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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

Workforce education and training

What the Australian Government is doing

The Government is providing funding for orientation, education, training and support for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Outreach Workers employed in Aboriginal Medical Services and Divisions of General Practice.

It will also increase GP Registrar training posts and expand nurse education, training and support.

How this will work

• Orientation, education, training and support will be available for all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Outreach Workers. They will be recruited from local Indigenous communities to provide Indigenous liaison services in Aboriginal Medical Services and Divisions of General Practice (see Expanding the Outreach and Service Capacity of Indigenous Health Services and Engaging Divisions of General Practice to Improve Indigenous Access to Mainstream Primary Care fact sheets).
• A total of 38 additional GP Registrar training posts in Indigenous health services will be created. This builds on an existing GP Education and Training (GPET) initiative and will enable Indigenous health services to do more.
• The Nursing Scholarship and Clinical Placement Programs are being expanded. Fifty professional development nursing scholarships will be provided to nurses currently working in an Aboriginal Medical Service. Fifty nurse clinical placements will be provided for undergraduate nurses working in Aboriginal Medical Services.
• Fifty nursing scholarship and fifty nurse clinical placements will be offered each year over the next four years.

How this will help Indigenous Australians

• Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Outreach Workers, equipped with the skills and resources they need to do the job, will assist Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to access the health services they need.
• On-the-job orientation during their first six months will ensure Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Outreach Workers have the skills and knowledge for their role. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Outreach Workers will be mentored and encouraged to undertake further accredited training in the health field, but this is not mandatory.
• An additional 38 GP Registrar training posts, which will be allocated to Aboriginal Medical Services each year, will provide additional medical and clinical services to Indigenous communities.
• Improving the professional skills of nurses, through scholarships and clinical placements, enables them to provide better health care to patients. Providing relevant professional development opportunities is also a practical incentive for nurses to continue to work in the field of Indigenous health.

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Page currency, Latest update: 24 March, 2010

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