National Close the Gap Day raises awareness of the gap in health and life expectancy between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and the non-indigenous community, with the ultimate goal of achieving health equality.
Since 2007, Close the Gap Day has taken place on the third Thursday in March – this year, Thursday 17 March.
Most Australians enjoy one of the highest life expectancies of any country in the world — but sadly this is not true for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, who experience poorer health outcomes and a life expectancy of 10-17 years lower than non-Indigenous Australians.
Monash Health is uniquely positioned to make a difference due to its extensive geographical reach and high number of patients seen yearly. As such, Monash Health plays a significant role in creating health equality for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
Some of Monash Health’s current initiatives to address this include:
- Running a fortnightly, multi-disciplinary clinic for out of home Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children.
- Organisation-wide cultural safety training to help create culturally aware employees, so that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people feel safe in attending our sites.
- Community engagement for new hospital builds to create a safe and meaningful environment.
- Asking all patients if they identify as Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander. Monash Health’s policy regarding “asking the question”, recording and responding to Aboriginal patients can be found here.
- Referring Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander patients to an Aboriginal Hospital Liaison Officer
Extended AHLO service
Recently, Monash Health has extended the Aboriginal Hospital Liaison Officer (AHLO) service, which now runs 7-days a week, from 8am – 4:30pm.
Our Aboriginal Hospital Liaison Officers provide:
- Cultural, emotional and spiritual support to patients and families
- Participation in family meetings and care planning
- Patient advocacy
- Referrals to other culturally appropriate services
- Support with discharge planning and linking to community services
You can contact an AHLO 7-days a week by:
- Phone : 9792 7948
- Email: aboriginalhealth@monashhealth.org
Please note that the Aboriginal Health team no longer have pagers, and that the weekend AHLO is based at Clayton only (but available for phone support at all sites).
On the day
You can come and have a yarn with some of the Aboriginal Health team on Close the Gap Day (Thursday, 17 March). The team is setting up a stall from 9:30am – 3:30pm in the front foyer of Monash Medical Centre (near the gift shop and café), to promote their services, answer any questions you might have, and giving out free mousepads, notebooks and individually wrapped cookies.
For more information about the Aboriginal Health team and their services, search ‘Aboriginal Health’ on our intranet.
Approved by Julia Oxley – General Manager, Monash Health Community; and Sara Edwards – Acting Director, Child, Youth and Family; Aboriginal Health; and Operational Support