Australia is a vast land with a diverse environment and communities isolated by great distances. Its peoples have a diversity of culture, educational and economic circumstances, health needs, services, and social structure. Therefore the welfare issues experienced and the impact these have to lifestyle within Australia’s different populations would also differ in relation to these factors. This is certainly true for Rural Australia.
The biggest factor impacting Rural Australia has been the changes to the economic viability of primary production, one of the largest sources of income for Australia (Australian Government, 2008), affected by globalization, deregulation, privatisation and reduction/withdrawal of services, rising production costs, and ever present unpredictable environmental conditions (Australian Catholic Social Welfare Commission Secretariat, 2000).
This can be generalised in this basic explanation: Most primary production takes place in Rural Australia. When the producers (for instance farmers/graziers/miners) aren’t making sufficient income from their businesses to provide a profit they reduce spending. Falling profits can be caused by numerous factors for instance: a poor season’s harvest, reduced prices at market for their products, increased costs in production or in transport, among other reasons. There are various avenues open to producers in this circumstances but the most common is to restructure their business by reducing the staff they employ and lowering expenditure by reducing purchases of new equipment, goods or services. This reduction of spending flows on to supplying business in the region that relies on this custom for their profits. These other businesses then have to change the way th...
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Parliament of Australia: Senate Committee Report (2004). Chapter 14, Rural and Regional Communities. Retrieved May 8, 2010 from http://www.aph.gov.au/senate/committee/clac_ctte/completed_inquiries/2002-04/poverty/report/c14.htm
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The most confronting aspect of the documentary was the failure of the Australian Government’s to address poverty within the Mt. Druitt community. It was fairly evident that Mt Druitt’s community is “let down”, especially when Billy, a resident, was accused of failing to pay rent. This certainly struck me, as without a house to
...come in Australia. This report analysed Australia’s increase in poverty and ultimately the inequality gap between the low income earners and the high income earners. It is evident that although the line between inequality and equality are unlikely to meet it is important that individuals in society are receiving social justice.
The issue of poverty is not without resolve. Awareness programs can be set up to educate the aboriginal peoples of the need for education. Low income and subsequent poverty are...
Hampton, R., & Toombs, M. (2013). Chapter 4: Indigenous Australian concepts of health and well-being. In Indigenous Australians and Health: The Wombat in the Room. (pp. 73-90). Oxford University Press: South Melbourne.
Overtime, sociology has played an essential role in the aid of healthcare policies and procedures, along with playing a fundamental role in one’s understanding of health inequalities. This paper explores how sociology has played such a role in healthcare, whilst including discussions regarding the influence of social structures and inequalities in the health of an individual, their family and community, with the topic of health variations between social classes being the main focus of the discussion. A structured overview, review and evaluation of a specific health policy in the UK will also be provided within this paper. Sociology in healthcare. Sociology can be defined in a number of ways, due to its almost limitless scope (Denny, Earle,
Wilkinson, R.G. & Marmot, M.G. 2003, Social determinants of health: the solid facts, World Health Organization.
Rosier, K. 2011, ‘Food insecurity in Australia: What is it, who experiences it and how can
Aboriginal health is majorly determined by several social factors that are related to their cultural beliefs. Health professionals regularly find it difficult to provide health care to aboriginal people due to the cultural disparity that exists between the conventional and aboriginal cultures, predominantly with regard to systems of health belief (Carson, Dunbar, & Chenhall, 2007). The discrepancy between the aboriginal culture and typical Western customs seems to amplify the difficulties experienced in every cross-cultural setting of health service delivery (Selin & Shapiro, 2003). Most of the social determinants of the aboriginal health are due to their strict belief in superstition and divine intervention.
People living in areas such as Playford, has shown to have a lower socioeconomic position, which made them at highest risk of poor health (WHO, 2017). Then, the social determinants of health support the understanding the difference between populations health levels, but also the reasons behind why some groups are healthier than others (Marmot, 2005) and the issue becomes a little bit deeper as people living in different areas related to others differently, so then the social stratification of health is affected by differences in gender, marital status, residential areas and ethnicity (Elstad,
Living in a remote area has always been thought to have negative influences on the individual. There are 35 % of the total population in Australia living in rural area(Phillips, 2009).Rural areas in Australia and all over the world are not geographically isolated and disadvantaged only but also culturally and economically deprived which has great consequences on the health status of the population. The main two factors that have a major effect on rural health are socioeconomic status and cultural issues(Beard, Tomaska, Earnest, Summerhayes, & Morgan, 2009).
Ever since the foundations of modern Australia were laid; there has been a disparity between the health status of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders and rest of the Australian community (Australian human rights commission, n.d.). This essay will discuss how this gap can be traced back to the discriminatory policies enacted by governments towards Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander’s throughout history. Their existing impacts will be examined by considering the social determinants of health. These are the contemporary psycho-social factors which indirectly influence health (Kingsley, Aldous, Townsend, Phillips & Henderson-Wilson, 2009). It will be evaluated how the historic maltreatment of Aboriginal people leads to their existing predicament concerning health.
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As I started out researching for the paper, I realized that most importantly, data would need to be collected comparing the educational opportunities and achievement of the rural youth and those of urban youth. For instance, high school grades and SAT scores could be compared, as well as college applications and attendance. Beyond this, the actual school systems of rural and urban areas would be compared - the differences in funding, ideology, resources, etc., would grant insight into the students’ experiences and goals there.