Event to stand up for health equality

A Close The Gap event in Drouin tomorrow will focus on providing indigenous Australians with equal access to health services.

National Close the Gap Day is an opportunity to send governments a clear message that Australians value health equality as a fundamental right for all.

Tomorrow, Latrobe Community Health Service, West Gippsland Healthcare Group and Ramahyuck in Drouin are uniting to stand up for Indigenous health equality.

A Close The Gap event will be held at the Uniting Church in Sinclair St to provide Indigenous community members with health advice and services.

The activities and information available include: a smoothie blender bike; how to quit smoking; chronic disease nurse; counselling; NDIS; healthy tucker talks; mindfulness; and, alcohol and other drug talks.

LCHS Aboriginal regional development officer Karina Crutch said many Aboriginal people were denied the same access to healthcare that non-Indigenous Australians take for granted.

She said despite a decade of government promises and reports the gap in health and life expectancy between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and other Australians is widening.

“In reality Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people can expect to live 10 years less than non-Indigenous Australians,” she said.

Ms Crutch said a recent government report into Close The Gap revealed we were not on target for achieving any of the priorities set out in the report.

“There are lots of barriers to accessing health services…we want to increase access,” she said.

Ms Crutch said 2015-16 figures showed 704 members of Gippsland’s 5276 Aboriginal community had a health assessment in that year.

She said this represented only 0.13 per cent of the Indigenous population in Gippsland.

“That is quite low given we have health services and Aboriginal health clinics in place,” she said.

Ms Crutch said LCHS, WGHG and Ramahyuck wanted to work together on health promotion and implementing prevention strategies to achieve better outcomes.

She said it also was about creating a “culturally safe environment” for Aboriginal people to use the available health service agencies

The Drouin Close The Gap event will be held between 10am and 2pm tomorrow and will provide a range of health services and free activities.