Our work

Early experiences shape a child’s future health and wellbeing. This is especially true for children with delays or disabilities. Helping them early with quality, tailored support gives them the best chance to thrive. Our new national best practice framework shows what good support looks like.

This program aims to reduce deaths from bowel cancer by detecting early signs of the disease. If found early, more than 90% of cases can be successfully treated. Eligible Australians aged 45 to 74 can do a free test at home every 2 years. Learn about the program and how to do the test.

The National Cancer Screening Register records personal data from our cancer screening programs. We govern the National Cancer Screening Register under strict protocols to ensure your personal information is safe.

The National Carer Strategy provides a national framework to support Australia’s unpaid carers.

Establishing the National Centre of Excellence in Intellectual Disability Health (national centre) is an important step in improving the health of people with intellectual disability.
The centre will bring together experts, resources and research on intellectual disability healthcare.

The National Cervical Screening Program reduces illness and death from cervical cancer. Women and people with a cervix aged 25 to 74 years of age are invited to have a Cervical Screening Test every 5 years through their healthcare provider.

This toolkit helps healthcare providers engage under-screened and never-screened women in cervical screening, and support them if they choose to participate.

The Australian Government has allocated funding for a study looking at the mental health and wellbeing of Australian children and adolescents.

The Australian Government is investing $40 million over 4 years to set up a National Clinical Quality Registry Program.

The National Consistent Payments (NCP) framework provides support payments to supervisors, practices and registrars on the Australian General Practice Training (AGPT) program.

The National Continence Program (NCP) is a national program to support the prevention and management of incontinence.

The National Critical Care and Trauma Response Centre (NCCTRC) provides clinical and academic leadership in disaster and trauma care. Based in Darwin, it has emergency medical response facilities, provides education and training, and has state-of-the-art research facilities.

This initiative will provide $600 million over 10 years from 2024–25 for research infrastructure that will be used to conduct world-class health and medical research.

The National Dementia Action Plan 2024–2034 (the Action Plan) is Australia’s national dementia policy framework. It aims to improve the lives and care of people living with dementia, their carers and families over the next 10 years.

The NDSP is an Australian Government initiative to fund information, education programs, services and resources.

The National Diabetes Services Scheme (NDSS) helps people with diabetes to understand and manage their life with diabetes. It also provides timely, reliable and affordable access to diabetes support services and products.

The National Disability Advocacy Framework 2023–2025 ensures people with disability around Australia can access advocacy services.

Promoting and protecting the rights of people with disability.

Funding for conference organisers for the inclusion and participation of people with disability.

The National Eating Disorders Collaboration is working to develop a nationally consistent, evidence-based approach to preventing and managing eating disorders in Australia.

The NEBDS helps eligible people with epidermolysis bullosa access dressings, bandages and ancillary products at a reduced cost. It also ensures a consistent level of care across Australia. The scheme is currently administered by Independence Australia on behalf of the Australian Government.

This program helps with the cost of an external breast prostheses after breast cancer surgery. Eligible women can receive a reimbursement of up to $400 for new or replacement external breast prostheses.

The National Health and Climate Strategy is a whole-of-government plan to address the impacts of climate change on health and wellbeing in Australia, while also addressing the contribution of the health system to climate change.

We are developing a National Health and Medical Research Strategy to provide national direction, build on Australia’s strengths in the health and medical research sector, fill any gaps, and continue to attract researchers and investors to Australia.

Signed by all Australian governments, the National Health Reform Agreement (NHRA) aims to improve health outcomes for all Australians and ensure our health system is sustainable.