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Cancer Australia is leading activities to progress actions in the Australian Cancer Plan to improve equity and outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
On 2 May 2023, the Hon Mark Butler, Minister for Health and Aged Care announced $238.5 million in funding through the Improving First Nations Cancer Outcomes budget measure to help deliver better outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities.
Funding provided to Cancer Australia through this measure is targeted at ensuring mainstream cancer care services are culturally safe and accessible, and building the capacity of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander research sector ($38.6 million).
Partnerships for Cancer Research grant program
Cancer Australia has established the Partnerships for Cancer Research grant program, a new $9.6 million initiative aimed at improving outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and building the capacity of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cancer research sector.
The grant program will facilitate partnerships between organisations that will work together with community to deliver research activities. Partnerships can be between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander-led organisations and mainstream organisations (including research groups and cancer services), or between two or more Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander-led organisations.
Grants of between $0.8 to $2.5 million are available for research partnerships over a 3-year period.
Cancer Australia is delivering this grant in partnership with the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC).
Applications have now closed. Successful grant recipients will be announced in mid-2025.
Partnerships for culturally safe cancer care grant program
Cancer Australia has established the Partnerships for culturally safe cancer care grant program to facilitate innovative, locally-driven improvements to the delivery of cancer care for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities across Australia.
Addressing long-standing equity and cultural safety issues within mainstream health services where specialist cancer care is delivered is crucial to ensuring Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people can access and complete high quality treatment and experience better outcomes.
This new national grant program will allocate up to $16.9 million to support partnerships between cancer services and Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander community-controlled organisations.
Up to 20 grants of up to $1 million each are available. The partnership model is designed to foster strengthened relationships between local services and sustained improvements to cultural safety and equity of access in cancer service delivery.
Applications have now closed. Successful grant recipients will be announced in early 2025.
First Nations Cancer Scholarships
Cancer Australia, in partnership with the Aurora Education Foundation, has established the First Nations Cancer Scholarship program. The scholarship supports Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students, health professionals, and early-career researchers to compete full-time postgraduate study or research in a cancer-related field.
The aim is to grow the network of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who drive improvements in cancer control, including through research, creating change for communities.
The scholarship will see Indigenous scholars receive up to $120,000 per year over three years, as well as academic, wellbeing and community support. Scholarships will be awarded each year from 2024 – 2027.
Successful recipients of the 2024 round have been announced, with five Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander post graduate students from around Australia awarded a scholarship to continue their studies in important cancer-related fields.
The second round of scholarships will be open for application in mid-2025.
Visit www.firstnationscancerscholarship.com for more information.
Optimal Care Pathway for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people with cancer - Second edition.
The Optimal care pathway for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people with cancer aims to reduce disparities and improve outcomes and experiences for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people with cancer. It provides health professionals with culturally safe optimal care options for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people over the course of their cancer journey.
The Optimal care pathway for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people with cancer has been designed to complement the cancer-specific optimal care pathways, focusing on the specific needs and challenges of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people with cancer.
- Optimal Care Pathway
Optimal care pathway for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people with cancer Second edition
- Quick Reference Guide
Optimal care pathway for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people with cancer - quick reference guide Second edition
Guide to co-design for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people
The Guide to co-design for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people is available for health professionals and all people working with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to develop, design, implement and facilitate culturally safe health services, policies and programs.
This resource provides practical guidance on best practice when engaging with and designing culturally safe services for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
Building the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cancer care workforce
The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health workforce is essential to the delivery of culturally safe cancer care. Growing and supporting the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander workforce across all roles and disciplines is a priority to improve access to engagement with the cancer care system.
Cancer Australia acknowledges that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander organisations are best placed to deliver effective programs to address Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander outcomes.
We are working in collaboration with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peak organisations to support their leadership in driving workforce growth across key roles: medical specialists, nursing, allied health and Aboriginal Health Workers and Practitioners.
Our work complements the activities led by the National Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation (NACCHO) to build the cancer workforce in primary care.
