Closing the Gap

The Council of Australian Governments (COAG) has pledged to develop and implement coordinated strategies to address the key causes and determinants of Indigenous disadvantage, and has agreed six high level targets for closing the gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians. These targets are:

• to close the gap in life expectancy within a generation;
• to halve the gap in mortality rates for Indigenous children under five within a decade;
• to ensure all Indigenous four year olds in remote communities have access to early childhood education within five years;
• to halve the gap in reading, writing and numeracy achievements for Indigenous children within a decade;
• to halve the gap for Indigenous students in year 12 attainment or equivalent attainment rates by 2020; and
• to halve the gap in employment outcomes between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians within a decade.

This package will improve the way the Australian health care system prevents, treats and manages the chronic diseases that shorten so many Indigenous Australians' lives.

The Indigenous Chronic Disease Package aims to reduce key risk factors for chronic disease in the Indigenous community such as smoking, improve chronic disease management and follow up, and increase the capacity of the primary care workforce to deliver effective care to Indigenous Australians with chronic diseases.

The Pilbara Health Network is playing a key role in implementing the Indigenous Chronic Disease Package through the Closing the Gap program. Funding has been provided by both the Department of Health and Ageing (Commonwealth) and the Western Australian Department of Health to support a number of positions and initiatives. Broadly these are:

A Podiatry Service and an Audiology Service     

Improving Access to mainstream Services This includes the implementation of the Indigenous Health Incentive PIP, Health Assessments and the PBS co-payment initiatives; and

Chronic Disease Coordination  This role supports practices with care planning and the utilisation of Chronic Disease Management MBS items in addition to working with the wider community to better coordinate chronic disease care.

The Pilbara Health Network team members will work in partnership with other Pilbara Health Network staff, GP’s, Allied Health providers, Aboriginal Medical Services and the regions Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders (ATSI) community to address the needs of ATSI people in the Pilbara.  

For further information about the COAG Closing the Gap initiative, see the following websites:

Closing the Gap Tackling Indigenous Chronic Disease Department of Health and Ageing

Closing the Gap Clearinghouse  provides access to a collection on what works to overcome Indigenous disadvantage.