Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples
We, the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care, acknowledge the Traditional Owners and Custodians of the lands on which we work, and pay our respects to Elders past, present and emerging.
NSQHS Standards Actions to meet the needs of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples
The Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care (the Commission) has defined six actions that specifically meet the needs of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people within the National Safety and Quality Health Service (NSQHS) Standards. These actions were defined following a comprehensive consultation process. Their implementation will help orientate the health system to provide all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people with the health care they need. The objective is to improve the health outcomes of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples to a level consistent with other Australians.
The User Guide for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health was developed for health service organisations implementing the NSQHS Standards. The user guide provides practical strategies for implementing the six actions. It also provides practical examples from across Australia that demonstrate that these actions can be, and are being, implemented in health service organisations.
Leave events
Leave events1 occurs when a patient leaves a service before being fully assessed or treated.
The Commission has been invited to progress work on reducing the rate of leave events by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples commenced by states and territories. The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Advisory Group has been established to guide this work.
The proposal is to develop a practical guide for health service organisations to decrease the rate of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people having leave events when presenting for care.
1The Commission acknowledges Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people consider the term "Take Own Leave" offensive and therefore it has been replaced with leave events.
Cultural safety training: Analysis of national survey results and literature review
The NSQHS Standards include six specific actions to improve safety, quality and experience of care for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. The User Guide for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health provides further information for health service organisations to implement the six actions. The Commission undertakes to continually improve the evidence base and resources which inform these actions and to support health service organisations to implement the actions. This report contributes to the implementation of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Action 1.21 of the NSQHS Standards, the health service organisation has strategies to improve the cultural awareness and cultural competency of the workforce to meet the needs of its Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander patients.
This report explores the available literature on cultural safety training delivered by health service organisations and the attributes of high-quality cultural safety training programs. The review includes a detailed analysis of the survey results collected from health service organisations regarding their cultural safety training programs. The report concludes with recommendations to improve cultural safety training delivered by health service organisations for their staff.
