Australian Indigenous Wellbeing and Health - Essay Example

Australian Indigenous Wellbeing and Health Student’s Name: Instructor’s Name: Course Code & Name: Date of Submission: Australian Indigenous Wellbeing and Health The World Health Organization specifies that every human being has the right to access quality health care irrespective of his or her state. The organization has set up various health standards which its dictates that they must be followed by governments around the world so as to ensure that this main objective is realized. However, quality medical care is not always accessible to all the people in the world. This is due to many situational factors which at one point affect the delivery of this needed health care to all. Among the people in the world who have not had the chance to access standard medical care are the indigenous people in various countries. With respect to Australia, the situation is not different. The access of medical care of the indigenous people to health care is not at par with the rest of the population. Some of the indigenous people in Australia include the Aboriginal and the Torres Strait Islander people (The Royal Australian College of General Practitioners, 2011, p1). The following paper will analyze the indigenous Australians well being and health. To start with, a brief background of the situation of the indigenous people will is discusses below. Generally, the world has evolved over time. With the transformation, the society has been forced to adapt to the changes since as Charles Darwin put it, ‘survival is for the best’. Because of these, it has been inevitable for the human race to conform to the changes or else be phased out. Taking a look at Australia, the situation is not different. The Australian society has transformed from its traditional setting to today’s modern setting. The indigenous people of Australia had a totally different setting as compared to the modern one. The setting was a social one, with ethnic groups staying at central locations where there were able to provide security to each other in addition to being able to work collaboratively towards meeting their basic human needs. The main economic activities of the traditional societies were mainly hunting and gathering and farming. The traditional societies had a strong social unit which was based on the family unit. With the social unit, the Indigenous Australians were able to provide for their economical needs, social needs and health needs. In the Australian society there was and still is a strong connection between the land (country) and health. In fact the Aboriginals have a saying which states that “The country needs its people. Healthy country means healthy people”. The following essay will discuss in details the relationship between the social and emotional well being of indigenous Australians with relation to the land (Country). As indicated earlier, the health of the indigenous people in the Australia has not been given the necessary attention. This has come into the notice of medical authorities and the government. This in turn has triggered an abrupt response from the authorizes concerned. The government through the ministry of health and the Australian Indigenous Health Authority has established policies and programs which are aimed at providing quality medical care to the indigenous Australians (Anderson, Crengle, Kmaka, Chen, Plafax & Pulver, 2006, p.1775). This has led to the establishment of a National Strategic Framework for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health. The aim of this strategic plan is to ensure that the right measures are made in order to ensure that the indigenous people have a healthy land, hence leading to a healthy life. The following section of essay will discuss some of key elements of the strategic plan include. The first one of them of the establishment of primary health care services which are controlled by the community. As indicated in the background, the indigenous Australian people have a strong social setting. The cohesiveness of their social units is so strong that it is very hard to penetrate into it and factor in modernism. This explains the reason as to why the indigenous people for instance the Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islander have been able to keep their traditional cultures even in the modern world (Australian Government, 2003, p15). For this reason, the government saw it strategic to reach out to them by establishing a community controlled primary health care program. The implementation of this program has been subdivided into two, long term projects and short term projects. The short term program has is meant to provide immediate response to the health care of the indigenous people, i.e. the Aboriginal and the Torres Strait Islander people. The short term strategies are aimed at improving on health care services delivery to the two communities. Among the particular strategies of the short term strategies includes ; the improvement of infrastructure hence building a framework for health care service delivery, increasing service delivery into areas where it is mostly needed, increasing the level of responsiveness of health care services to health problems facing the indigenous people, improving the quality of services delivered, strengthening of the information systems and the community systems in the health care system so as to be able to monitor indigenous patient at a personal level and lastly, creating awareness campaigns which are aimed at informing the indigenous people of the government’s intentions. The long term strategies aim at creating a sustainable community primary health care. The focus of the long term strategies include the improvement of quality of health care services to indigenous people, establishing partnerships and linkages between the current health care facilities and health care service delivery to the indigenous people, supporting projects either by the government or organizations which are aimed at improving the health care delivery services to the Aboriginal and the Torres Strait people and lastly capacity building in communities by assisting indigenous communities to improve their abilities to offer better health care services at their local facilities The second strategy in the strategic plan is a health care system delivery strategy. Its objectives are to provide a primary health care system which is more comprehensive, improve the health care system’s responsiveness to health care problems in indigenous societies, enhancing disease prevention measures, provide competent medical staff to the discriminated areas, integrate a cultural aspect of the indigenous people into health care delivery so as to make it more appealing, provide subsidized drugs, improve the medicare benefits services to the indigenous people, improve communication and improve safety measures. The third strategy aims at providing competent health staff. This ensures that only qualified people who have the knowledge of the specific needs and practices of the indigenous people. The fourth strategy is about the emotional and social well being of the indigenous peoples. As indicated earlier, the indigenous people got their emotional satisfaction from the social units in which they operated in. because of the dismantling of their ‘land’ and the social setting; they were forced to retreat to areas which did not support their emotional and social well being (Halloran, M., 2004, p. 1). In 2008, Australia’s prime minister apologized to the indigenous people on behalf of Australia’s parliament. This was a good gesture which indicated that the government acknowledges that there was a social and emotional injustice to the indigenous people. According to the indigenous people for instance the Aboriginals and the Torres Strait people, the health of an individual is coined around many things. They include the social, cultural, emotional and spiritual well being of an individual (Garvey, 2008, p.1). For this reason, the fourth strategic plan has the following objectives : provision and exercising of social justice in all the government policies and operations, establishing population health practices aimed at providing a good environment for the indigenous people, deployment of a competent workforce that is skilled in service delivery to indigenous people (Australian Government, 2003, p.23).. The government also aims at providing quality health care to the indigenous people. As an additional move, the government sought to support children from indigenous families to pursue education to the highest level possible. It also strives to provide quality medical care to indigenous children (DSouza, N. 1993, p.1). This is in an aim of transforming the communities via education. The fifth area on which the government has a deep focus on is environmental health. As indicated above, the health and the social well being of an individual in the indigenous society is determined by the state of the land in which he/she live in, the better the living conditions, the better the health of an individual. For this reason, it is important to ensure that the environment from which these indigenous people get their lively hood is conserved. This explains the government’s fifth strategic strategy, in this point of focus, the government aims at ensuring that the environmental health of the Aboriginals and the Torres Strait people is upheld. In order to do this, the government aims at improving the environmental health standards by deploying an adequate number of environmental health staff and reduction of environmental health related ailments for instance respiratory problems (Australian Government, 2003, p.27). The sixth strategy which the government has established is the enactment of wider strategies which impact on the health of the indigenous people. This involves the improvement of the interrelationship of the government policies with the other sectors involved. The government also intends of achieving this objectives by enacting policies in the other sectors which aim at ensuring that the health and social welfare of the indigenous people is upheld. The seventh focus area of the government is the collection of data and conducting research. This is aimed at identifying areas which need additional attention hence contributing to the general improvement of the health and social welfare of the indigenous people (Australian Indigenous HealthInfo Net, 2012, p.1). The eight focus point is the lobbying for financial resources and other types of resources needed t make the provision of improved healthcare to the indigenous Australians possible. After the resources have been collected, they are distributed to individual projects accordingly hence enabling the strategic plan meet its goals. The final focus point in the strategic plan is the establishment of a mechanism which aims at ensuring that there is transparency and accountability in the projects. This ensures that the government is able to measure its progress and also follow up on its investments in the Indigenous health care programs. In order for the government to achieve its objectives its goals and objectives of providing quality health care and wellbeing of the country’s indigenous people, it has to integrate the use of five domains of practice in its strategic plan execution. The first domain is the establishment and encouragement of good communication skills and encouragement of a doctor- patient relationship (The Royal Australian College of General Practitioners, 2011, p1). Due to the cultural richness of the indigenous people, an efficient means of communication which does not implicate negatively on their culture should be established (Halloran, M., 2004, p. 1). This enables the doctors to establish a patient and doctor relationship which allows for a follow up of the patients. The enhanced communication and relationship translates to a better health care service delivery. The other domain of practice which the strategic plan must employ is the use of professional skills and knowledge (The Royal Australian College of General Practitioners, 2011, p1). As outlined in the strategic plan, one of the plans of the government is to engage more competent employees in the program. This will contribute to an improved health care services delivery. The health of the general population and the setting of the general practice of the health services must be streamlined with policies which ensure that the welfare of the indigenous people is put into consideration (The Royal Australian College of General Practitioners, 2011, p1). A professional and ethical responsibility must also be adopted in order to ensure that equality and fairness is upheld. Lastly, the strategic plan must be protected by an act of law so as to make its activities legal. This ensures that there is commitment by the stakeholders involved towards meeting the shared vision. In conclusion, it must be acknowledged that the health and social welfare of the indigenous people has been neglected for a long time. As indicated in the essay, the health of indigenous people is determined by many factors which include the social, emotional and environmental well being of people. As the Aboriginals say, a healthy county translates to a healthy people. However, the encroachment of modern world onto the ‘land’ of the indigenous people has condemned them into unfair treatment and unhealthy states. This has led to their languishing in poverty, bad health and emotional trauma. So as to save the situation, the government has made majors strides towards turning around the situation. The act of Australia’s prime minister to apologize to the indigenous people on behalf of the parliament indicates the acknowledgement of the problem by the government, and hence its strategic plan of improving the health and welfare of the indigenous people. References Anderson,I., Crengle, S., Kmaka, M., Chen, T., Plafax, N., & Pulver, L., 2006. Indigenous health in Australia, New Zealand, and the Pacific, Indigenous Health 1, Vol 1, no.1, pp 1775- 1785 Australian Government, 2003. National Strategic Framework for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health, Australian Government Implementation Plan 2007-201, pp. 1-53 Australian Indigenous HealthInfo Net, 2012. Review of the social and emotional wellbeing of Indigenous Australian peoples, Viewed on 23rd September 2012 from < http://www.healthinfonet.ecu.edu.au/other-health-conditions/mental-health/reviews/our-review > DSouza, N. 1993. Aboriginal child welfare : framework for a national policy, Family Matters Vol.35 , no 1, pp.40-45 Halloran, M., 2004. Cultural Maintenance and Trauma in Indigenous Australia, Murdoch University Electronic Journal of Law [Online] Viewed on 23rd September 2012 from < http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/journals/MurUEJL/2004/36.html > The Royal Australian College of General Practitioners, 2011. RACGP Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Curriculum Statement, Viewed on 23rd September 2012 from < http://www.racgp.org.au/scriptcontent/curriculum/pdf/aboriginalhealth.pdf> Read More