Foundation helping to Close the Gap on April 2
March 30, 2009
The Rural Health Education Foundation has pledged its support to National Close the Gap Day, which occurs on Thursday 2nd April 2009.
National Close the Gap Day, an initiative of Oxfam Australia, gives people and organisations the opportunity to show their support for closing the 17-year life expectancy gap between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders and other Australians.
“The Foundation strongly supports Close the Gap Day 2009 and the central goal of the broader Close the Gap campaign,” says Rural Health Education Foundation CEO Don Perlgut. “The significantly shorter life expectancy of Indigenous Australians is one of the fundamental issues the Foundation addresses through its educational television programs.”
“Any initiative which seeks to close this gap - a difference in life expectancy so large it’s simply staggering - can count on the Foundation’s support,” Mr Perlgut says.
Addressing the life expectancy gap through education
Indigenous health is a core focus of The Rural Health Education Foundation. The Foundation recognizes the dire health situation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in Australia, the fact that they are proportionately over-represented in rural and remote Australia compared to non-Indigenous Australians, and that their health declines as their remoteness increases.
To address these issues, the Foundation has produced and distributed more than 30 educational television programs exploring a range of issues which impact Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples’ wellbeing, including infant care, breast cancer, mental health, respiratory disorders, injury prevention and palliative care.
The Foundation’s popular Strong series of programs, which have aired on SBS Television, focuses on health strategies for Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders during infancy and childhood, with a view to improving lifelong health and life expectancy.
The Foundation also recently launched its new Strategic Framework for Indigenous Programming 2008-2012, which outlines guiding principles and sets specific goals in order to strengthen the Foundation’s commitment to meeting the professional education needs of practitioners delivering health services to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. You can view a summary of the Framework in PDF format (526k).
More information on how the Foundation is closing the gap
For more information about how the Rural Health Education Foundation addresses the issue of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander life expectancy, please visit the Indigenous Health section of the Foundation’s website or contact the Foundation.
