Aboriginal health

Victorian Aboriginal health workforce plan

The Victorian Aboriginal health workforce plan acknowledges the work emanating from the National Partnership Agreement on Closing the Gap in Indigenous Health Outcomes: Commonwealth implementation plan, and forms the workforce component of the Victorian Closing the Gap implementation plan.

Operating within the draft National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health workforce strategic framework (2009), this plan supports the aim that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people will have equitable health outcomes through a competent health workforce that has appropriate clinical, management, community development and cultural skills.

To address the workforce gaps in Victoria we need to:

• increase supply (more people in the training system)
• maintain the workforce we have (focus on retention)
• build efficiency (through better use of Medicare Benefit Scheme items and multidisciplinary approaches).

The key objectives of the Victorian Aboriginal health workforce plan are to:

• develop and increase the supply of competent health workers in Aboriginal community-controlled health organisations (ACCHOs), Aboriginal community-controlled organisations (ACCOs) and mainstream health services
• enhance and optimise the existing workforce and integrated service delivery practice models in ACCHOs/ACCOs and mainstream organisations through workforce redesign pilot projects
• build middle management and leadership skills and improve articulation pathways within ACCHOs/ACCOs to lead multidisciplinary teams and strengthen organisational capacity
• increase the clinical placement capacity of ACCHOs to enhance health students’ knowledge and cultural understanding of Aboriginal communities health and wellbeing needs
• build the capacity of mainstream health services and health professionals to deliver culturally sensitive services both within mainstream and ACCHO/ACCO settings.

This workforce plan will evolve over time and will allow us to learn from our experiences. It recognises that there is no single, simple workforce solution. It will be flexible to ensure changes in direction or scope can be accommodated with ease.

For further information contact Sue Davey, Senior Policy Advisor, Sector Workforce, Department of Health on (03) 9096 7869 or email sue.davey@health.vic.gov.au