences before implementing the
policy on the nation.
In the context of the examination if the assessment of the alternative strategies and
options in the implementation of policy, closing the gap, the council of Australian government
recognizes the need for collaborative and formal partnership with the aboriginal community
people since they are the essential agents of change (Georges et al., 2017). The formal
partnership is an alternative strategy apart from the monetary investments towards the
development of the community people. This partnership must be on the basis on the mutual
respect and the acceptance regarding the direct engagement and negotiation towards productive
and effective engagements (Altman, Biddle & Hunter, 2018). Some of the other options includes
the development of requisite architecture for the national approach. Closing the gap strategy
must be co-designed with the aboriginal and Torres Strait islander people with the involvement
of the tripartite partnership among the indigenous population in Australia. For underpinning the
closing the gap strategy, it is essential for the government of Australia to reinvigorate the
architecture that is required for addressing the indigenous health equality (Trivedi et al., 2017).
The policy, closing the gap furthermore should adopt alternative measures for targeting
the social determinants of health which are the key contributors to the living circumstances.

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Some of the social determinants of health includes factors such as economic inequality, poverty
and the social status that affects the heath of the aboriginal people resulting the psychological
stress, lack of proper education and heart attack (Georges et al., 2017). Furthermore stress,
employment and job security and social exclusion effects the health of the aboriginal people
worsening the gap among the health status of the aboriginal and the non-aboriginal population of
Australia (Cashman et al., 2016). Closing the gap must focus over the efforts towards the health
equality regarding the inputs towards the underlying causes of the inequality related to the
aboriginal and Torres Strait islander health.
It has more than couple of years since the campaign of the policy of closing the gap has
launched (Ring et al., 2016). The goal of the policy was towards the elimination of the health and
life expectancy gap among the aboriginal and the non-aboriginal Australians by the year 2030.
Yet there has been some of the positive developments in case of the child mortality rates and low
rate of progress in the life expectancy and employment factor (Trivedi et al., 2017). The gap
among the aboriginal and the non-aboriginal still exist. The aboriginal and Torres strait islander
people still continue to experience high levels of disease like type 2 diabetes, heart disorders and
live threatening disease.

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Source : (Closing
The Gap, 2019)
Conclusion
Thus it can be concluded from the above illustration that though the government of
Australia has initiated in formation and development of policy, Closing the gap, it has not been
successful towards the implementation on the aboriginal and Torres Strait islander population.
The government should adopt alternative strategies and collaborate with the aboriginal people for
future effectiveness of the policy for closing the gap successfully.

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References
Altman, J., Biddle, N., & Hunter, B. (2018). How realistic are the prospects for'closing the gaps'
in socioeconomic outcomes for Indigenous Australians?. Canberra, ACT: Centre for
Aboriginal Economic Policy Research (CAEPR), The Australian National University.
Angell, B., Eades, S., & Jan, S. (2017). To Close the Gap we need to identify the best (and
worst) buys in Indigenous health. Australian and New Zealand journal of public
health, 41(3), 224-226.
Cashman, P. M., Allan, N. A., Clark, K. K., Butler, M. T., Massey, P. D., & Durrheim, D. N.
(2016). Closing the gap in Australian Aboriginal infant immunisation rates--the
development and review of a pre-call strategy. BMC public health, 16(1), 514.
Closing The Gap |. (2019). Retrieved from https://closingthegap.pmc.gov.au/
Georges, N., Guthridge, S. L., Li, S. Q., Condon, J. R., Barnes, T., & Zhao, Y. (2017). Progress
in closing the gap in life expectancy at birth for Aboriginal people in the Northern
Territory, 1967–2012. Medical Journal of Australia, 207(1), 25-30.
Lawton, P. D., Cunningham, J., Zhao, Y., Gray, N. A., Chatfield, M. D., Baade, P. D., ... & Jose,
M. D. (2015). Survival of Indigenous Australians receiving renal replacement therapy:
closing the gap?. Medical Journal of Australia, 202(4), 200-204.
Ring, I., Dixon, T., Lovett, R., & Al-Yaman, F. (2016). Are Indigenous mortality gaps closing:
how to tell, and when?.
Trivedi, A. N., Bailie, R., Bailie, J., Brown, A., & Kelaher, M. (2017). Hospitalizations for
chronic conditions among indigenous Australians after medication copayment reductions:

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the closing the gap copayment incentive. Journal of general internal medicine, 32(5),
501-507.