- National Rural Health Alliance
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The National Rural Health Alliance is Australia's peak non-government organisation for rural and remote health. The Alliance began in 1991 and was incorporated in 1993. It brings together a number of disparate organisations for the common purpose of improving the health of people who live and work in country areas.
The Alliance now comprises 29 Member Bodies,[1] each of which is a national organisation. They represent health consumers, health care professionals, service providers, health educators, students and some Indigenous health organisations.
Although its work involves advocacy to Australia’s governments, the Alliance has core operational support from the Australian (Federal) Government’s Department of Health and Ageing. The Alliance’s work has remained independent of government and is controlled and managed by its member bodies, through Council of the NRHA.
The Alliance collects and disseminates information, determines key issues that affect health and wellbeing in rural and remote areas, and provides broad views on rural health matters to governments, educational and research institutions, and other professional bodies.
The Alliance’s interests and constituency are the communities of rural and remote Australia. These are defined (arbitrarily) by the Alliance as all those places except the nine capital cities and the regional conurbations of Townsville, the Gold Coast, Newcastle, the Central Coast, Wollongong and Geelong. Australia has various formal classification systems of the continuum from ‘metropolitan’ to ‘remote’, the latest of which is the Australian Standard Geographic Classification System – Remoteness Areas (ASGC-RA).
Because of the great distances involved in rural and remote Australia, and despite its general affluence, the health status of its people deteriorates with increasing remoteness (ie distance from its capital cities). The proportion of Indigenous (Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander) people in local communities increases with increasing remoteness and this also contributes to the urban-remote health gradient. Across Australia as a whole there is a 12-17 year difference in life expectancy between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people. Between remote and metropolitan areas as a whole the difference is estimated to be 3–4 years.
Against this background, the Alliance’s vision is good health and wellbeing in rural and remote Australia. The Alliance takes a broad view of health and a long-term view of the development of rural Australia. Its operation is based on the view that all Australians, wherever they live, should have access to comprehensive, high quality health services and the opportunity for equivalent health outcomes. This involves the social and economic determinants of health as well as factors in the health sector more narrowly defined.
These broader issues include rural and regional development, telecommunications, transport, cultural safety, illness prevention and education, as well as health infrastructure. The Alliance aims to work with consumers, communities and governments to make the diverse communities of rural and remote Australia healthy and health-promoting places in which to live and work.
In 1998-99 the NRHA was a participant with Commonwealth, State and Territory governments in development of a national strategic framework for rural and remote health in Australia: Healthy Horizons. It worked with governments on the updated Healthy Horizons 2003-07 and on its review in 2008. The Alliance now seeks to be involved in the development of a National Rural Health Plan.
The Alliance is a participant in other aspects of the current health reform debate in Australia.[2]
The NRHA is manager of the biennial National Rural Health Conference.[3] The Conference has become a key event on the calendar of people interested in improving health in rural, regional and remote Australia, whether as community representatives, policy makers, researchers or other stakeholders.
The NRHA is administrator for the Australian Government of the Rural Australia Medical Undergraduate Scholarship Scheme (RAMUS).[4] The RAMUS scheme is a strategy to increase the medical workforce in rural Australia and supports 550 rural students each year to study medicine.
The NRHA is owner and manager of the Australian Journal of Rural Health (AJRH).[5] The AJRH is the official journal of four organisations: the Rural Nursing and Midwifery Faculty of the Royal College of Nursing Australia (RNMF of RCNA), the National Rural Faculty of the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (NRF of RACGP), the Council of Remote Area Nurses of Australia (CRANA) and Services for Australian Rural and Remote Allied Health (SARRAH).
The Alliance produces on CD an extensive compilation of rural and remote health papers published since 1991.
Apart from the AJRH and the Rural and Remote Health Papers CD, Alliance publications are freely available through its website.
Friends of the Alliance is an organisation for individuals and organisations interested in rural health and in supporting the work of the NRHA.[6]
References
- ^ http://nrha.ruralhealth.org.au/about/?IntContId=38&IntCatId=2
- ^ http://nrha.ruralhealth.org.au/reform/?IntCatId=42
- ^ http://nrha.ruralhealth.org.au/conferences/?IntCatId=9
- ^ http://nrha.ruralhealth.org.au/scholarships/?IntCatId=7
- ^ http://nrha.ruralhealth.org.au/ajrh/?IntCatId=20
- ^ http://nrha.ruralhealth.org.au/friends/?IntCatId=4
External links
Categories:- Medical and health organisations based in Australia
- Non-governmental organizations based in Australia
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