What is community control?

Over the years, AMSANT has advanced a clear definition of 'community control' and what constitutes a community controlled health service. Essentially, community control is the ability for the people who are going to use health services to determine the nature of those services, and then participate in the planning, implementation and evaluation of those services. This interpretation of 'community-control' is supported by the National Aboriginal Health Strategy's definition which states that:
"Community control is the local community having control of issues that directly affect their community". Implicit in this definition is the clear statement that Aboriginal people must determine and control the pace, shape, and manner of change and decision making at [all] levels (NAHS 1989a: xiv).

According to the AMSANT Constitution, to be considered genuinely community-controlled, an organisation must:

• be incorporated as an independent legal entity;

• have a constitution which guarantees control of the body by Aboriginal people and which guarantees that the body will function under the principle of self-determination;

• have compulsory accountability processes including the holding of annual general meetings which are open to all members of the relevant Aboriginal community, and the regular election of management committees