Reducing life expectancy problems in Australia
Launched worldwide in Canberra, Australia, IBERA – Indigenous Body Education Resource Animations, is an innovative tool designed for Indigenous Australians, which aims to help ‘close the gap’ between Indigenous and non-Indigenous life expectancy rates in Australia.
The current life expectancy of Indigenous male Australians is 59.4 years and 64.8 years for females. Non-Indigenous Australians survive on average for a further 17 years.
IBERA is a state of the art tool that has been designed to make it easier for health practitioners and teachers to educate children, adults and patients on the human body, how it works and also the effects of different health conditions and lifestyle choices.
IBERA will save time and resources by educating patients as part of the comprehensive primary health care process thereby enabling earlier detection of potentially chronic conditions. Too many Indigenous people have preventable health conditions and prevention is always a far better option than cure. Education is vital to better manage our own health and well being.
“I believe so many people, both Indigenous and non-Indigenous, would be better off physically, mentally and emotionally, if they understood the implications their lifestyle has on their health and well being,” said Paula Arnol from IBERA.
It is a programme that can be easily integrated and delivered by health practitioners at all levels – Aboriginal Health Workers, GPs and nurses. At the same time, the tool is designed to suit all levels of literacy and should be used to empower patients to make more informed decisions about their own health and wellbeing.
In 2008/2009 Federal Budget, the Australian Government announced it was committed to closing the 17-year life expectancy gap within a generation, and that it hoped to halve the gap in mortality rates between Indigenous and non-Indigenous children within a decade.
The estimated cost of this Indigenous health initiative is $3.1 billion over the next four years. An increase in the $2.2 billion provided over the last four years.
The first release of IBERA contains 70 animations across 16 different categories. It can be translated into multiple languages transferring its uses beyond Australia making it suitable for Indigenous and non-Indigenous health care worldwide.
