Principles of Aboriginal community controlled primary health care
AMSANT is committed to the principles of Aboriginal community controlled primary health care, set out by the National Aboriginal Health Strategy (1989), as essential to improving the health status of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
The principles encompass:
- an holistic view of health care which includes physical, social, spiritual and emotional health of people
- capacity-building of community-controlled organisations and the community itself to support local and regional solutions or health outcomes
- local community control and participation
- partnering and collaborating across sectors, and
- recognising the inter-relationship between good health and the social determinants of health.
Aboriginal Community Health Services (ACCHSs) must be incorporated bodies, with constitutions ensuring control by Aboriginal people under the principle of self-determination, and compulsory accountability processes, including annual general meetings open to all members of the relevant Aboriginal community and regularly elected management committees.
‘Community control’ ensures that people who are going to use health services are able to determine the nature of those services, and then participate in the planning, implementation and evaluation of those services.