Impacts of Service and Infrastructure Provision on Indigenous Temporary Mobility in the Northern Territory of Australia: Insights from the 2011 Census

Abstract

Indigenous people comprise a significant proportion of the population living in remote parts of Australia, particularly in the north. A growing body of literature has documented high mobility between remote Indigenous settlements, service towns and cities. The extent and nature of this mobility is thought to be driven, at least partly, by the types of services and infrastructure available in communities. Understanding to what extent these service and infrastructure provisions drive people's mobility and the type of people who move is essential for creating policy for remote communities and making investment decisions. We use 2011 census data to examine this issue for the Northern Territory, the Australian jurisdiction with the highest Indigenous composition in its remote population, by constructing generalised linear mixed models comparing Indigenous people's actual locations on census night with their stated usual place of residence. We found that individual characteristics (gender and age) had high impacts on individuals being at home or away on census night and that good health care provision, government subsidised community jobs and Internet access are associated with higher levels of absences from home. Meanwhile, those living in communities that had recently received new houses were less likely to be away on census night. The results can contribute to the efficiency of service provision and to understanding the dynamics of Indigenous mobility. Copyright

Successes and challenges of primary health care in Australia: A scoping review and comparative analysis

“…Service coordination and effective referral links in PHC are crucial if a patient is to receive continued quality care. In our study, although health service acceptability (86%-97%) [44,65,75], and service use [63,64,68,70,89,103,104,125] (Table S7 in the Online Supplementary Document) have increased over time, the number of referrals for behavioural risks for chronic diseases was not increased [129]. Similarly, a study reported that only 38%-49% of chronic disease patients received a referral for their complex health care needs including mental health [53].…”

“…The overall characteristics of included studies are summarized in each section of the key attributes of good PHC delivery [19]. Of 112 studies included, methodologically, 29 were qualitative studies [17,, 20 were cross-sectional [52][53][54][55][56][57][58][59][60][61][62][63][64][65][66][67][68][69][70][71], 15 were mixed-method studies [72][73][74][75][76][77][78][79][80][81][82][83][84][85][86], 10 were national / state based surveys / census [87][88][89][90][91][92][93][94][95][96], nine were retrospective / prospective cohort [97][98]…”

“…Because the use of evidence to support advanced clinical and community health care impacts health outcomes positively [56,114]. Studies have also shown that reliance on the medical model [64], low health literacy [63] and infrastructure [89] are impediments to patient-centred service sustainability (Table S7 in the Online Supplementary Document). two studies each reported community participation [76,119], multi-agency / multi-faceted communication [29,64] and intersectoral / cross-sectoral coordination [32,49].…”