Indigenous Allied Health Australia Workforce Development Strategy

Indigenous Allied Health Australia (IAHA) is a national, member-based Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander allied health organisation. IAHA leads sector workforce development and support, to improve the health and wellbeing of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

The AIAHA Workforce Development Strategy is aligned with and designed to help deliver on the IAHA Strategic Plan 2017-2020, which has four key strategic priority areas.

They are:

• Support and engage membership in advocacy, leadership capability and professional developments so that members are a strong, culturally-informed allied health workforce.
• Grow and to support sustainable development of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander allied health sector.
• Transform and contribute to the broader health system to ensure culturally safe and responsive care is embedded in creating sustainable change led by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
• Lead through strong, sustainable allied health leadership and promoting the voice of our members.

Workforce development is central to this transformation. It underpins access to quality services and better health and wellbeing outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

The Workforce Development Strategy was developed in the context of:

• challenges Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people face in achieving acceptable levels of health and wellbeing;
• challenges accessing allied health services to meet complex health and wellbeing needs
• social, cultural, economic, technological and environmental factors; and
• the need for culturally safe and responsive health and education systems and services that support workforce and leadership development required to transform Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples’ lives.