Australian Aboriginal peoples and evidence-based policies : closing the gap in social interventions

Australian Aboriginal people are some of the most researched people on earth, yet their life expectancy and other well-being indices lag significantly behind non-Aboriginal Australians. The reach of evidence-based practice (EBP) in social interventions has not yet informed Aboriginal policy even though it is based on clinical expertise and systematic research. This is due to criticism of the processes of EBP, most commonly its supposed limitations and misperceptions, which are easily refuted. EBP continues to be a tool that is needed to inform practice across all disciplines of human service, and needs to be the core value of any intervention with indigenous peoples.