Close the Gap Policy in Australia: Challenges and Approaches

This essay discusses the current approach of the Australian government towards its action towards closing the gap and the discussion of the common challenges of the faced by the aboriginal and the Torres Strait islander people in Australia.

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Introduction
One of the most renowned governmental strategy, losing the gap targets towards the
improvement of all the aboriginal and Torres Strait islander residing in Australia (Best &
Fredericks, 2017). This strategy targets towards the reduction of the disadvantages among the
aboriginal community people with respect to the child mortality, life expectancy and access
towards proper health services, early child education and the outcomes of the employment. The
aboriginal and the Torres Strait islander people have long been under the factor of discrimination
from the non-aboriginal people in terms of the race, health, employment and other factors
resulting in degrading health outcomes among the community people in Australia. The thesis
statement of the essay argues with the close the gap policy and the campaign among the
government of Australia. The essay aims to discuss the current approach of the government of
Australia towards its action towards closing the gap and the discussion of the common
challenges of the faced by the aboriginal and the Torres Strait islander people in Australia.
Discussion
Differences between the Close the Gap campaign, and the ‘Closing the Gap’ Australian
governments’ policy framework
The “Close the gap” is the awareness campaign of the public that is focused over the
closing of the health gap. The close the gap campaign is run by numerous non-government
organization, the human rights organizations and the Indigenous heath bodies that furthermore
includes the Australian Human Rights Commission (AHRC). Formally launched in the year of
2007 followed by the outcome of the report of the social justice by the aboriginal and the Torres

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Strait islander commissioner of social justice , this campaign was one of the most discussed one
(Holland, Gooda & Parker, 2014).
The close the gap campaign gained numerous of support from the federal and the state
government in the scenario when the council of Australian Government set two of the major
health aims among the six major targets in the year 2008 (George et al., 2015). The target and the
aims of the close the gap campaign had the results of the achievements of the equality of health
among the generation and the halving of the gap of the mortality among the children below 5
years within the specific decade.. In the year 2008, the prime minister and the opposing leader of
that era in the country signed the statement of intent of the close the gap campaign targeting the
betterment of the aboriginal community of people. ‘Closing the gap’ framework for the policy by
the government of Australia is the national strategy for tackling of the inequity among the
aboriginals including the Indigenous Reform Agreement with the commitment for closing the
gap among the Indigenous and non-indigenous Australians within the specific timeframes
(Browne, Hayes & Gleeson, 2014). The targets of the closing the gap policy of the government
aims to close the gap of the expectancy of life within the specific generation for ensuring of the
proper access towards remote communities and the practice of the early childhood to halve the
mortality rate gap among the children of the aboriginal community under fie within the decade,
to improve in the outcomes of employment among the Indigenous and non-indigenous
Australians within the decade (Cashman et al., 2016).
Fifth major funding of the AHRC Close the gap 2018 as the funding myth about Aboriginal
and Torres Strait Islander health.

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As per the firth finding of the AHRC Close the gap report of the year 2018, there lies
resuts of the funding myth regarding the aboriginal and Torres Strait islander health regarding
the affairs of the aboriginal community that needs to be confronted during the impeding
progress. This is because the idea regarding the dedicated health expenditure being the taste of
the funds of the taxpayer. The government of Australia are very much serious regarding the
achievement of the health equality of the aboriginal within the generation highlighting the
refreshing of the closing the gap strategy including the commitments towards the equitable and
realistic level of the investments (Close the Gap: Indigenous Health Campaign | Australian
Human Rights Commission, 2019). As per the findings, it is furthermore stated that the higher
spending regarding the health of the aboriginal and Torres Strait islander should never be the
surprise. The findings furthermore highlighted the fact that the expenditure on the elderly is
higher than as compared to the young since it is understandable that the early population have
greater needs of health. The aboriginal people have 2.3 times more of the burden regrading the
comparison towards aboriginal people. Though the picture portrayed a mere scenario of the
spending by the government of Australia towards the aboriginal with the amount of $1.38 per
aboriginal as compared to $1.00 to the non-aboriginal person in the year 2014-2013 (George et
al., 2015). So regarding the Closing the Gap strategy the expenditure of the government of the
country was not commensurate with some of the substantially greater and more complex needs.
Due to the factors that the non aboriginals rely significantly over the private health insurance and
the providers of the private health requires to meet their needs of the health together with the
governmental support together with the overall situation for the aboriginal and the Torres strait
islander. The findings targets that the government of the country increased its expenditure
directing for addressing the gap of the health. As per the close the gap campaign, the government

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of the Australia presides over the expectancy of the mortality and the life enhancing gaps
regrading the maintenance of the targets towards the closing of the gap without any of the
additional funding.
Patient Escort
The concept and the role of the patent escort is the non-emergency services of the
medicine that is provided by the commercial aircraft by the medical escort companies and the by
the self-employment escorts working for the medical repartition organization. In short, the
patient escort includes the individuals who does the special medical services for accompanying
the inpatient patents who require assistance in their locomotion for their daily necessities, these
are included in the health facility.
Some of the challenges faced by the patient escort during their moves and activities of the
job role includes the issues and disagreements while assisting the patients with their travels to
and from the nursing units. In case of female patients, it gets challenging for the male patient
escort to help her without the assistance of the female helper in the floor. Further challenges arise
due to the interpersonal skills and in case of different speaking languages with the patients since
the job involves direct interaction with the patients (Hains et al., 2010). Challenges furthermore
rises in case of the transferring a inpatient from the health care and the hospitals by lifting them
up in the wheelchair or stretcher. Challenges furthermore lies for assisting of the ambulatory
patients. Furthermore the patient escort needs to be knowledgeable regarding the transportation
equipment and the mechanics of the body. It is furthermore essential for the patient escort to
effectively communicate with the patients to work along with the staff of the hospitals and the
family members of the patients. In case of the rural placements, it gets challenging for the patient

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escort to communicate in the colloquial language and understand the culture and the belief of the
patients (Brueckner et al., 2014). Housekeeping and on job training is another factor that keeps
on challenging the profession since being a patient escort one needs to really equipped with the
knowledge of the medical terminology.
Hospital Liaison Officer
The hospital liaison Officer belonging to the aboriginal community plays a major role in
the health care units of the hospitals. The Liaison officers have the role towards assisting in the
breakage of the perceived barriers regarding the communication so that the patients belonging to
the aboriginal community have a better understanding regarding their treatment and hospital.
According the given case study, the hospital liaison Officer can help Matt to get access to
proper health care services being in the inpatient ward. He being the hospital liaison Officer also
can help Matt to resolve the calling he is facing towards awaiting the transfer for discharge of the
lounge. This will help Matt to go back to Townsville and receive homely care from his mother.
The officer can help him get his discharge quickly. This is because being from the aboriginal
culture and community, Matt has experienced difficulty towards getting access to health facilities
and his mother often faced challenge before the non-aboriginal staff of the patients. It is thus the
responsibility being the officer to ensure that the aboriginals receive equal rights irrespective of
the discrimination and the perception and the stereotypes by the non aboriginals who believe that
aboriginals should not get the same. The officer should ensure in practice of the closing the gap
strategy towards far and beneficial health outcomes of the aboriginal community in Australia.
Conclusion

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Thus it can be concluded from above the aboriginal and the Torres Strait islander people
have long been under the factor of discrimination from the non-aboriginal people in terms of the
race, health, employment and other factors resulting in degrading health outcomes among the
community people in Australia. The essay highlights the current approach of the government of
Australia towards its action towards closing the gap and the discussion of the common
challenges of the faced by the aboriginal and the Torres Strait islander people in Australia.

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Reference
Best, O., & Fredericks, B. (2017). Yatdjuligin: Aboriginal and torres strait islander nursing and
midwifery care. Cambridge University Press.
Browne, J., Hayes, R., & Gleeson, D. (2014). Aboriginal health policy: is nutrition the ‘gap’in
‘Closing the Gap’?. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health, 38(4), 362-
369.
Brueckner, M., Spencer, R., Wise, G., & Marika, B. (2014). Indigenous entrepreneurship:
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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
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George, M. A., Jin, A., Brussoni, M., & Lalonde, C. E. (2015). Is the injury gap closing between
the Aboriginal and general populations of British Columbia?. Statistics Canada.
Hains, I. M., Marks, A., Georgiou, A., & Westbrook, J. I. (2010). Non-emergency patient
transport: what are the quality and safety issues? A systematic review. International
Journal for Quality in Health Care, 23(1), 68-75.

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Holland, C., Gooda, M., & Parker, K. (2014). Close the Gap: progress and priorities report
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