Moving Forward Together in Aboriginal Women's Health: - Theses ...

Moving Forward TogetherJanet KellyBoth Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal community health professionals andmanagers have struggled to provide client centred care over the last twenty fiveyears (community consultations with health professionals and past and presentmanagers at Gilles Plains, 2005). Low budgets, high workload, low staffingand scarce resources have made this challenging. As discussed in ChapterThree, the community health budget has at times been only received 5% of thetotal federal health budget (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare 2006),and frequent policy changes and restructuring have impacted on continuity ofcare. Despite these challenges and changes, a strong culture of collaboration,consultation and evidence based practice has generally been sustained bymultiple agencies at the campus over the years (Aboriginal Health ServicesInteragency Forum 2001; Gilles Plains Community Health Centre 1988, 2004;Program Review Group - Community Health Enfield 1998; Stark & Coulls2007; World Health Organisation 1978).Surrounding demographicsThe Gilles Plains Community Campus is located in the north east suburbs ofAdelaide, on the boundary of Port Adelaide Enfield, Tea Tree Gully andCampbelltown municipal council areas. The surrounding suburbs consist ofsome public housing (including Aboriginal housing), new redevelopments ofprivate homes, and commercial and light industry. A high school and adulteducation centre are within walking distance, and an Aboriginal women’sshelter, disability support services and the men’s and women’s prisons arelocated in nearby suburbs. People living locally consist of long term residents,people moving into the area in the new housing developments, public housingor to stay with family, and newly arrived refugees from mostly African,European and Middle Eastern countries. Some families have lived in the areafor generations, with their children and grandchildren attending the GillesPlains Primary School, others have only newly arrived to the area.According to Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS, 2007) data, Aboriginalpeople make up 1.7% of the total South Australian population and 5% of thetotal Aboriginal population in Australia. In the Gilles Plains (Enfield East) area57% of Aboriginal people living in the are under the age of 25 years, 30% areaged 25-44 years, 8.8% are aged 45-64 years, and only 1.8% are over the age156