Taskforce receives seed grant to support culturally-led hypertension initiatives
The National Hypertension Taskforce is thrilled to announce we have been awarded a $75,000 seed grant from one of the Taskforce’s founding organisations, the Australian Cardiovascular Alliance (ACvA), to deliver the project “Preventing, detecting and effectively treating hypertension in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples”.
This exciting 12-month initiative, led by Dr. Andrew Goodman from the Australian e-Health Research Centre, CSIRO, and Prof. Tim Usherwood represents a critical step toward reducing health inequities and transforming health outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
Addressing a Critical Health Challenge
Hypertension is a consistent key risk factor in Australia’s population with rates unchanged across the last decade. Of concern, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are more than three times as likely to develop hypertension at much younger ages compared to non-Indigenous Australians. The high rates of hypertension that have remained unchanged nationally, along with Indigenous health inequity, innovative and participatory approaches are required. Due to this health inequity, the Taskforce’s Roadmap specifically recognises the importance of addressing hypertension in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, but to date has not yet had specific funding to address this appropriately.
When Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples are meaningfully involved in creating and implementing the policies, programs, and services that impact their lives, the outcomes are more successful.
A Three-Phase Partnership Approach
Our project is designed to ensure meaningful Indigenous leadership at every step and will utilise a partnership approach to:
- Engage and facilitate knowledge translation with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander healthcare systems, community organisations and people with lived experience of hypertension;
- Strengthen the capability and capacity of leaders in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health by providing small seed grant opportunities, and;
- Co-design a self-determined action plan aligned with the 10 key priority areas from the National Hypertension Taskforce Roadmap.
This approach draws on the strengths and knowledge gained, relationships built and action plan developed to enable the Taskforce to take a collaborative and pragmatic study approach to piloting local Indigenous-led initiatives to improve hypertension in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
The project will run from September 2025 to August 2026, with outcomes informing long-term strategies for embedding Indigenous perspectives systematically across all Taskforce programs.
We’re incredibly grateful to ACvA for their support and excited to embark on this vital work alongside Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. Together, we’re building a future where cardiovascular health outcomes reflect justice, equity, and the strength of Indigenous-led solutions.
For more information about this project or the National Hypertension Taskforce, please contact us.