Applying the Social Determinants of Health - Term Paper Example

Running Head: APPLYING THE SOCIAL DETERMINANTS OF HEALTH Topic: Applying the Social Determinants of Health Lecturer: Date of Presentation: Introduction Health in human beings is an important factor that can determine the future of a country’s economy. This is because industries and other revenue generating sectors depend on the citizens to provide labor and man power required in the manufacture and distribution of the manufactured goods. They also provide market for the goods and services produced thus facilitating growth and development. As such, the government has a responsibility of ensuring that proper strategies are put into place to support and provide quality health care to all regardless of their social status. The Australian government has taken measurable steps in supporting this vital health sector by investing in preventive measures and medical technology (Sabbioni 2005). However, not all social groups have benefited from these developments. The proximity of these services to a large population consisting of the indigenous communities has experienced difficulties as they still continue to suffer poor health even as these services are available (Carole 2007). This essay is an evaluation of the factors that have led to health deterioration among these communities. Applying the Social Determinants of Health Poverty is a major threat to health care. Societies that have a poor population experience more deaths as compared to those whose people are wealthy. This is because of the poor conditions which surround their environment that favor the prevalence of major infections that require expensive medication which they cannot afford. Australia, though among the developed countries, shares a large percentage of poor population especially the indigenous communities. These communities, who are the minority, compared to the larger population can be classified as under the fourth world category of population that has low levels of civilization and literacy, factors that have resulted to high infant mortality rate and low life expectancy (Singh 2007). The population of these communities, according to statistics, consist of approximately 480, 000 people. Most of the diseases that affect this population are as a result of issues concerned with smoking, alcohol and diet (Pascal et al 2009). These are conditions that are not dependent on the government as they require personal efforts in order to control them. Smoking and alcohol drinking are vices that should be eliminated in the society as they contribute highly to chronic illnesses that may result to death. Smoking contributes approximately 80% of all the deaths that occur due to illnesses related to drug abuse. Some of these illnesses include lung and liver cancer which have been known to kill a lot of indigenous people. According to survey, 50% of the indigenous people, men and women, aged 14 years and above expose themselves to the dangers of tobacco smoking on daily basis as compared to the other population of non indigenous people (Conor et al 2009). Cases of pregnant women smoking are also high in these communities. This has led to high number of children who are born before the expected time and with deformities that result from smoking and alcohol drinking among women of the communities. In average, smoking in these communities start as early as 12 years and this has resulted to health deterioration among the population crippling the government’s efforts of controlling illnesses that arise from these activities. Cigarette manufacturers insist on the revenue earned from their sale but in the real sense, the expenditure incurred in treating these illnesses overrides the benefits of their sale. If the smoking problem alone was eliminated, it is assumed that the life expectancy of the population among the indigenous communities would increase from 50 years to 61 years. Alcohol use is a tradition that has contributed to poor health among the indigenous communities. Originally, these communities had a well controlled consumption of weak alcohol that was made locally from plants. However, this was to change after the whites established settlement in Australia. This introduced a new drinking habit among the natives who were influenced by the availability of strong alcohol which was given to them as payment of services by the whites. This resulted to increased rate of prostitution and population increase with most of the children born being of mixed race. In the current, the situation among the communities has not changed. The drinking habit has been noted to be a major cause of early deaths that result of overconsumption and injuries caused by assaults. It is notable that in every 24 hours, 90% of the people treated in hospitals suffer illnesses that are related to alcohol (Pascal et al 2009). In general, the wider Australian population apart from the indigenous communities exhibits this trend of alcohol consumption that has resulted to increased mortality rate. In every week, approximately ten people who are below 30 years of age die from alcohol related illnesses (Pascal et al 2009). This has resulted to the government restricting alcohol sale within certain hours. The communities themselves also have tried to control alcohol consumption by declaring it as illegal and restricting its access. Though efforts have been made, there has been no significant improvement on health care for these communities. This is because of the fact that there have been no successful measures that have been put into place to deal with the factors that have resulted to alcohol abuse. For them to be successful, issues related to poverty, stress, education and unemployment, which are the underlying factors towards this vice should be addressed. People should be educated on the consequences of indulging in these activities through various possible methods which could incorporate the involvement of the locals. Those who are identified as addicts should be put on rehabilitation so as to help them recover from the addiction (Pascal et al 2009). This would prevent reactions that may occur on the patient that may lead to more damage. Banning of alcohol alone cannot be of much help though it has helped in some cities whereby people have resulted to buying food instead of alcohol. The strategies should be extended to cope with other cases of substance abuse that are rampant within the indigenous communities which include sniffing of petrol which is readily available and at cheaper prices than alcohol. Apart from drug and substance abuse, indigenous communities face challenges that result from abuse of power by professionals and lack of representation while formulating plans related to their welfare. These people have in the past tried to interfere with family life and other important cultural settings that surround these communities including property ownership (Sabbioni 2005). By doing this, they are perceived as trying to assimilate the communities who are conservative thus promoting hostility between the government’s agents and the people. This has resulted to mistrust between the community and the professionals who come trying to help them. It has therefore become hard to improve the health care for these communities who prefer doing things their own way. Due to this, the government came up with a strategy to support community managed programs whereby instead of using experts who are strangers to the indigenous community, people would be selected from within and empowered with the knowledge and equipment which they could use in providing health care to their people (Singh 2007). Unfortunately, these plans have been ignored and as a result, the communities have continued to suffer poor health. The indigenous communities depend highly on the environment to sustain their livelihoods. Land is the major factor of production that the society holds dearly and with the current changes in climate and environmental degradation, the communities have continued to suffer poor health due to lack other sources of food and water due to rainfall failure and drying up of rivers (Singh 2007). These conditions have resulted to poor crop harvests threatening the future of these communities. Poverty levels have also risen making it hard for people to afford and access medical care due to the environmental factors. To solve this problem, the government should ensure that these communities are provided with alternative sources of livelihood by according them the same opportunities in the job market. To achieve this, the standards of the education for the communities should be raised and supported so as to empower them with the necessary knowledge to help them in competing for opportunities. Equality on the provision of services has also been a major concern on the health of the indigenous communities. This is because of the biased manner in which basic foundations of health which include clean water, waste disposal mechanisms and sewerage systems are distributed (Natalie 2007). In the indigenous settings, these services are poor and this has contributed highly to poor health and high mortality rates. Much attention is directed to the urban settlements which have been given the largest share of resources while the rural settlements which harbor the indigenous communities have been neglected. Health care improvement funds have also been insufficient due to the unwillingness of the government to support the community based projects which could be of great significance in streamlining the health sector. High population increase has also contributed significantly to poor health among the indigenous communities. This is due to the high dependency ratio and competition of the available resources that cannot sustain the high population. Most family heads do not have any established sources of income and as such, providing basic necessities to the large families is impossible (Carole 2007). This leads to cases of malnutrition and other medical conditions that arise from poor diet. This has also contributed to environmental degradation as people extend their territories into forests leading to deforestation which in turn results to poor climatic conditions that influence the productivity of land as a factor of production. The indigenous communities have started to change from their old life styles due to the western cultural influence. Traditionally, these communities used to practice hunting and gathering as their way of living (Macintyre 2006). Over the years, the need to settle down and restrictions against unlawful hunting of wild animals has forced the natives to find other means of livelihood. The increase in population also necessitated for a more organized method of feeding the extra mouths. The only option was to start cultivating the lands which became productive and hence improving their standards of living. This in return changed the eating habits as well as the level of activity of these people. Due to this change the communities have been exposed to risks of acquiring sicknesses that include diabetes and obesity due to high availability of food due to cultivation. The indigenous communities in Australia produce the highest number of diabetic cases (Carole 2007). Unless the communities change their way of living and eating habits, the danger of acquiring this illness would persist. The government also has a role to play by ensuring that proper medication is availed to the sick so as to increase their life expectancy. Conclusion Health care for the indigenous communities have been neglected for a very long time. This has led to high mortality rate due to poor health. These communities share a rich cultural back ground which they try very hard to protect. This resulted to conflict in ideologies between the natives and professionals who tried to assimilate the communities who constitute about 3% of the total Australia’s population. The interference of the family structures of the communities by the professionals resulted to mistrust between the two groups weakening the process of administering health care. As a solution, the government came up with a policy to empower the communities with the resources and also to support financially the community based organizations in order to promote health. However, this dream was short lived for these organizations were ignored and underfunded. The communities, being dependent on the environment, face various problems due to the changing climate which affect land production which is the major source of livelihood for the communities. As a result, the communities continue to suffer illnesses related to diet and malnutrition. Alcohol and other substance abuse including smoking have also contributed highly to poor health among the indigenous communities. Many people continue to suffer poor health due to illnesses that result from these vices. Some of the illnesses include lung and liver cancer which are expensive to treat. The solution to all these problems is for the government to increase funding and improve the living standards of these communities by providing basic necessities like clean water, waste disposal and shelter. References Carole J. (2007). Social Determinants of Indigenous Health. Family Matters Magazine, 160(6): 30-45 Conor G., Sanson-Fisher, D’Este C, Eades S and Wenitong M. (2009) Knowledge and Attitudes Regarding Smoking during Pregnancy among Rural Aboriginal Women, The Medical Journal of Australia; 190 (10): 557-561 Macintyre S. (2006). A Concise History of Australia, Cambridge University Press Natalie D. (2007). A Call to Action: Health Equality for Indigenous Australians. Australian Nursing Journal, 14(7): 115-125 Pascal R, Chikritzhs T, Gray D (2009). Estimating alcohol-attributable mortality among Indigenous Australians: towards Indigenous-specific alcohol aetiologic fractions. Drug and Alcohol Review; 28(2):196-200 Sabbioni J. (2005). Indigenous Australian Voices, Rutgers University Press Singh S. (2007). Aboriginal Australia & the Torres Strait Islands, Lonely Planet Publications Read More