Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP)
The Royal Australian College of General Practitioners has a Faculty of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health. Its Council is chaired by Wiradjuri man Associate Professor Peter O’Mara and includes GPs and representatives from NACCHO and AIDA.
RACGP has shown support for the ACCHO sector through its 2014 position statement Building sector capacity through stronger investments in the Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Services, which advocated for additional funding for physical infrastructure, practitioner education, long terms planning and building relationships and capacity.
It has also advocated for more diligent identification of Indigenous people in general practice through improved training for GPs to ask about Aboriginality, and has made strong statements about culturally safe GP services, Aboriginal involvement in policy and practice reform and racism in health services.
The first point in its general statement on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health, adopted in 2010 and revised in 2017, endorses Aboriginal people’s right “to enjoy ‘the highest standard of health’ including not just the physical wellbeing of the individual, but also the social, emotional and cultural wellbeing of the whole community, so that each individual is able to achieve their full potential and thereby contribute to the total wellbeing of their community.”
Aboriginal people are visible in most but not all of the RACGP’s advocacy. For example, the wellbeing needs of Aboriginal people are included in statements about child health and maternity care but not in its policy on GP-led aged care.
The RACGP has advocated consistently and forcefully for Aboriginal people’s self-determination and access to culturally safe services through its submissions to government policy processes, including the current review of Medical Benefits Scheme items – to which it has recommended a Medicare rebate for social and emotional wellbeing support services, which could be delivered by a range of professionals including traditional healers, and be available for individual or group consultations.
More Suggested Resources
The LIME Network advocates for improved teaching and learning about Indigenous health in medical schools, as well as for best practice in the recruitment and retention of Indigenous medical students and trainees.
The Coalition of Peaks is made up of more than 50 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community-controlled peak and member organisations across Australia that have come together as an act of self-determination to work with Australian governments on a new National Agreement on Closing the Gap, agreed in 2020.
IAHA is a national, member-based organisation that leads sector workforce development and support, to improve the health and wellbeing of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.