Indigenous health organizations in Australia: connections and capacity.
The health of Aboriginal people is significantly worse than that of the rest of the Australian population. Aboriginal community-controlled health organizations live with uncertainty in terms of funding, and the amount of money spent on indigenous people through mainstream health services is less than that spent on the non-indigenous population, especially when the different needs of these two groups are taken into account. The Aboriginal population is small and widely dispersed, causing problems for policy and funding. This article provides an analysis of the network of health organizations in Victoria, with a specific focus on indigenous health, and analyzes the connections between mainstream and indigenous-specific health services. The research approach involved semi-structured interviews with informants from a range of health organizations within the state. This research illustrates the importance of Aboriginal community-controlled health organizations to the indigenous community. There is evidence that connections between the indigenous and mainstream health systems need to be further developed and strengthened to provide the indigenous population with a high-quality, culturally sensitive, and comprehensive health service.
Department of Management, School of Social Science and Public Policy, King's College London, United Kingdom. juan.baeza@kcl.ac.uk
Juan I
JI
Baeza
Jenny M
JM
Lewis
D019058:Community Networks / Q000458:organization & administration; D005260:Female; D005102:Health Expenditures; D006297:Health Services Accessibility; D006303:Health Services, Indigenous / Q000191:economics / Q000458:organization & administration*; D054624:Health Status Disparities; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D014739:Victoria