Australian Health Care Services For Indigenous Australians

Thank you for taking time to read my letter. As a nursing student of University of Technology Sydney, I studied contemporary indigenous subject this semester. In this letter I want to illustrate 3 main social determinants of health that impact indigenous Australian health which I found and analysed during my recently study. And also offer some suggestion that could help the government improve aboriginal Australian mental health conditions in the future.

“Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander people have a greater amount of disadvantage and significantly more health problems than the non-Aboriginal & Torres strait Islander population in Australia”

Aboriginal health standards are so low today that all most half aboriginal men and a third of the women die before they are 45. Aboriginal people can expect to live 20 years less than non-indigenous Australians. Aboriginals generally suffer from more health problem and are more likely to suffer from diabetes, liver disease and glaucoma. The causes of their poor health and low life expectancy are poverty, poor nutrition, poor housing, dispossession of their traditional land, low education level, high unemployment, drug and substance use, unsafe sex, limited health care and diseases.

As health professionals, we must look beyond individual attributes of Indigenous Australians to gain a greater understanding and a possible explanation of why there are such high rates of ill health issues such as alcoholism, depression, abuse, shorter life expectancy and higher prevalence of diseases including diabetes, heart disease and obesity in our indigenous population. Looking at just the individual aspects and the biomedical health model, we don’t get the context of Aboriginal health. This is why we need to explore in further detail what events could have created such inequities in Aboriginal health. Other details that we should consider are the historical and cultural factors such as, ‘terra nullius’, dispossession and social

The poor health position of Indigenous Australians is a contemporary reflection of their historical treatment as Australia’s traditional owners. This treatment has led to Indigenous Australians experiencing social disadvantages, significantly low socio-economic status, dispossession, poverty and powerlessness as a direct result of the institutionalised racism inherent in contemporary Australian society.

Marmot, M. (2011). Social determinants and the health of Indigenous Australians. Med J Aust, 194(10),

This paper will examine the healthcare of Indigenous Australian peoples compared to non-indigenous Australians. The life expectancy gaps between the two are a cause for alarm when statistics show Indigenous Australian peoples die on average 17 years earlier than non-indigenous Australians (Dick 2017). This paper will examine the social determinants of health to explore these factors and what interventions are in place to improve health status and life expectancy gaps for equality. The Federal Government has seen the implementation of the Northern Territory Intervention and the Closing the Gap Initiative. This essay will examine these two strategies and discuss the effectiveness of both policies. It will explain the differences, similarities and look at the success so far to

As health professionals, we must look beyond individual attributes of Indigenous Australians to gain a greater understanding and a possible explanation of why there are such high rates of ill health issues such as alcoholism, depression, abuse, shorter life expectancy and higher prevalence of diseases including diabetes, heart disease and obesity in our indigenous population. Looking at just the individual aspects and the biomedical health model, we don’t get the context of Aboriginal health. This is why we need to explore in further detail what events could have created such inequities in Aboriginal health. Other details that we should consider are the historical and cultural factors such as, ‘terra nullius’, dispossession and social

What might explain these statistics, or at least serve as correlations, are the determinants of health. If the reader is not familiar with the determinants of health, the World Health Organisation (WHO) provides an explanation of them. In essence, these health determinants are factors that have significant impact upon one’s health. The main determinants for health are: socioeconomic status, where the rich and upper classes tend to be healthier; education, where low education is linked to stress, lower self-esteem and poorer health choices; environment, where purer air, cleaner water, healthier workplaces and better housing contribute to being healthier; health services, where access to services and proper equipment all contribute to health; as well as gender, genetics, culture and social behaviour (WHO, 2016). As there are so health determinants, where essays can be written on one alone, it is not within the scope of this essay to critically analyse each determinant for Indigenous Australians. With this in mind, the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (2014) documents an extensive list of data for Indigenous health, most of which discusses issues which are out-of-scope for this analysis. What is relevant, however, is outlined next. Across the board, in 2011, the Indigenous population was younger than the non-Indigenous population due to high fertility and mortality rates with those

The inequalities in today’s indigenous communities are still strongly evident. Heard, Khoo & Birrell (2009), argued that while there has been an attempt in narrowing the gap between Indigenous and non Indigenous Australians, a barrier still exists in appropriate health care reaching indigenous people. The Indigenous people believe, health is more than the individual, it is

The National Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation, (NACCHO) is an existing representation of the hope of Aboriginal communities and their fight for self-rule. NACCHO is the nationwide climax organization representative. It controls over 150 Aboriginal Community Health Services (ACCHSs) across the country on Aboriginal health and issues.

Improving the health status within the Aboriginal communities is a challenge for governments in Australia. Despite some small improvements over the past couple of decades, Indigenous Australians continue to demonstrate the lowest levels of health indicators and outcomes in the country. During 2005 - 2007, Indigenous males and females experienced a life expectancy gap of 11.5 years and 9.7 years respectively, compared to the rest of the Australian population (1). High rates of chronic disease remain as a crucial feature of the Indigenous disease burden, with chronic diseases being responsible for 64% of the total disease burden for Indigenous Australians in 2015 (2).

It has been noted that these health problems are shown to be a direct component of the disadvantages experienced by this population. Steps are being taken to correct these inequalities by varies agencies and advocacy groups ("Australian indigenous healthinfonet," 2013).

A wide range of determinates, such as discrimination, nutrition and education have significant impact on Indigenous young Australians’ physical health. However, and further, the causes of health disparities are linked to the unique Indigenous culture that influenced by the history of colonisation. Colonisation led to the loss of land, the loss of the habitats of the local food sources upon

Furthermore, Australian Indigenous children are assets of Australia, improving their physical health lays a significant foundation to the population health and the success for future public health (Sawyer et al. 2012). As the Indigenous Australian population has a younger age structure than non-Indigenous one (ABS 2016b), targeting this population is targeting the most affected age group, which will bring social and economic benefits in current and future generations (Patton et al. 2016). Failure to address young Indigenous population’s health would further widen the existing health inequality, resulting in social injustice and instability (Resnick et al. 2012). Thus, priority on young Indigenous Australians’ physical health must been urged in light of these concerns.