Our Achievements:
Aboriginal Health
We worked towards preventing hospitalisations and increasing access to primary health care by assisting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to better manage their chronic health conditions via the Integrated Team Care Program (ITC). ITC supported 1,500 Aboriginal people across the 18/19 year and provided:
29,286
care coordination services
7,667
outreach service contacts
3,563
supplementary services
(including 2,183
transportation supports)
We established an Aboriginal Community Advisory Council as part of our membership structure to ensure Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are heard and empowered. Amongst other achievements, this Council supported the development of our Innovate Reconciliation Action Plan (currently under review by Reconciliation Australia).
We helped improve accessibility of local health services and patient experience for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people by commissioning Cultural Learning for Primary Health Care Providers. This year we held 16 Cultural Learning sessions for 280 local providers.
We worked towards reducing the impact of cancer and increasing literacy around cancer screening in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities by employing 8 Community Peer Ambassadors. These Ambassadors delivered yarning circles across Adelaide to support culturally appropriate messaging about breast, bowel and well women’s screening, and connect Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people with appropriate services and programs.
With Eddie Betts as the Ambassador, we were proud to play a role in establishing Winmante – a not-for-profit GP clinic providing high quality primary health care for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in the southern regions of Adelaide. Opened in February 2019, this clinic provides culturally appropriate and safe GP services, supports GP outreach, and has a focus on youth health. Adelaide PHN provided a wide range of support and coordination to make the centre a reality and will continue to be involved to support integration with other health providers in the future.
In June 2019, we achieved a 100% response rate to our Aboriginal Cultural Capacity Survey which was distributed to all our commissioned service providers. This survey will to provide a benchmark for future years and guide service planning and capacity building activities.