Title:	A Matter of Life and Death
Authors:	ALAN GRAY
Keywords:	Aborigines/ Australian-Mortality~Congresses
Issue Date:	1993
Publisher:	Aboriginal Studies Press
Description:	Some of the participants in this workshop also attended the 1973 seminar held at Monash University with the theme 'Better Health for Aborigines?' I think John Stuart and Gordon Briscoe were at that workshop. Sixteen years later we know that there have been improvements in some aspects of Aboriginal health, particularly in those aspects of maternal and child health where it was possible to place effective programs of medical intervention. In the early 1970~~ infant mortality rates of l00 or more per 1,000 live births were not uncommon-now we see rates of maybe 25 to 35 per 1,000, still three times as high as in the rest of the Australian population, but a vast improvement nevertheless. There have also been some very effective public health interventions, such as the National Trachoma and Eye Health Program which began in the 1970s and lasted well into the 1980s. There have been massive improvements in the extent to which Aboriginal people have been involved in their own health care, and it is sad to reflect that these improvements had to be fought for all along the way-and they still have to be fought for, despite the strength and vigour which the Aboriginal health service movement has picked up as it has matured. We are pleased that Aboriginal people from organisations involved in community-based services or government health services are present here.
URI:	http://10.6.20.12:80/handle/123456789/56264
ISBN:	0 85575 219 X
Appears in Collections:	Population Studies

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