AIDA is the national body representing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander doctors and medical students. It promotes population parity of Indigenous medical students and doctors, as a means of achieving a culturally safe healthcare system and equitable health and life outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

Among its policy platforms, AIDA advocates for the up-skilling of Indigenous doctors and medical students to carry out Indigenous-led research on issues identified by Indigenous people as health priorities.

These are articulated in AIDA’s Research Agenda, and include social and emotional wellbeing and mental health, which AIDA describes as, “distinct from social and emotional wellbeing issues, much as the two interact and influence each other. Even with good social and emotional wellbeing, individuals can still experience mental illness and individuals with a long-term mental health conditions can live and function at a high level with adequate support. The mental health of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people must be improved.”

AIDA’s policy statements include:

• Incarceration: the disproportionate impacts facing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people (2022)
• Position Statement: Cultural Safety (2022)
• Submission to The National Centre for Education and Training on Addictions on the Review and Revision of the National Alcohol and Other Drug Workforce Development Strategy (2022)
• Ethics in clinical triaging frameworks: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples (2020)
• Climate Change and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people’s health (2020)
• Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander doctor mental health and emotional wellbeing in the health care sector (2017)