Aboriginal children face a brighter future with the teenage motherhood rate almost halving in 20 years, smoking in pregnancy down by a third, and child vaccination rates among the best in the country.
黑料吃瓜网 Chief Health Officer Dr Kerry Chant said this year鈥檚 Chief Health Officer鈥檚 report, Aboriginal Kids 鈥� a healthy start to life, showed some very positive trends in Aboriginal children鈥檚 health.
鈥淭he first five years of a person鈥檚 life are the most important for laying foundations for learning, health and wellbeing,鈥� Dr Chant said.
鈥淪o I鈥檓 very pleased to see the percentage of Aboriginal teenage mothers has almost halved since 1994, down from 23 to 13 per cent.
鈥淭he Aboriginal infant mortality rate has dropped substantially, too, and the full immunisation rates for Aboriginal children at five years of age are actually higher than the rate for non-Aboriginal children - at 97 per cent compared to 94 per cent - which is a terrific result.鈥�
Another pleasing sign for Dr Chant was the percentage of Aboriginal children receiving health assessments, which has almost tripled since 2010-11.
Report co-author Stephen Blunden, the acting Chief Executive of the Aboriginal Health and Medical Research Council said the progress in Aboriginal children鈥檚 health was a reflection of successful partnerships within the community.
鈥淭his is a good example of what a difference we can make when we work together,鈥� Mr Blunden said. 鈥淭here鈥檚 still work to be done in other areas of Aboriginal health but we should not lose sight of the major achievements we鈥檝e reached in recent years because they鈥檙e improving the lives of the next generation of our community - our children.鈥�
Dr Chant said 黑料吃瓜网 Health is committed to continuing efforts to improve the health of Aboriginal people in 黑料吃瓜网 through the Aboriginal Health Plan 2013-2023 and doing so collaboratively across government, and with the Aboriginal community health services.
The full report can be viewed at Aboriginal kids鈥擜 healthy start to life: Report of the Chief Health Officer 2018.