UTS Contemporary Indigenous Health: Closing the Gap Policy Analysis

This essay provides a comprehensive analysis of the Closing the Gap (CTG) policy implemented by the Australian government to improve the health and well-being of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. It begins with an overview of the policy's history, including the data and initiatives that led to its creation, and examines the key targets set by the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) to address disparities in life expectancy, child mortality, education, and employment. The essay then delves into the impact of the CTG policy on Indigenous health outcomes, highlighting both successes and challenges, such as the decline in mortality rates and the persistent gaps in cancer mortality. The essay also analyzes the case of Judy, a 57-year-old Aboriginal woman with type 2 diabetes, exploring the impact of her condition, the relevant social determinants of health, and the benefits she receives from the CTG policy. Furthermore, it defines the roles of the Aboriginal Medical Service (AMS) and the Aboriginal Liaison Officer (ALO) in providing healthcare services, discussing their relationship with the community health center and their contribution to improving Indigenous health outcomes. The essay concludes by emphasizing the importance of addressing social and cultural determinants and the need for evidence-based approaches to achieve the CTG goals.

Assignment on Indigenous people of Australia
Assignment on Indigenous people of Australia
Name of the student
Roll number
Date of submission

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Introduction
Closing the Gap is a policy devised by Australian government to perfect the lives of all
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians. In 2005, Professor Tom Calma, who was the
Social Justice Commissioner for the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander, formed a social
report to demonstrate need to achieve good health and better life expectancy within 25 years
equality for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people (Backhaus, 2019). It was on 20
December 2007, when the Council of Australian Governments (COAG), initiated to ‘closing the
gap’ policy for the better life expectancy between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and non-
Indigenous Australians. The campaign was called the National Indigenous Health Equality
Campaign, which started in March 2006 by several organizations like Human Rights and Equal
Opportunity Commission, Australian Indigenous Doctor's Association (AIDA), Indigenous
Dentists’ Association of Australia (IDAA), National Aboriginal Community Controlled Health
Organisation (NACCHO).
To eliminate the gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians, In March 2008
Australian governments have worked together to provide better health, life expectancy,
education and employment by the year 2030. Again in December 2018, COAG formed a true
formal partnership with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples to refresh the Closing the
Gap policies to implement new agenda.
The Council of Australian Governments (COAG) has set targets to check improvements in the
health and wellbeing indigenous people. Those targets are:
 To close the gap in life expectancy by 2031
 To minimise the gap in child mortality by 2018
 To ensure 95 percent of young kids are enrolled in early childhood education by 2025
 To minimize the gap in employment by 2018.
 To close the gap in school attendance by 2018 .
To keep the progress updated, every year the Prime Minister of Australia releases a Closing the
Gap report in the Parliament. A same kind of report is also released by the Close the Gap
Steering Committee for the government.

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If the children mortality rates are to be considered than in last 11 years the indigenous people are
benefiting from the CTG policy, the statics says the same story (Lakhan et al, 2019).
The policy is trying to focus on addressing the social and cultural determinants of health to
improve the overall health f the people. Government is investing in food security and improving
the nutrition levels in lone Indigenous communities (Lovett, 2017).
According Doyle, (2015) the Indigenous life expectancy estimates from 2013 showed that males
born between 2010 and 2012 have a life expectancy of 69.1 years on the other hand the females
have an estimated life expectancy of 73.7 years. This is an improved state of life expectancy for
the islanders. The life expectancy for the indigenous male members has seen a gap of 11.4 years
when the program started and now it has reduced to 7 years.
In betwen 2005-2007 and 2010-2012, the life expectancy at birth for Indigenous males increased
by around 0.3 years per year, and by around 0.1 years per year for Indigenous females – this led
to a small reduction in the gap of 0.8 years for males and 0.1 years for females. To hit the target
of “closing the gap” by 2031, Indigenous life expectancy needs to increase by around 0.6 to 0.8
years per year (Isaacs et al, 2017).
The mortality rate from 1998 to 2016 has declined by 14 percent along with this the non
indigenous mortality rates has also declined. And the gap has narrowed by 9 percent. But the
basic change in the rate has not been seen after 2016. Overall if the change is to be measured
than current mortality rate is not on track and the Mortality rates are declining for non-
Indigenous Australians which is expanding the gap.
There is noticeable decline in the disease that the indigenous people are catching. There is a
reduction in smoking. There is a direct proportion of falling smoking rate and the mortality rate
of the indigenous people (Anderson and Sanders, 2018). The health and the mortality rates ahs
also improved because of the early detection and management of chronic disease, this can be due
to the improved education system for the indigenous people. The mortality rates because of the
circulatory disease have decreased up to 45 percentages since 2006.
The cancer mortality rates has seen a steep rise due to the undetected factors. There was huge
gap of between the indigenous and the non indigenous people for the mortality rate due to

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cancer. The indigenous people are showing a significant increase of 23 per cent in the cancer
mortality rate where as the non indigenous are slowly controlling the mortality due to cancer by
14 percent (Parter, Wilson and Hartz, 2018).
There is three major reason why the Closing the Gap policy has not been a success. First, the
policies were made without considering the radical change in how business is done in Indigenous
affairs (Markham, Jordan and Howard-Wagner, 2018). Second, Government failed to work as
per their own policy. They were unable to maintain the words and deeds that resulted in slow
success. Third, the lack of evidence based recording of the progress of the policy. There reports
were generated on random basis thus missing the real voice.
The three social health determent that can become a long term consequences for the diabetic
patient Judy are:
 Access to health care services.
 Social norms and attitudes (e.g., discrimination, racism, and distrust of government).
 Access to educational, economic, and job opportunities.
Judy is type 2 diabetes patient who also has ulcer on her leg. she is 57yr old Aboriginal woman,
living by herself in her own home. She lives 10km from the closest health care facility and she
does not owns a car so she is completely dependent on the public transport. To do the dressing
she has to go to the health centre by the local bus (Wright et al, 2016). She has ulcer and that
may be becoming worse due to her diabetes. the other factors that she is going to suffer in long
term is the slow service proving from the government. These social determinants will affect her
healthy living in long term.
As judy is registered with CTG policy , she will get many benefits from them. The first one is
weekly check up and dressing at home from the ALO due to the registration with the CTG. Judy
will also get benefit of accessing all the economic benefits that are privileged for them. The CTG
policy works to increase the mortality in indigenous people and thus she will be handled by the
concerned people and team to lead a healthy long life (Altman, Biddle and Hunter, 2018). The
team works to minimize the social impact on the endogenous people. They will treat her like a
normal non indigenous person and this will make her feel better.

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In 1971, the Aboriginal Medical Service (AMS) was established in Redfern. It was the first
Aboriginal community controlled health service provider. It is constituted by the people of
indigenous state. The AMS aims to improve the health of Aboriginal people o in Australia. The
team works towards bringing the health problems of the aboriginal people in front of the
government to gather fund to treat them. The service had provided medical, dental, aged care,
drug and alcohol services to around fifty five thousand patients every year (Anderson et al,
2016).
An Aboriginal Liaison Officers works for the emotional, social and cultural support of the
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander patients and their families. They comfort for the worrying
family and sadness, isolation of the aboriginals people. Aboriginal Liaison Officers help
indigenous people to talk to the health professionals so that they can understand medical issues
of the patient and explain the procedures and routines so that they can make decisions. They
give information to the Health staff so that they can give a culturally sensitive health services.
ALOs do the duty of making arrangements for the admission to hospital. They also link
appropriate community support programs to the indigenous people.
As AMS works for the health issue of the aboriginal people they work through ALO who are the
representatives of the AMS. They are present in the hospitals to help the indigenous people to get
the medical facilities easy and as per the CTG policy. The community health centre has been
responsible for the treatment of Judy’s illness this was done under the supervision of the AMS
and under reference formal. Thus all the three plays a very important role in making Judy health
good and increasing her mortality. Ultimately giving a aboriginal and Torres Strait islander a
normal and easy life.

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