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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 Medicare Locals to improve Indigenous Access to mainstream primary care
  • Attracting more people to work in Indigenous Health
  • Clinical practice and decision support

Indigenous Chronic Disease Package

Workforce training, expansion and support

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The measures in this package build and will help to increase the number of qualifiedAboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health and medical professionals. It also increasesthe number of qualified non-Indigenous health and medical professionals providinghealth care to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. Targeted funding is alsoincreasing the capacity of primary care services to deliver effective health care toIndigenous Australians.

The package includes a range of workforce initiatives, including:

• More than 160 new Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Outreach Workers in IndigenousHealth Services and the Divisions of General Practice throughout Australia. In 2009-10,83 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Outreach Workers were funded in IndigenousHealth Services and the Divisions of General Practice Network. These new workersare supporting and encouraging Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to accessmainstream primary care services and helping to ensure follow up treatment is accessed.

• The recruitment of Regional Tackling Smoking and Healthy Lifestyle Teams hasbegun with host organisations determined for the first 21 sites. Further recruitmentwill take place in 2011 in another 20 sites and 17 sites in 2012. Funding and trainingfor this national network of regional tobacco coordinators, tobacco action workersand healthy lifestyle workers will help communities develop local smoking reductionstrategies and healthy lifestyles, and coordinate initiatives across all levels ofgovernment, as well as health, education and other services.

• Funding and training for up to 105 healthy lifestyle workers to assist Aboriginal andTorres Strait Islander individuals and families who are at risk of developing a chronicdisease to adopt healthy lifestyle choices. The recruitment for the first 42 of thesepositions has begun. Further recruitment will take place in 2012 for another 30positions and 33 positions in 2013.

• The placement of Indigenous Health Project Officers in Divisions of General Practice,State based Organisations and the National Aboriginal Community Controlled HealthOrganisation (NACCHO) and its affiliates will help the community, mainstreamprimary care providers and Indigenous health services to work together to improvehealth outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, as well asproviding support to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Outreach Workers.

• Chronic disease self-management training to more than 400 health workers to buildtheir skills in supporting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to better selfmanagetheir chronic disease. Training will be provided to at least 100 workers in2010-11, 150 in 2011-12 and a further 150 in 2012-13.

• Funding for at least 75 extra health professionals and practice managers in IndigenousHealth Services over the four years. Funding has been provided for 20 practicemanagers and 14 additional health professional positions in 2009-10.

• An additional 38 GP registrar training posts have been established in IndigenousHealth Services.

• Expansion of current nursing scholarship program arrangements to provide for50 new professional development nursing scholarships and 50 clinical nurseplacements each year over four years in Indigenous Health Services.

• A marketing campaign to encourage existing health workers and Aboriginal andTorres Strait Islander people, including secondary school students, to work inIndigenous health. In addition to encouraging more health professionals to work inthe Indigenous health sector from 2009-10, a website and a recruitment campaignwill be established in 2010-11.

• A web-based primary health care resource addressing the prevention andprimary care management of key chronic diseases experienced by Aboriginal andTorres Strait Islander people is being developed for use by primary health careprofessionals. Mainstream chronic disease guidelines will be linked to Aboriginaland Torres Strait Islander people specific information as appropriate.

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Page currency, Latest update: 09 December, 2010

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