Summary
In 2023, the Department of Health and Aged Care funded the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) to look at Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people’s use of primary health care.
For Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, culturally responsive, comprehensive, high-quality and timely primary health care throughout life that acknowledges the impact of social, cultural and historical determinants is essential to improve health outcomes (AIHW 2023a, 2023b; Dudgeon et al. 2014; Griew et al. 2008; IAHA 2019).
While access to some aspects of primary health care has improved over time, data show that there are still challenges, such as:
- the spatial distribution of services and providers relative to where Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people live
- the unmet need for a range of specific services (such as general practitioners [GPs], dentists and counsellors, among others)
- the ability of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to access their preferred type of service provider (AIHW 2023a).
To enhance access to timely and culturally relevant primary health care, it is essential to:
- understand the individual and systemic factors underpinning the patterns of use of this care among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people
- identify the groups or areas with the greatest unmet need (including for people who do not use health care at all).
This summary provides a high-level overview of the results of the project, with more details provided in the body of the report. The report is accompanied by detailed supplementary data tables (see Data) and an interactive dashboard with further results from the spatial analysis (see Interactive dashboard).