CRCATSIH Program 3: Enabling Policy and Systems
Program Leaders: Judith Dwyer / Alwin Chong
What’s the Program about?
The Enabling Policy and Systems Program will address the fundamental constraints and challenges that contribute to poor performance in Indigenous health policy and programs. Its focus is on aspects of health care systems and health policy that are known to be important current barriers against, or potential contributors to, improvements in Indigenous health and health care.
The Program aims to develop knowledge and evaluate tools and resources that will enable end-users to reform health system policy and administration and improve capacity to implement programs effectively.
Scope of the Program
Research, capacity building and transfer/utilisation activities will be undertaken across three main areas:
- Contribution to reform of policy and program planning and implementation by governments.
- Enhancing the capacity, composition and structure of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health workforce
- Enhancing organisational effectiveness in Aboriginal community controlled health services, and other health care providers.
Among other things, it will address the macro-system issues influencing whether and how outputs produced in the other two key CRCATSIH Program areas – Healthy Start, Healthy Life; and Healthy Communities and Settings - will be used.
Who will be able to use the work of the Program?
The primary end-users of Program 3 outputs will be:
- managers
- decision makers (and, where relevant, practitioners) in Australian governments
- health authorities
- professional and industry bodies
- Aboriginal community controlled health services and other health care providers
- educational institutions
- workforce recruitment and development agencies
- providers of information/communication technology.
Research projects
Some key projects within Program 3 will be:
Health policy and program effectiveness
1. Stewardship for Indigenous health and health care.
2. Methods of strengthening the links between health system performance measurement and policy action for Indigenous health.
3. Requirements for good practice in cross-portfolio programs and processes for Aboriginal health.
Indigenous health workforce
4. Resources supporting good practice in workforce recruitment and retention.
5. Knowledge about effective and ineffective policy instruments for improving the Indigenous health workforce.
Organisational effectiveness in health care for Indigenous people
6. Evaluation of trials of improved contracting between funders and Aboriginal community controlled health services (and other providers).
7. End-user needs for integrated primary health care data systems.
8. Improving capacity in hospital care for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
9. Models for rapid synthesis of evidence in Indigenous health practice.