Saturday Magazine

16 Dec 2024

Saturday, 14th, December, 2024: GED KEARNEY MP, ASSIST. MIN. FOR HEALTH AND AGED CARE ASSIST. MIN. FOR INDIGENOUS HEALTH

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Saturday, 14th, December, 2024: GED KEARNEY MP, ASSIST. MIN. FOR HEALTH AND AGED CARE ASSIST. MIN. FOR INDIGENOUS HEALTH

GED KEARNEY MP, ASSIST. MIN. FOR HEALTH AND AGED CARE ASSIST. MIN. FOR INDIGENOUS HEALTH joins Macca and Janet live on-air.

Janet and Macca are joined live on-air by GED KEARNEY MP, ASSIST. MIN. FOR HEALTH AND AGED CARE ASSIST. MIN. FOR INDIGENOUS HEALTH

‘SYSTEM-WIDE’ CHANGE: 10-YEAR ACTION PLAN FOR BETTER LGBTIQA+ HEALTH

The Albanese Labor Government has today released an Australian-first roadmap to improve the health and wellbeing of the LGBTIQA+ community.

The National Action Plan for the Health and Wellbeing of LGBTIQA+ People sets out an ambitious plan to improve the care and support LGBTIQA+ people receive and deliver better physical and mental health outcomes across the community.

Accompanying the release of the Action Plan is a $15.5 million investment to kick-start system-wide improvements to give LGBTIQA+ people access to safe, appropriate and stigma-free health and wellbeing care.

Research has found LGBTIQA+ people experience significant health disparities in comparison to the wider community. One in three LGBTIQA+ people rate their health as poor or fair and three in four have experienced a mental health condition.

To address these disparities, the Action Plan will guide government action to make safe, inclusive and high-quality health care available to all LGBTIQA+ people. The key areas of focus will be:

building system-wide leadership and cultural change
strengthening preventive health and building health literacy
enhancing accessibility, availability and safety of health care services
ensuring workforce capability and capacity across both mainstream and LGBTIQA+ led services, and
improving research, data and evaluation.

To support the implementation of the Action Plan, the Albanese Labor Government has made a series of investments, including:

Establishing a $13 million grants program to scale up dedicated LGBTIQA+ services and support successful initiatives that build the health and wellbeing of LGBTIQA+ communities.
Investing $2 million to collect data to underpin priority areas for action through La Trobe University’s ‘Private Lives’ and ‘Writing Themselves In’ health and wellbeing surveys.
Providing $500,000 to expand InterAction for Health and Human Rights InterLink program, a community-led professional psychosocial support service for people with innate variations of sex characteristics.

The Action Plan is the result of the largest national consultation into LGBTIQA+ wellbeing ever undertaken by any Australian government. Guided by an expert advisory group, and chaired by Assistant Minister Ged Kearney, the Action Plan was co-designed with community members, health care providers and key LGBTIQA+ community organisations.