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Indigenous Health - the Growing Crisis

July 2003 - ANTaR NSW Newsletter - Champion swimmer and former Young Australian of the Year, Ian Thorpe, has joined the growing ranks of prominent people and health experts pleading for attention to the crisis in Indigenous health.

Thorpe recently returned from a visit to remote communities in the Northern Territory, where his Fountain for Youth Trust is working with the Fred Hollows Foundation and the Aboriginal-controlled Sunrise Health Service.

Ian said he was shocked by the living conditions and poor health of his fellow Australians.

The statistics on Indigenous health are certainly shocking. Despite the Commonwealth Government's policy of 'practical reconciliation', the health and life expectancy of Indigenous people is growing worse in comparison to non-Indigenous Australians and Australia has by far the worst record of any comparable developed country.

The gap in life expectancy between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians is now 20 years. This compares with just 3 to 7 years in Canada, New Zealand and the US, where the gap has steadily narrowed over the past 30 years.

Information about this health crisis is widely available. A 'Report Card' produced by the Australian Medical Association in 2002 found that

• the Indigenous infant mortality rate was nearly three times that of the total population
• low birth weight - an important indicator of later illness - was about twice the rate of the non-Indigenous population, with little change since 1991
• the median age of death of Indigenous people was 53 years - 25 years less than for the population as a whole.

Indigenous people are hospitalized at approximately twice the rate of non-Indigenous people. Rates of heart disease are about 3 times higher;

respiratory disease is 9-11 times more common; diabetes occurs 2-4 times more often; and rates of kidney disease are 9 times higher (up to 30 times in some regions).

The AMA has also commissioned research on funding for Indigenous health. It found a great inequity in access to primary health care, and a huge shortfall in funding to meet Indigenous health needs. For Indigenous people these statistics translate into poor quality of life, chronic illness, early death and too many funerals.

Much of this could be prevented if we had governments willing to empower Indigenous communities and health organisations, and to commit the necessary resources.

Most preventable deaths in the Indigenous population are the result of chronic disease. Dr Ian Ring, Director of the Australian Primary Health Care Research Institute, says research has shown that mortality rates from chronic disease in Indigenous populations can be halved in under four years.

"For a relatively modest increase in expenditure the standards of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health in Australia can be on a par with non-Indigenous health," Dr Ring said, "if only we can stop the endless policy formulation and start implementing what we already know."

Part of what we already know is this: the best results in health occur when government recognises and supports community ownership and control.

ANTaR regards health as the classic case where the rights agenda' of genuine Indigenous empowerment must be brought to bear on the issues of so-called practical reconciliation.

Work is underway on ANTaR's health campaign - the website and future newsletters will keep you informed about the campaign and ways you can help.

Source: ANTaR NSW

Further information: health issues page - includes news index and external links