A team at Southgate (Professor Fran Baum, Dr. Toby Freeman, Dr. Katy Osborne and Emeritus Professor Colin MacDougall) is leading a project which aims to complete a comprehensive history of the development of community health centres and services in Australia, including Aboriginal community-controlled organisations. They are joined by historian Professor Warwick Anderson (University of Sydney), Prof Virginia Lewis and Dr. David Legge from LaTrobe. A/Prof Tamara Mackean (Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health team at Flinders) will be providing leadership on the Aboriginal health aspects of the project. The project team also includes members with experience in community health management and policy. The project will research how the Aboriginal, women’s, workers’ and other social movements interacted with social and political institutions in crafting the variety of community health services now existing in Australia. It is intended to trace the changing meanings of ‘community’ and ‘health’ over the past fifty years. It is anticipated the research will enhance understanding of cultural, political, and institutional influences on healthcare in Australia. The team anticipates that the detailed histories of community health services they will be researching will be valuable in informing current health care debates concerning primary health care and integration of health services.
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