Aboriginal Health Equity Framework
Aboriginal Australians have cared and nurtured their lands for more than 50,000 years. They represent the oldest continuous culture on earth. They also experience disproportionately poor health outcomes, higher infant and child mortality, lower age of death and higher levels of chronic disease.
Rural and Remote Medical Services Ltd (RARMS) is committed to health equity for Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander Australians, regardless of where they live. RARMS Aboriginal Health Equity Framework helps us to focus on strategies to address health equity by working in partnership with communities and being guided by them about their needs, priorities and expectations.
RARMS Aboriginal Health Equity Framework
RARMS Aboriginal Nations
Extract from National Reconciliation Council at https://www.schoolsreconciliationchallenge.org.au/activities/languages-map-activity/.
Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander Health
"From an Indigenous perspective social and emotional wellbeing is viewed through a holistic lens incorporating the physical, social, emotional, spiritual and cultural health of both individuals and their communities. Indigenous ways of knowing, being and doing (culture) have sustained and strengthened Indigenous people for many thousands of years and continues to be a source of strength to this day. However, through the events of colonisation, Indigenous populations have and continue to experience the impacts of trauma (intergenerational) which has implications for both individual and collective wellbeing".
RARMS acknowledges the historical, social and political determinants of health and well-being of Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander Australians and endeavours to work respectfully with the Traditional Owners of our lands to ensure that the way we deliver services, and what we deliver, respects the experiences, expectations and priorities of our communities.
In January 2020, the Board and senior leadership of RARMS, after much reflection agreed to unanimously endorse the Uluru Statement from the Heart recognising the sovereignty of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians over these lands and the need for a Treaty between the government of Australia and Indigenous nations. The Board approved RARMS to commence the development of a Reconciliation Plan to support us to better understand and address the needs of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians