13 August 2004
ABORIGINAL HEALTH STANDARDS "A NATIONAL EMERGENCY"
"[Indigenous health] has largely gone unrecognised or unheard so that we have what I could best describe as a health emergency in this country, in indigenous Australia," the indigenous programs manager of the Fred Hollows Foundation, Olga Havnen said earlier this year.
Key health standards for indigenous Australians were below those of poor countries such as Sudan, Sierra Leone and Nepal and Aboriginal health standards were not improving and, in some areas, declining, despite years of national prosperity she went on to say.
It was also pointed out that the life expectancy of the Aboriginal population was about twenty years below the Australian average and the gap was increasing.
The issue of Aboriginal health was featured in the most recent edition of Ozspirit in an article in which it was suggested that the present situation is as a sign that the current government policies were not working.
Key health standards for indigenous Australians were below those of poor countries such as Sudan, Sierra Leone and Nepal and Aboriginal health standards were not improving and, in some areas, declining, despite years of national prosperity she went on to say.
It was also pointed out that the life expectancy of the Aboriginal population was about twenty years below the Australian average and the gap was increasing.
The issue of Aboriginal health was featured in the most recent edition of Ozspirit in an article in which it was suggested that the present situation is as a sign that the current government policies were not working.
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