Aboriginal Health Workers: professional qualifications to match their health promotion roles

Abstract

Aboriginal Health Workers are recognised as critical to meeting the health promotion needs of Indigenous communities, but addressing the complexity of these needs requires Aboriginal Health Workers to have a high level of professional skills and knowledge. Considerable progress has been made in developing health worker training programs, particularly in the vocational sector. However, a national review finds that training is still inadequate for enabling health workers to meet the level of communities' health needs and asks why this is so. Method To begin addressing the issues raised in the national review's question, this paper reviews a range of literature on the health promotion needs of Indigenous communities and the role of Aboriginal Health Workers in addressing these needs. It describes current vocational training provision for Aboriginal Health Workers, and the potential role of university-based programs to extend Aboriginal Health Worker professional qualifications to a level equivalent to allied health professionals. Results This paper proposes that health promotion in Indigenous health is a specialist and central field of practice that is influenced by a complex range of factors. It also advocates that to practice effectively in this domain, Aboriginal Health Workers require sophisticated skills and knowledge at a level equivalent to other health professions. We contend that opportunities should be provided for Aboriginal Health Workers, if they choose to be qualified at a university level in parallel with other health professional qualifications. So what? Aboriginal Health Workers with university-based qualifications equivalent to other allied health professionals will be better placed to meet the health promotion needs of their communities while managing the complexity of the environments in which these needs arise.

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