QNews – Australia launches 10 year Action Plan for LGBTQIA+ Health

This article was originally published by QNews. You can find the original article here.

The Australian Government has today announced a $15.5 million ten-year “National Action Plan for the Health and Wellbeing of LGBTIQA+ People” following a consultation process that involved hundreds of community members and 26 roundtables around the country.

The Action Plan was announced today in Melbourne by Assistant Minister for Health and Aged Care the Hon Ged Kearney MP, who began her career as a nurse during the early years of the HIV/AIDS Epidemic in Australia.

“Our vision is of a healthcare system that is inclusive, accessible, and safe,” Kearney wrote in the forward of the document, “where LGBTIQA+ people have access to early intervention care, preventive treatment and information.”

“Where the health workforce has the capability and capacity to support the delivery of high-quality care for all Australians.

“Where someone’s sexuality, gender identity, or sex characteristics, does not define their experience of the healthcare system.

“This Action Plan therefore outlines a pathway for government to work in partnership with LGBTIQA+ communities to drive real change and chart a course to better health and wellbeing outcomes.”

The National Action Plan for the Health and Wellbeing of LGBTIQA+ People 2025–2035 is the result of what is believed to be the largest national consultation of LGBTQ+ wellbeing undertaken by any Australian government.

The government’s consultation process found that one in three LGBTQIA+ people rate their health as “poor” – more than twice the national average.

Three in four LGBTQIA+ people also reported being diagnosed with a mental health condition at some point in their lives.

The Action Plan identifies five key “areas for focus” – system-wide leadership and cultural change; the strengthening of preventative health, protective factors and health literacy; the enhancement of accessibility, availability of healthcare services; workforce capability across both mainstream and LGBTQIA+ lead services; and the improvement of research data and evaluation so that data is routinely used in policy and planning activities.

It also has five “guiding principles” which are achieving health equity for LGBTIQA+ people that acknowledges and respects their diversity; embedding preventive health and wellbeing across the life course of community members; ensuring supportive, safe, appropriate, and autonomous care; access to health services that support high quality care and self-determination in decision making; and evidence-based continuous improvement.

The Public Health Association of Australia (PHAA) has applauded the new Action Plan, with its CEO, Adjunct Professor Terry Slevin, saying, “We know that discrimination, stigma, and harassment, both within and outside the health care system, lead to poorer health outcomes for LGBTIQA+ people compared to the wider community.”

“The Action Plan is a welcome step by the Government to address these disparities and make safe, inclusive and high-quality health care available to all LGBTIQA+ people.

“We also wish to express our appreciation to everyone who has helped develop this plan, from members of the LGBTIQA+ and health communities across the continent, through to the public servants and minister who will help enact it.”

However Just.Equal Australia’s Rodney Croome criticised it as “weak and inadequate”.

“What we need from the Federal Government is a set of targets for improved LGBTIQA+ health, but all we have is a list of parenthood statements,” Croome said.

“For the plan to succeed the Government must commit to critical law and policy reforms that will improve health outcomes by reducing discrimination.”

Croome said the plan should include concrete targets for 2035 in areas such as how many health care workers will be trained in LGBTIQA+ inclusion, how many LGBTIQA+ people will have access to dedicated health services, how much shorter wait times will be for gender affirming care, and how much lower mental health risk will be.

“Without specific targets the plan is just a wish list with no in-built measures of success and no accountability for failure,” Croome said,

“If we conservatively estimate there are 1.5 million LGBTIQA+ Australians, that’s $10 each over one year which is obviously not enough to remedy decades of discrimination.”

“If the funding is for a decade, it’s $1 each per year.”

“The action plan would be much more effective if it committed the Government to a range of critical law and policy reforms including stronger hate speech laws, a prohibition on discrimination in faith-based hospitals and schools, ending medically unnecessary surgeries on infants with innate variations of sex characteristics, and allowing transgender people to claim gender affirming treatments on Medicare.”

Mr Croome said the LGBTIQA+ community should demand more from the Federal Government “and not accept crumbs from the table”.

“The plan and the funding should be renegotiated, preferably by a wider and more representative group of community advocates.”

Australian Greens LGBTIQA+ spokesperson, Stephen Bates MP, welcomed the release of the Action Plan but also criticised it as being inadequate.

“After two years of delays, it’s disappointing that the final plan is so light on deliverables and so light on funding,” Bates said, earlier today.

“Guardrails and guidelines are a good starting point but making up for years of sector neglect needs more than that.

“This plan just sets out to improve consultation and make sure our health system is inclusive. This has to come with broader systemic reform that delivers material help to queer people struggling with out-of-pocket healthcare costs.

“If the Government wants some ideas, they could start by removing out of pocket expenses for gender affirming care, expanding eligibility for IVF and reproductive health programmes to LGBTIQA+ families, and making sure every community, from capitals to the regions, have access to comprehensive and LGBTIQA+ friendly health services.

“I want to thank everyone who contributed to the important work of the expert advisory group and all the LGBTIQA+ organisations who have been calling for real action on our community’s health and wellbeing for decades.”

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This article was originally published by QNews. You can find the original article here.