The NSW Aboriginal Health Governance, Shared Decision Making and Accountability Framework aims to improve outcomes for Aboriginal people in NSW through:
This framework focuses on transforming NSW Health systems, structures and processes to enable shared decision making with Aboriginal people. This framework:
The goal of this framework is to outline the ‘gold standard’ for Aboriginal governance, shared decision- making and accountability within NSW Health. This framework has four principles to guide and embed these concepts in NSW Health. Each principle in the framework includes:
The framework will be accompanied by a robust ‘NSW Aboriginal Health Governance and Accountability Maturity Matrix’ and a ‘NSW Health and ACCO Partnership Matrix’. These matrices are monitoring and accountability tools for the framework. These tools will enable all NSW Health services to assess their maturity in enacting the principles of the framework and outline a maturity journey for how they can enact success.
The framework will be supported through an implementation plan which will outline the actions needed to implement what success looks like for each principle in NSW Health. Once implemented, it will be a part of business-as-usual processes in NSW Health. The framework will be reviewed and updated as needed to ensure that it is a live tool that achieves its purpose.
The framework has been developed as a partnership between NSW Health and the AH&MRC. Throughout the development of the framework, emphasis was placed on ensuring that the process embodied the key concepts of shared decision-making and self-determination.
The following methods were used to develop the framework:
The principles for the framework were developed in response to consultations with Aboriginal stakeholders across NSW, who reported that the framework needs to:
Consultations with NSW Aboriginal stakeholders, a review of the national and international evidence and CTG confirmed that health and wellbeing outcomes for Aboriginal people are improved with a self-determined approach.
Under the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, Self-Determination is the human right of Indigenous people to control their own affairs and make meaningful decisions about their lives to fulfil their physical, emotional, cultural, spiritual, political, and economic needs. Shared Decision Making is an example of self-determination in practice.