Identifying the Indigenous status of people accessing health services improves national health and welfare data and helps ‘close the gap’ in outcomes between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians.
It also helps Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people access Indigenous-specific health measures designed to overcome the health disparities between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people. Most of these measures are accessed through general practitioners.
The Australia Institute of Health and Welfare has developed a training tool and a range of resources to assist those who work in the health care sector to ask about Indigenous status.