Office for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health (OATSIH)

Welcome to OATSIH

This page provides information on the Office for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health (OATSIH)

What OATSIH does

The Office for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health (OATSIH) was established to give a greater focus to the health needs of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in mainstream health programs, and to assume responsibility for the administration of funding to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community controlled health and substance use services.

The long-term strategy of OATSIH is to improve the access of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples to comprehensive primary health care services. The aim is to provide coordinated clinical care, population health and health promotion activities to facilitate illness prevention, early intervention and effective disease management. Evidence from Australia and overseas shows that improved access to comprehensive primary health care can make a real and sustainable difference to health status in the longer term.

This strategy is firmly based on the principle of working in partnership with the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community controlled health sector.

The Department is pursuing a three way approach

1. Aims to improve access to, and responsiveness of, the mainstream health system
2. Ensure complementary action through Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander specific health and substance use services
3. Collaborate across governments and the health sector to improve service delivery and outcomes

The Australian Government Department of Health and Ageing through the Office for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health (OATSIH) is committed to supporting sustained action coordinated across all governments to achieve health improvements over time.

Better health relies on a complex interaction between many factors, one of which is access to good health care services. Given adequate resources, high quality comprehensive primary health care can make a significant contribution to improving Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples’ current health needs, and the emerging burden of chronic disease that they face into the future.

Improving Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health is not just about improving the physical wellbeing of an individual. It is about working towards the social, emotional and cultural wellbeing of the whole community in which each individual is able to achieve their full potential as a human being.