Health

Abstract

The 10-year disparity in life expectancy for First Nations People and non-Indigenous people is a statistic that initiated the Federal Government’s ‘Closing the Gap’ program. This chapter is about health and how better health outcomes can be achieved for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. It addresses both mental health and physical health, while also emphasising the holistic nature of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health. One of the main problems in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health care is encouraging First Nations People to engage with healthcare services that are predominantly managed by non-Indigenous professionals. Two case studies provide evidence of how working with First Nations communities can have a significant impact on people’s engagement with health services, and therefore contribute to better health outcomes. The first is the Looking Forward, Moving Forward project that embeds Aboriginal Elders with mainstream Mental Health Services to assist these services in connecting with Aboriginal community. The second case study is called Earbus and, as the name suggests, describes a service that travels into Aboriginal communities all over Western Australia and works with families to improve their ear health. This important initiative seeks to address the evidence that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children have the worst ear health in the world, which leads to hearing loss and hence speech and learning difficulties.