A new co-operative framework between community-controlled health services and the Federal and Territory governments was launched in Darwin recently. The principles of the ‘Pathways to Community Control’ framework include recognition that Aboriginal community participation is a key element of better primary health care delivery.

Northern Territory Aboriginal Health Forum Chairperson Stephanie Bell said it was a historic step forward in Closing the Gap of Aboriginal health. “It is a staged process through which community participation and control can be encouraged, with the aim of transferring the management of Aboriginal primary health care services to health boards directly elected by their members.

“Pathways recognises the absolute necessity of developing and strengthening Comprehensive Primary Health Care [CPHC] through planning, development and delivery at local and regional levels here in the Territory. The Aboriginal Health Forum in the Territory has taken a strong stand on developing an evidence-based approach to CPHC, and recognises the strong gains that can be developed through Aboriginal Community Control at the grass roots level. The Northern Territory Aboriginal Health Forum represents one of the strongest and most productive partnerships between government and the Aboriginal community-controlled health sector in the nation, and Pathways provides a road map for the principal of ‘working together for our health’ as part of the long term vision of Closing the Gap, ” Ms Bell said.

Federal Minister for Indigenous Health Warren Snowdon said improved health care for Indigenous Australians was a key priority in the Rudd Government’s program of national health care reform. “From the start of the reform process, it was agreed that greater levels of community involvement in primary health care would bring benefits all round – benefits to those who deliver the health services as well as to those who use them,” Mr Snowdon said. “What was required was a more responsive health and family services system, one not only of a quality equal to that existing in other areas of Australia, but also culturally sensitive to the needs of Indigenous people.”

The Northern Territory Aboriginal Health Forum is the principal partnership mechanism created by the NT Framework Agreement on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health. The key principles drawing the parties together under Pathways to Community Control are:

• Aboriginal community participation is a key element of sustainable, viable, effective and efficient delivery of primary health;

• a shared commitment to the development of a strategy to secure greater levels of Aboriginal community control in the delivery of primary health care in the NT;

• a shared commitment to foster an effective partnership between governments, communities and providers that ensures best practice governance of services and optimal health gain; and

• a shared commitment to personal and community development as an integral contributor to improved levels of community participation and control.

Pathways to Community Control seeks to support Aboriginal communities and public sector agencies in their efforts to incrementally realise these shared principles.