News

Cross border deal on Aboriginal health

Wed, 10 Dec 2014 13:49:00

An important cross-border agreement has been put in place by two key Indigenous health agencies to improve the services that they are providing in the Mallee and southern New South Wales.

The Memorandum of Understanding was signed between the Victorian-based Mallee District Aboriginal Services and Broken Hill-based Maari Ma Health Aboriginal Corporation to overcome long-standing cross-border issues in the Murray region.

“This partnership will improve and enhance service delivery to the Koori communities along the Murray,” MDAS CEO Rudolph Kirby said.“While we provide services to community in Mildura and Swan Hill, Maari Ma is responsible for communities in the Balranald and Wentworth shires,” Mr Kirby said.
“Our communities are quite mobile between the regions – people are often moving between Mildura, for example, and Wentworth or Coomealla, or Swan Hill and Balranald.”
“The reality is when people have moved from one State jurisdiction to another in the past, there have been administrative and practical issues involved with providing continuous service.
“It will reduce the risk of clients possibly becoming disengaged from services.”
Maari Ma CEO Bob Davis has welcomed the collaborative approach to health service provision in the border region.
“Importantly, the  memorandum will improve access to health services by eliminating obstacles and creating flexibility. 
“We don’t want a state border to continually be an impediment to improving Indigenous health and this MOU is an historic step forward to achieving better health outcomes for these communities.
Mr Kirby and Mr Davis said the agreement will help ensure consistent and ongoing services.
“It means services and support will be available to families and community members wherever they are in our region – not only while they remain in one State jurisdiction or another,” Mr Kirby said.
“It will simplify service delivery and remove hurdles for staff, but most importantly, it will improve the support both organisations can provide to our clients.”