Minister for Employment Participation Mark Arbib today launched a report into child health, development and wellbeing in far western New South Wales.
Prepared by Maari Ma Health Aboriginal Corporation and the Far West Aboriginal Child Development and Wellbeing Management Group, the report measures the gap between child health and development for Indigenous children in the region compared to children across New South Wales.
At the launch in Broken Hill, Senator Arbib commended the report’s authors for their holistic view of child health and development.
“This report emphasises the importance of working across all services to best meet the range of needs of children in their early years,” Senator Arbib said.
“It will help to close the gap on Indigenous disadvantage by building the evidence base to best determine what works, what needs to be done better and where we can have most impact.
“The report shows there has been improvement in some areas, but there is a significant way to go to narrow the gap which still exists for Indigenous children in the far west.”
The Far West Aboriginal Child Development and Wellbeing Management Group is a partnership of Maari Ma Health Aboriginal Corporation, New South Wales Department of Education and Training, NSW Greater Western Area Health Service, New South Wales Department of Community Services, New South Wales Police, Mission Australia and Paediatrician Dr Garth Alperstein.
This Management Group was formed to collaborate on the development of an evidence base and create holistic interventions to improve the lives of the region’s children.
“The Australian Government will work in partnership with members of the Management Group to build on their current successes, particularly in immunisation rates, and to continue to improve the wider health and wellbeing of Indigenous children in the region,” Senator Arbib said.
“We know that the only way to make improvements is to take a holistic approach. We can’t simply look at health. We need to look at education and other social factors which all contribute to the wellbeing of our children.
“I am particularly pleased that this report will serve as a baseline against which improvements can be measured. By comprehensively collecting and analysing the results we can make sure we are making real improvements for Indigenous kids.”