PCD Strategy Evaluation 2007.pdf - NT Health Digital Library ...

2002 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Workforce National StrategicFramework2002 The NHMRC Road Map: A Strategic Framework for Improving Aboriginal andTorres Strait Islander Health Through Research2003 National Strategic Framework for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health:Framework for Action by Governments and Implementation Plans2005-2010 Aboriginal Health and Families: A five year framework for Action, Departmentof Health and Community Services, NT GovernmentNationalNationalNationalNTWhile many of these policies are associated with funding streams, the funding is ofteninadequate to implement the proposal and there is often little funding to sustain successfulinitiatives. For example: the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Nutrition Strategy andAction Plan includes only one limited-tenure national appointment responsible for itsimplementation.Review of health promotion activitiesIn March 2005, Convery undertook an Audit of the Health Promotion activities for the previousyear (61) . She particularly examined Alcohol and Other Drugs, Mental Health, Preventable ChronicDisease, and Child and Family Health. The audit identified 33 interventions including 10 in thearea of Preventable Chronic Diseases. Only one of these was identified as being NT-wide, and atleast four of these ten were located in the Top End only. Convery attempted to categorise thesefurther and found one targeted skin health, and one targeted women‟s health (61) . These areprobably peripheral to the main thrust of the PCDS. Two programs targeted chronic diseaseworkers‟ skills, representing the previous emphasis on capacity building. Four programs targetedchronic disease information and awareness and two targeted various community-identifiedissues.Overall, about half of the interventions were delivered by staff from the relevant program areas,7 of the 33 interventions were led by Aboriginal staff, and only 9 of the 33 had a person withhealth promotion training in a lead role. This review suggests that overall, only a small number ofhealth promotion activities have occurred in the time frame covered, and that many of thesewere localised (61) . This raises the issue of whether more programs were actually present butwere not apparent in this review, and recalls the comments of the 2003 review that healthpromotion ran the risk of resource depletion and becoming „invisible‟.Chapter 3: Progress Against PCDS Objectives – Evaluation of the NT Preventable Chronic Disease Strategy 2007 45