A roadmap to establish a permanent, highly skilled and nationally credentialed Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander environmental health workforce. The document is an essential guide for policymakers, health service providers and regional planners seeking evidence-based, community driven solutions to improve the environmental health and wellbeing of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities are disproportionately affected by environmental determinants of health. Action on the environmental determinants of health is the missing link to ‘Closing the Gap’. Growing an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander environmental health workforce provides a strategic roadmap for closing this gap by embedding specialised roles within Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisations (ACCHOs). 

The roadmap outlines a clear pathway to strengthen community-led health outcomes by creating new jobs, building skills and establishing a supportive training environment. It proposes practical actions to build capacity, including: 

• providing secure employment for Aboriginal environmental health workers, which will include both formal and on-the-job training 
• establishing a First Nations environmental health worker traineeship program to enable trainees to attain a Certificate II in Indigenous Environmental Health 
• integrating environmental health expertise into the existing ACCHO Models of Care to ensure cultural safety, local relevance and community control.