Community services, in conjunction with other service sectors such as employment, income support, education and health, are designed to address individual and societal needs. They are provided by Australian Government, state, territory and local government agencies, as well as by non-government not-for-profit and for-profit organisations.
This chapter presents information about delivery of community services to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander clients in the areas of child care, child protection, adoptions, juvenile justice, disability services and aged care. Where possible, comparisons with the services delivered to ‘other’ or ‘non-Indigenous’ Australians are included.
Most of the data in this chapter come from the administrative databases of community service providers and are compiled by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW). While these data provide useful information, there are some limitations on data quality. The Indigenous status of clients is not always disclosed by the clients or recorded by the service provider. In addition, in some cases where Indigenous status is recorded, inconsistencies in recording methods result in data that are not comparable between jurisdictions.
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