Wangkanyi pulka
Lowitja Institute's newsletter
The Lowitja Institute
Wangkanyi pulka; PublicationNT; E-Journals
2011-08
This publication contains may contain links to external sites. These external sites may no longer be active.; Made available via the Publications (Legal Deposit) Act 2004 (NT).
Date:2011-08
English
Aboriginal Australians; Health and hygiene; Periodicals; Aboriginal Australians; Research; Periodicals
Lowitja Institute
Carlton, Vic.
iss. 4
application/pdf
Copyright
The Lowitja Institute
https://www.legislation.gov.au/Details/C2021C00410
https://hdl.handle.net/10070/233636
https://hdl.handle.net/10070/656162
RESEARCH COMMUNICATIONS 16 Supporting corporate services Follow-up on compliance burden The corporate support needs of Aboriginal community controlled health services (ACCHSs) was the prime focus of a project begun under the CRCAH and which has now finished its work with the publication of a detailed report, case studies, summary report and the upcoming launch of a web tool. The aim of the Corporate Services for Indigenous Primary Health Care Services project, carried out by La Trobe Universitys Australian Institute for Primary Care and Ageing and the University of Melbournes Onemda VicHealth Koori Health Unit, was to gain knowledge about how to support the corporate functions of ACCHSs. Key questions guiding the research included: What are the corporate support needs of ACCHSs, and what factors influence the support required? How do ACCHSs get the corporate support they need? What organised support structures have been developed to address these needs? Four different approaches to sharing corporate services were documented as case studies, including from Bila Muuji Health Services Incorporated, Central Australian Aboriginal Congress, Katherine West Health Board and the Queensland Aboriginal and Islander Health Council. The project findings are reported by authors Kate Silburn, Alister Thorpe and Ian Anderson in Taking Care of Business: Corporate Services for Indigenous Primary Health Care Services. As a result of the knowledge gained from this project a web tool has also been developed to help ACCHSs work through decisionmaking about obtaining corporate support. This tool will be uploaded onto the Lowitja Institute website in September 2011. The three reports are also available electronically at www. lowitja.org.au/lowitja-institutepublishing. If you would like printed copies, please email publications@lowitja.org.au and include your postal address. For further information, contact Kate Silburn (+61 3 9479 3514 or k.silburn@latrobe.edu.au) or Alister Thorpe (+61 3 8344 0640 or ahthorpe@unimelb.edu.au). A team of researchers led by Professor Judith Dwyer from Flinders University has released a followup survey to their 2009 landmark Overburden Report, providing further evidence of the onerous and complex system of accounting and reporting faced by Aboriginal community controlled health services (ACCHSs) around Australia. In the survey, Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Service Funding Report to the Sector 2011, Professor Dwyer and her team aimed to update the information from the first study with data from a larger sample and a more recent financial year (2007/08). This is necessary because while individual local, State and Commonwealth Government departments and non-government organisations (NGOs) have an overview of their own funding and accountability requirements, no agency provides accurate information about the total funding for the ACCHS sector, the report says. The report was funded by the Lowitja Institute and combined the results from a two-part questionnaire sent to ACCHSs with information from the services audited reports and financial statements. This enabled a complete financial analysis of 28 ACCHSs, representing 21 per cent of the sector nationally. Further analysis showed there had been little or no change in the compliance burden faced by ACCHSs since the previous report was compiled, with an average of 21 grants per ACCHS. The report confirmed that ACCHSs are the only sector of the health system that provides a broad range of essential primary health care services from a base of short-term fragmented contracts from multiple sources. Anecdotal evidence suggests that while there has been some progress on lengthening the duration of contracts (to three years), fragmentation continues and reporting requirements remain onerous. To download the report please go to www.lowitja.org.au/lowitjainstitute-publishing. TAKING CARE OF BUSINESS | Overview Report 1 OVERVIEW REPORT TAKING CARE OF BUSINESS: Corporate Services for Indigenous Primary Health Care Services Kate Silburn, Alister Thorpe and Ian Anderson Controlled Health Report to the Sector 2011 Aboriginal Community Service Funding Angelita Martini Uning Marlina Judith Dwyer Jose Lavoie Kim ODonnell Patrick Sullivan