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• Indigenous Chronic
  Disease Package
• Tackling Chronic Disease
  Risk Factors
  • National action to reduce Indigenous smoking rate
  • Helping Indigenous Australians to reduce their risk of chronic disease
  • Local Indigenous community campaigns to promote better health
• Improving Chronic Disease
  Management and Follow up
  • Subsidising PBS medicine co-payments
  • Higher utilisation costs for MBS and PBS
  • Supporting primary care providers to coordinate chronic disease management
  • Improving Indigenous participation in health care through chronic disease self management
  • Increasing specialist and allied health follow up care
  • Monitoring and evaluation
• Workforce Expansion,
  Training and Support
  • Workforce education and training
  • Expanding the outreach and service capacity of Indigenous health services
  • Engaging Divisions of General Practice to improve Indigenous Access to mainstream primary care
  • Attracting more people to work in Indigenous Health
  • Clinical practice and decision support

Engaging Divisions of General Practice to improve Indigenous Access to mainstream primary care

What the Australian Government is doing

The Government is funding local Indigenous people to work as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Outreach Workers within the Divisions of General Practice Network. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Outreach Workers will encourage and support Indigenous people to access primary health care services and to ensure follow-up treatment is accessed. This may include assisting people to travel to and from appointments.

Indigenous Health Project Officer positions are also being funded to provide leadership in Indigenous health issues within the Divisions of General Practice Network, including increased awareness and understanding of the various Closing the Gap initiatives relevant to mainstream primary care.

How this will work

• Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Outreach Workers will be drawn from local Indigenous communities. They are not expected to have existing qualifications, but will be provided with training opportunities. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Outreach Workers will be directly supported by Indigenous Health Project Officers and the Divisions.
• Indigenous Health Project Officers will work in Divisions of General Practice to:
  • improve the capacity of mainstream primary care providers to deliver culturally sensitive services to Indigenous Australians (including through cultural awareness training, quality improvement, health promotion and education and Indigenous liaison);
  • help the community, mainstream primary care providers and Indigenous health services to work together to improve health outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people; and
  • support Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Outreach Workers.
• Funding is also provided for Indigenous Health Project Officer positions in state-based organisations and the Australian General Practice Network to lead and coordinate Indigenous health activities at the state and national level.

How this will help Indigenous Australians

• Indigenous people will have better access to culturally sensitive mainstream primary care.
• General practice will be seen as a valid, trustworthy and accessible first point of call for the health needs of Indigenous Australians.
• General practitioners and other primary care providers will be supported in managing specific Indigenous health needs/issues at the local level.
• Indigenous Australians will benefit from increased collaboration between mainstream primary care and Indigenous health services.

Who will implement the new approach

• The Divisions of General Practice Network.

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Page currency, Latest update: 12 October, 2010

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