Mental Health of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Adolescents - Report Example

Mental Health of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Adolescents Name: Instructor: Course Unit: Date: Introduction: The healthiness, growth as well as welfare of Australian children has become a subject of growing public magnitude. In the present day, it’s well acknowledged that what children undergo in the early hours of their lives can have negative impacts on their mental health, welfare, education, employment and social prospective either in the present and/or later in life. For that reason, childhood is a significant occasion in life to advance superior mental health and development; furthermore it is of fundamental in shaping the future mental health and overall health of Australia. Definition: Mental health refers to a condition of how individuals do feel about themselves emotionally, socially as well as spiritually, and also their capability to: cope with the day to day life and the stressful situations that may emanate; achieve their set objectives; perform positively at work; and be part and parcel of the community (WHO, 2005). Approximately five-hundred thousand plus adolescents in Australia put up with these “imperceptible disability.” Mental health not only impinges on the life of the children but also the entire society, therefore affecting the, financial status and normal social fabric of the patient, their respective families and the nation at large. Indeed, the competence of families to sustain their children and themselves in reaching their prospective is impacted by this set-back. An extensive range of substantial in addition to social backgrounds for instance, the family, care, education and community natures the health of adolescents. Extensive cultural and financially viability manipulations, such as family unit employment, education levels, impoverishment and accommodation, cultural surroundings and social bias, are as well imperative. Concisely deficiency of these determinants is a gateway to mental health problems in adolescents. These wider determinants of mental health necessitate to be concentrated on for effective mental health support and illness preclusion, as well as early involvement. Combination of premeditated endeavors from corner to corner of the nursing services settings and systems is furthermore indispensable. This report hence endeavors to draw attention to the concern, its contributing factors, the impact on the family and recommendations for nursing practice. It particularly zeroes on the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander adolescents. Background: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander adolescents have much higher rates of mental health, than any other Australian adolescents. This is a manifestation of the traumas and confrontations “creamed –up” with national stigmatization extended towards the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander group of individuals in the course of socio-economic drawback and joblessness of close relatives, deficiency of admittance to health services, exposure to environmental hazards, displacement and alterations to social organization, prejudice as well as geological seclusion. Family hostility in addition affects on the mental health of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander adolescents. The consequences of these drawbacks accrue and broaden further than pregnancy, delivery and the early years of life, and are apparent all over the full life cycle as well as in future generations (Lawrence & Coghlan, 2002). These social, environmental, economic and biological factors function mutually to impact on the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander adolescents. These factors include; low house-hold income; low levels of education; pitiable accommodation; menaces of violent behavior; physical poor health; discrimination; detrimental lifestyles; and poor infrastructures. Overtime they have functioned together to exclude them from social get-togethers; have led to psychological strain, and emotional maltreatment. With Australia being a multi-cultural and linguistic nation; it has influenced how; individuals search for help, mental health/illness is articulated, and the way an individual’s mental illness indications are diagnosed as well as taken care of (NPHP, 2005). According to Heinonen & Metteri (2005); five years back there were approximately a double number of hospital separations of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander adolescents for 'mental and behavioral disorders' in Queensland, Western Australia, South Australia and the Northern Territory, than it was anticipated, based on the rates of other Australians. The numbers of deliberate harm, whether self-inflicted or caused by physical attack, can be an indication of mental illness and distress in the society. From this knowledge, they put forward that, there were approximately 7 times as many hospital separations as expected for assault among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander adolescents’ males, and nearly thirty-one times as many for females, based on all-Australian numbers of adolescents. Lawrence & Coghlan, (2002) put forward that, anti-social and self-destructive behaviour, which is often the result of undiagnosed mental and social distress has brought Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander adolescents into more than often into contact with the criminal justice system. Six years back, twenty-one percent of the total prisoner population was Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders adolescents. These adolescents were incarcerated at a rate of 1,417 per 100,000 compared to only 129 per 100,000 of non- Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders adolescents. The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders adolescents were also at far above the ground risk of imprisonment. In the same year during the month of June, thirty-two percent of adolescents in juvenile detention were identified as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander. This has an indication that, the adolescents have mental health problems that do require immediate attention, for the well being of the individuals, their families, the societies that they come from and the nation at large (NPHP, 2005) . Discussion: From above it’s well indicated that the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders adolescents do suffer from various mental health problems that need dire attention, since the consequences doesn’t only affect the adolescents but also the society at large. It’s important that, the different causatives of mental health problems of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders adolescents be established so that clear strategies are laid on the ground to cut-off this menacing condition. Investing in these adolescents is very vital as they are a potential source of labour thus the positive growth of their respective communities’ and the nation at large. This investment will not solitary progress the quality of life for those adolescents in call for but also almost certainly have a positive consequence on far-reaching features of the Australian economy, creating the labor force of the future more industrious through improved lifetime gross prospect and a diminution in poverty. For both the community and the nation to realize their set objectives those adolescents need a very sober mind. Therefore clear cut stratagems should be applied by the nursing practitioners as recommended below. Recommendations: The nursing practitioners should be nurtured to be familiar with a ‘population health’ approach intended to support mental health and preclusion with early on intrusion of setbacks and disorders (Heinonen & Metteri, 2005). This will present them with skills in whichever place they work from, such skills take account of; effective suggestion of efforts to give an all-inclusive variety of expert, incorporated wellbeing promotion as well as infection care checks, while simultaneously determination to realize impartiality of wellbeing conditions, reserve allocation, in addition to easy admission and utilization to all Australian population. The nursing practitioners should be given an opportunity to develop an understanding of the sociological model and medical models of mental health/ mental illness. From this perspective they will be able to recognize that mental health relates to emotions, thoughts and behaviours, which could be different from what they envisage. They will come to establish that these two perspectives of health hold an influence in some mental health and mental illness services in Australia, and that they are mostly integrated in most organizations which distinguish their retort to mental health as appropriate in an instant on a continuum involving a ‘medical’ and a ‘sociological’ understanding of mental health/mental illness. This shall give them an advantage in that they will be well versed with what they are dealing with and how to exercise their conducts in these areas (WHO, 2005). The nursing practitioners should also be granted to gain an array of knowledge and skills in mental health through exploring a social construction of mental health, including the social, economic, political & cultural influences on beliefs regarding an appropriate response to mental health issues. For instance they should be fully in terms with the causation of mental illness, the social inference of particular behaviours and how curative preferences differ significantly across cultures, times and communities. This shall award them with the skill of quickly acclimatizing themselves with the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders adolescents community and individuals so that they can feel that they are part of them (Farone, 2002). Also the government and non-governmental organizations should ultimately endeavour to instill in them knowledge of historical themes regarding the indulgent in, as well as reaction en route for, mental health issues. This will make them to gain an understanding of the current Australian response to mental health promotion, which includes such issues like policy, legislation, and practice. Likewise it’s significant that when working anywhere they should feel like they are sharing the values of those they work with. They ought to acknowledge that ethics is not just chatting about the right thing but, accomplishment of the correct concern, in every resolution taken. Conclusion: This report gives the above recommendations that when properly implemented can improve the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders adolescents mental health status, thus helping them realize their goals as other Australian adolescents. The nursing practitioners indeed should toe the line of the here in recommendations and others that are appropriate to help this marginalized community. Read More

Background: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander adolescents have much higher rates of mental health, than any other Australian adolescents. This is a manifestation of the traumas and confrontations “creamed –up” with national stigmatization extended towards the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander group of individuals in the course of socio-economic drawback and joblessness of close relatives, deficiency of admittance to health services, exposure to environmental hazards, displacement and alterations to social organization, prejudice as well as geological seclusion.

Family hostility in addition affects on the mental health of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander adolescents. The consequences of these drawbacks accrue and broaden further than pregnancy, delivery and the early years of life, and are apparent all over the full life cycle as well as in future generations (Lawrence & Coghlan, 2002). These social, environmental, economic and biological factors function mutually to impact on the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander adolescents. These factors include; low house-hold income; low levels of education; pitiable accommodation; menaces of violent behavior; physical poor health; discrimination; detrimental lifestyles; and poor infrastructures.

Overtime they have functioned together to exclude them from social get-togethers; have led to psychological strain, and emotional maltreatment. With Australia being a multi-cultural and linguistic nation; it has influenced how; individuals search for help, mental health/illness is articulated, and the way an individual’s mental illness indications are diagnosed as well as taken care of (NPHP, 2005). According to Heinonen & Metteri (2005); five years back there were approximately a double number of hospital separations of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander adolescents for 'mental and behavioral disorders' in Queensland, Western Australia, South Australia and the Northern Territory, than it was anticipated, based on the rates of other Australians.

The numbers of deliberate harm, whether self-inflicted or caused by physical attack, can be an indication of mental illness and distress in the society. From this knowledge, they put forward that, there were approximately 7 times as many hospital separations as expected for assault among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander adolescents’ males, and nearly thirty-one times as many for females, based on all-Australian numbers of adolescents. Lawrence & Coghlan, (2002) put forward that, anti-social and self-destructive behaviour, which is often the result of undiagnosed mental and social distress has brought Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander adolescents into more than often into contact with the criminal justice system.

Six years back, twenty-one percent of the total prisoner population was Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders adolescents. These adolescents were incarcerated at a rate of 1,417 per 100,000 compared to only 129 per 100,000 of non- Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders adolescents. The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders adolescents were also at far above the ground risk of imprisonment. In the same year during the month of June, thirty-two percent of adolescents in juvenile detention were identified as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander.

This has an indication that, the adolescents have mental health problems that do require immediate attention, for the well being of the individuals, their families, the societies that they come from and the nation at large (NPHP, 2005) . Discussion: From above it’s well indicated that the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders adolescents do suffer from various mental health problems that need dire attention, since the consequences doesn’t only affect the adolescents but also the society at large.

It’s important that, the different causatives of mental health problems of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders adolescents be established so that clear strategies are laid on the ground to cut-off this menacing condition.

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