Our desire for culturally safe healthcare
The Council offers our support, friendship and openness to listen and acknowledge the lived experiences and stories of our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander staff and friends and be responsive.
It is our desire that the Council is an inclusive, safe and healing organisation that enables peoples from many diverse backgrounds to experience belonging and value.
Our spheres of influence
The Council has been given the responsibility to deliver accreditation of entry-level physiotherapy courses across Australia’s universities. Additionally, we assess overseas qualified physiotherapists migrating to Australia to ensure they meet the Australian standards of physiotherapy practice. The Council is delegated these responsibilities from government, and function within the context of the Australian health regulator and registration body, Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (Ahpra).
Through these two core responsibilities, the Council seeks to influence new physiotherapists entering the healthcare workforce, ensuring these physiotherapists can provide competent, safe, effective and culturally safe healthcare for all Australians.
We advocate for improving health and wellbeing outcomes for Australia’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples and seek to positively influence all Australian healthcare practitioners becoming culturally safe and responsive to the needs of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities and patients.
Our commitment
The Council is committed to the elimination of racism in the healthcare system, specifically as the physiotherapy profession provides services to the Australian community.
We recognise and respect the richness of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander knowledge, culture and talent and how these elements are critical to addressing health inequities among indigenous communities.
Artwork above: Holding True by Safina Stewart, Wuthathi Country and Mabuiag Island, www.artbysafina.com.au, image used with permission.
