Improving Aboriginal Cultural Respect Across Tasmania’s Health System Action Plan 2020–2026: Progress Evaluation Report.

WARNING: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are warned that this report may contain references of deceased persons and content which may cause distress.

This evaluation, commissioned by the Tasmanian Department of Health, assesses progress on the Improving Aboriginal Cultural Respect Across Tasmania’s Health System Action Plan 2020–2026. The evaluation involved seven focus groups, primarily held at Aboriginal Organisations across Lutruwita (Tasmania), and two online surveys: one for Aboriginal people and another for those supporting Aboriginal people accessing Department of Health services.
The findings suggest that some sections of the Department of Health provide culturally respectful health care and are highly regarded, but others require significant improvement. According to the Australian Health Ministers' Advisory Council (2016, p. 5), cultural respect is achieved when “the health system is safe, accessible, and responsive, and when Aboriginal cultural values, strengths, and differences are respected.” Although meaningful progress has been made in some locations across the six cultural respect Focus Areas (see Figure 2, below), fully realising cultural respect is a sequential process that involves changing long-held beliefs and norms in organisational practice, which requires time and sustained effort. Cultural respect should not be considered a task to be completed and ‘ticked off’ but as an ongoing transformation process that shifts the department away from piecemeal, potentially harmful practices toward embedding cultural respect into its structures and daily operations.
Primarily grounded in the voices of Aboriginal people in Lutruwita (Tasmania), this report makes six recommendations to advance cultural respect within the Department of Health. These recommendations are based on a systems approach framework (i.e. micro, meso, macro), underpinned by Aboriginal leadership, and include the Indigenisation and decolonisation of space and place, increased Aboriginal employment at all levels, and valuing Aboriginal-specific roles. Additionally, non-Indigenous staff should meaningfully engage with and complete high-quality, mandatory cultural respect training, work to enhance relationships with ACCOs/ACCHOs and improve data practices throughout the data lifecycle. These steps are critical to integrating cultural respect into the department’s core values and everyday functions.