Implementation of Policy in Australia

Introduction

Australia is one of the healthiest countries in the world, with one of the most dramatic examples of social inequalities in health. In this study, I examine the processes and institutional structures that affect relations between the Victorian Aboriginal (Koori) community controlled health sector and government in the development implementation and evaluation of health policy. I map the key community and government stakeholders in the Australian Aboriginal health sector, while analyzing tensions between the concepts of community control and of partnership in public health. In the process, I look to the complex challenges of Aboriginal representation and self determination in the context of contemporary, urban Australian society. On a program level. I use Australian blindness prevention policy as a case study for the translation of policy into practice. Finally, I reflect upon the roles of anthropologists and the academy in public policy and community advocacy.

Rationale

It is a formidable challenge to find literature that analyzes the politics of Aboriginal health in Australia. Political and social scientists tend to focus their research, instead, on land claims and environmental issues. Studies of the Australian legal system indicate that the powers that be in Australia are reticent to recognize Aboriginal people's historic custodianship of the land(Sabatier 2005 147). When they have done so it has been begrudgingly in response to international political movements in which the concepts of Indignity and international Indigenous rights have gained. As one component of the broader social policy arena, the emergence of Aboriginal health activism is related to these Indigenous rights movements and to other twentieth century movements: Second wave feminism, the Civil Rights movement, environmentalism. Aboriginal Australians argue that health policy should not be based on the administration of welfare, but rather on the recognition of fundamental Indigenous rights. The framework was developed by the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health, agreed by all governments, and fundamentally, is native title claims through extensive consultations. This puts the idea into a central strategic position to frame the action in the health system.

Policy

The research is based on the analysis of the Aboriginal health policy and its implementation in Australia. Study examines the development of Aboriginal health or medical services (AMSs), the efficacy of the concepts of community control and self determination in health, and issues associated with the management and workforce capacities of Aboriginal organizations(Sabatier 2005 149). In terms of synthesis of the literature I have found that policy makers can not rely on this approach to provide coherent arguments for meaningful engagement with the concept because authors in general are critically and reflectively in the use and the interpretation of the concept, often do not provide any reference to his understanding, tend to modify the definition and constituent elements without justification, ignoring the wide range of mainstream literature on holism and health, and fail to recognize and examine the scope of the concepts of Aboriginal health. I used the ten themes of this literature to highlight implications for the health system, and ...