Indigenous population is a special community, when it comes to health care, there are lot of factors that should take into consideration.This article is focus on four health factors that impact on the health of a person of Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander background. With a specific case about Uncle Jim. There are many factors that could affect an Indigenous person, access to health services, nutrition, lifestyle and income are discussed in this article. To specific case of Uncle Jim, there are four health factors are identified and provide information about his care plan. The first factor that has an impact on the health of Indigenous people is their access to health services. Health services include health care provided by general medical practitioners, nurses, and allied health professionals. According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) (2008), Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have lower level of access to health services compared to other Australians. Distance may be one of the reasons that Indigenous Australian have difficulties to get to the facilities they want. Compared to the general population, the percentage of having medical facilities, including hospital, Aboriginal primary health care and other community health center, located in the discrete indigenous communities was only 7%, while in general population, the percentage was 35% (ABS 2006). Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities face many different kinds of transport challenges as well. In 2008, 43% of Indigenous adults lived in an area in which the local transport was not available (HAMAC 2012, p. 99). That affects people’s access to health facilities as well. People may not get the treatment they need when take location and tra... ... middle of paper ... ...e are all affected by low income. As MacRae et al. (2012, p. 42) mentioned, Indigenous people who reported no usual daily intake of fruit or vegetables were more likely to be the lowest quintile of income. And another example from Bourke et al. (2012, p.501) indicates that lower income of the Aboriginal residents of Ruralsville, as well as low social status and socially marginalised, all leads to poorer health status. People with low income are more likely having trouble to get the treatment they need. Some of them cannot afford the medication for a specific disease. A study by Kemp et al. (2013, p.21) shows that, prescription medicines for chronic disease pose a substantial financial burden to people who had low incomes. If a patient cannot get the medication or the surgery, his/her health status will affect by this situation, and eventually leads to bad outcome.
American Indians have had health disparities as result of unmet needs and historical traumatic experiences that have lasted over 500 hundred years.1(p99) Since first contact American Indians have been exposed to infectious disease and death2(p19), more importantly, a legacy of genocide, legislated forcible removal, reservation, termination, allotment, and assimilation3. This catastrophic history had led to generational historical traumas and contributes to the worst health in the United States.2 American Indians and Alaska Natives (AI/AN) represent 0.9 percent of the United States population4(p3) or 1.9 million AI/AN of 566 federally recognized tribes/nations.5 American Indians/Alaska Natives have significantly higher mortality rates of intentional and unintentional injuries, chronic liver disease and cirrhosis, diabetes mellitus, cardiovascular disease and coronary heart disease and chronic lower respiratory disease than other American.6
In Canada, access to health care is ‘universal’ to its citizens under the Canadian Health Care Act and this system is considered to the one of the best in the world (Laurel & Richard, 2002). Access to health care is assumed on the strong social value of equality and is defined as the distribution of services to all those in need and for the common good and health of all residents (Fierlbeck, 2011). Equitable access to health care does not mean that all citizens are subjected to receive the same number of services but rather that wherever the service is provided it is based on need. Therefore, not all Canadians have equal access to health services. The Aboriginal peoples in Canada in particular are a population that is overlooked and underserved
Advanced knowledge of Aboriginal Health policy and issues at the level and national level including understanding successful measures around Closing the Gap in Aboriginal Health inequality. My desire to work in the aboriginal field begins since I was very young. That is why at 16 years of my age I started to be even more interested in understanding all the issues related to the aborigines of this country. Over time, I looked that all my knowledge be trained at health level basis to help to improve the Aboriginal quality of life standards.
The 1967 referendum resulted in the change of the Constitution on August 10 of that year, initiating the start of great change for the lives of indigenous people in Australia. The referendum sought to change Sections 51 and 127 of the Constitution. Section 51 stated the Federal Government could make laws for anyone in the nation except aborigines, leaving state governments in charge (Creative Spirits – 1967 Referendum, online, 14/8/15). Section 127 specified that when the population of the Commonwealth was counted, indigenous people were not included (Creative Spirits – 1967 Referendum, online, 14/8/15). According to Faith Bandler, an indigenous civil rights activist, it was important to force the Commonwealth to be responsible for the aborigines
The poor health of the Australian Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islanders is well known. Since the 1970s, mortality rates have been declining, but life expectancy has not changed and the gap between the Aboriginal population and the total Australian population has widened. This pattern contrasts with that of the Indigenous population of Canada where marked improvements in health have occurred. From that standpoint, this paper will discuss the important issues of health care inequalities that exist with the Aboriginals in Australia and compare them to those which subsist in the First Nations of Canada.
According to Australian indigenous website, healthinfoNet, in 2010-2012 life expectancy of indigenous people were 69 years which is 11 years less than the 80 years expected for the non- indigenous men and women. Moreover, the life expectancy for native women was 73 years, during 2010-2012, which is 9.5 years less than the expectation of 83 years for non-Indigenous women. The reason for decreased health can be due to deficiencies in water supply, sanitation and lack of proper medical services.
1) First topic chosen was wellness which is “a conscious, self-directed and evolving process of achieving full potential.” (The National Wellness Institute, para 3) What wellness means to me is being with my family, surrounding myself with your loved ones, or even being with the environment. To Indigenous people it is the exact same with their wellness with each other, or the wellness with their environment. Mental wellness in Indigenous is living a journey along the way being fulfilled in good health. This changed my thoughts because sometimes I don’t always see the good or surround myself in happiness which can create bad health for me.
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.
0.8% of the overall Federal health expenditure in 2009 which was spent on Aboriginal health. The overall wellbeing of an individual is more than just being free from disease. It is about their social, emotional, spiritual, physiological as well as the physical prosperity. Indigenous health issues are all around us, but we don’t recognise because it doesn’t affect us, but this issue is a concern to Indigenous Australia and also to modern day Catholics in Australia The statistics relating to Indigenous health is inexcusable, life expectancy is at an all time low, higher hospilatisation for avoidable diseases, alerting rates of deaths from diabetes and kidney disease. This issue is bigger than we all think, for example 13% of Indigenous homes
In conclusion the colonisation of Australia and the adoption of discriminatory policies eroded Aboriginal culture and tradition affecting their sense of well-being and thus deteriorated their health. Today these policies are reflected in the social determinants of health as socio-economic disadvantages. They continue to impact contemporary Aboriginal people. In order to improve Aboriginal health outcomes; the impacts of these policies need to be overturned. This can be done by assisting them with improving their socio-economic status in the light of their needs and traditions.
The factors contributing to the poor health status of Indigenous people should be seen within the broad context of the 'social determinants of health such as: education, employment, stress, social networks and support, working and living conditions, gender, and behavioral aspects, all of which are 'integrated' in terms of autonomy and the capacity to participate fully in society.
Mainstream services need to take into account gender, beliefs, local languages, and kinship systems, thus improving service delivery settings and making them more acceptable to the Indigenous community. There are many factors which can improve Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander access to mainstream services such as energetic indigenous leadership. I believe we need more indigenous, culturally aware people working in health services and undertaking leadership roles within health and community services to make these settings more culturally appropriate, to accommodate the indigenous community and to encourage people to access these services. (Australia,
Poor living conditions are a major health determinant throughout the indigenous population. Most Indigenous Australians are known to live in rural parts of Australia which are commonly not close to major cities and services. People living in these areas generally have poorer health than others living in the cities and other parts of Australia. These individuals do not have as much access to health services and good quality housing. In 2006 roughly 14% of indigenous households in Australia were overcrowded unlike 5% of other households (AIHW, 2009a). Overcrowded and poor quality houses are commonly associated with poor physical and mental health between the people living in them. The indigenous are n...
The purpose of the paper was to examine the associations between health and education for Indigenous Australians. Biddle had cited from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare as well as supporting his own scientific research by drawing on perspectives of others' analyses. Biddle has cited research from the National Aboriginal and Torres...