How the Social Determinants of Indigenous Health became Policy Reality for Australia's National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Plan
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Date
2018-05-28
Authors
Fisher, Matthew
Battams, Samantha Jane
McDermott, Dennis Roy
Baum, Fran
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Cambridge University Press
Rights
© Cambridge University Press 2018
Rights Holder
Cambridge University Press
Abstract
The paper analyses the policy process which enabled the successful adoption of Australia's National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Plan 2013–2023 (NATSIHP), which is grounded in an understanding of the Social Determinants of Indigenous Health (SDIH). Ten interviews were conducted with key policy actors directly involved in its development. The theories we used to analyse qualitative data were the Advocacy Coalition Framework, the Multiple Streams Approach, policy framing and critical constructionism. We used a complementary approach to policy analysis. The NATSIHP acknowledges the importance of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander (hereafter, Aboriginal) culture and the health effects of racism, and explicitly adopts a human-rights-based approach. This was enabled by a coalition campaigning to ‘Close the Gap’ (CTG) in health status between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Australians. The CTG campaign, and key Aboriginal health networks associated with it, operated as an effective advocacy coalition, and policy entrepreneurs emerged to lead the policy agenda. Thus, Aboriginal health networks were able to successfully contest conventional problem conceptions and policy framings offered by government policy actors and drive a paradigm shift for Aboriginal health to place SDIH at the centre of the NATSIHP policy. Implications of this research for policy theory and for other policy environments are considered along with suggestions for future research.
Description
© Cambridge University Press 2018
Keywords
Australia's National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Plan 2013–2023 (NATSIHP), Social Determinants of Indigenous Health (SDIH), Social Determinants of Health, dvocacy Coalition Framework, Multiple Streams Approach, Aboriginal culture, ‘Close the Gap’ (CTG)
Citation
FISHER, M., BATTAMS, S., MCDERMOTT, D., BAUM, F., & MACDOUGALL, C. (2018). How the Social Determinants of Indigenous Health became Policy Reality for Australia’s National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Plan. Journal of Social Policy, 48(1), 169–189. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0047279418000338