Page 981 - Week 03 - Thursday, 21 March 2019
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and Torres Strait Islander health service delivery at the AMC that meets the human rights obligations of the facility and supports the ACT government’s strategic goals towards closing the gap.
Expanded health service provision by Winnunga in the AMC provides a range of benefits supporting the clinical care of detainees. These include better continuity of primary health care for detainees between time in custody and the community; increased information sharing between health teams, leading to better patient care; and increased cultural awareness of staff at the AMC.
The model that has been developed considers culture, infrastructure, human resources, referral processes and relationships with other elements of the human services system. This model also reflects the important roles that friends and family have in supporting the psychosocial welfare of detainees.
It has taken a strong collaborative effort by all parties to achieve what is the first initiative of its kind in the country. I acknowledge the hard work and perseverance of Ms Julie Tongs OAM, the Winnunga CEO, and her team, especially Dr Nadeem Siddiqui, as well as the leadership teams of justice health and the Justice and Community Safety Directorate, in achieving this outcome in such a complex environment.
On 22 June 2018 the ACT government and Winnunga signed a contract to enable the delivery of coordinated healthcare services at the AMC. Since that time, ACTÂ Corrective Services, Canberra Health Services and Winnunga have collaboratively worked together to formalise the service.
A dedicated working group was established to work through the implementation of the Winnunga AMC collaboration in health care model. This working group focused on the clinical and operational arrangements for the successful integration of health services at the AMC. That work informed the development of an MOU and three supporting schedules between the government and Winnunga for the delivery of coordinated healthcare services to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander detainees at the AMC.
The MOU and schedules were signed by all parties on 21 December last year. The intention of the MOU illustrates an enduring shared commitment of the parties in working together to ensure Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander detainees have access to comprehensive Aboriginal health checks, chronic conditions care planning and coordination, mental health treatment and care planning capable of recognising trauma experienced by Indigenous people at the individual and collective level, and appropriate referrals to and collaboration with specialist and allied health professionals.
The MOU also includes principles to guide the actions of the parties. These are that all detainees in the AMC assessed as having a health issue are clients of a healthcare service, and all healthcare service clients in AMC are detainees; Canberra Health Services and Winnunga are autonomous providers of healthcare services to their clients; a healthcare model should recognise the important role of corrections officers
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