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.
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The Australian College of Emergency Medicine, which represents emergency department doctors, notes that Indigenous people use Emergency Departments almost twice as frequently as non-Indigenous people - representing 3 per cent of the population but 5.6 per cent of ED visits.
Gayaa Dhuwi (Proud Spirit) Australia is a national Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander social and emotional wellbeing, mental health and suicide prevention leadership body. It is governed and controlled by Indigenous experts and peak bodies working in these areas, promoting collective excellence in mental health care.
The Australian Association of Social Workers has not published any recent policy or position papers specifically related to Indigenous wellbeing, but the needs of Aboriginal people feature prominently in many of its broader platforms.