Essay on Review of National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Plan Policy

Introduction

The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders are ingenious Australians who have a familial heritage to communities that occupied Australia before it was colonized by the British. Excluding the Torres Strait Islanders, the Aboriginals are indigenous groups tied to mainland Australia and its islands. Aboriginals encompass many regional groups that identify with a common language, locality, or neighboring group (Ring & Griffiths, 2021). The Torres Strait Islanders have a different cultural history and heritage from the Aboriginals. However, years of oppression and mistreatment have led to extensive cultural and connection losses to the country (Ring & Griffiths, 2021). The Indigenous Australians continue to face health inequalities and socioeconomic disadvantages despite the protective laws (National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Plan, 2013). The Australian government established the National Health Plan for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders. This essay will analyze the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Plan Policy by reviewing its main elements, general goals, strengths, and limitations towards achieving equity in the health sector.

Overview of Policy

The Australian government has been committed to enhancing Indigenous Australians’ health status and mental well-being, specifically the Torres Strait Islanders and Aboriginals. It has strived to close the gap and disparities in health outcomes between indigenous people and non-indigenous (National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Plan, 2013). A framework was established in 2018 to address the disadvantages faced by the Torres Strait Islanders and the Aboriginals by formulating six targets to close the existing health gaps (HealthInfoNet, 2021). Additionally, the Torres Strait Islanders and the Aboriginals were granted collaborative opportunities to formulate the health plan which laid the direction of the health policy.

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The plan outlines an evidence-based policy to be implemented in the long term as part of the approach to breach the gap per the Council of Australian government’s strategy. Two out of the six targets set in the health plan directly address the health outcomes, closing the gap in life expectancy and halving the child mortality rates (National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Plan, 2013). The other four targets are concerned with determinants of health in society, such as employment and job opportunities. In addition, the health plan complements the UN Declaration on Indigenous People Rights (HealthInfoNet, 2021). The health plan is conscious of the role of culture in the Indigenous Australians health and their rights to healthy, safe and empowered life.

Key Elements of the Policy

The vision of the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Plan Policy is to ensure the health sector is racism and inequality-free. It also underscores the need for all Torres Strait Islanders and Aboriginals to have equal access to effective, high-quality, and affordable healthcare (Gerrard et al., 2021). Further, the goal of the health plan is to create a targeted and evidence-based practice that will help achieve equality in life expectancy and health status between the non-indigenous Australians and the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders (National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Plan, 2013). The six targets to be achieved in closing the gap are; halving of indigenous children below five years mortality rates, closing the gap between life expectancies by 2031, enabling all four-year-old children in remote indigenous communities can access early education, halving the reading, writing, and numeracy gap for indigenous children and cut the gap in job outcomes between non-indigenous and indigenous Australians by half.

An important element of the health plan is the principles used in the approach. The first principle is the human rights and health equality approach. The approach based on the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People is concerned with equal health opportunities in access, availability, quality, and acceptability of health services (National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Plan, 2013). The second principle is the community control and engagement of the Torres Strait Islanders and Aboriginal people(Fisher et al., 2019). All decision-making levels require full and continuous input by the indigenous groups and their organizations to provide holistic and culturally appropriate health services (Fisher et al., 2019). Partnership and accountability are the last principles applied in the plan with partnering aim to eliminate health barriers.

Strengths of th