Aboriginals and their health conditions
While searching about Torres Strait Islander and Aboriginal population I find out that they belong to the Torres Strait Island. The Island is a part of Queensland. Torres Strait are slightly different from the rest ingenious people of Australia. In present time the people who belong to the Aboriginal community are living in different part of Australia, the Torres Strait Islander and Aboriginal people has different culture, tradition language and they have their own distinct history. While going through the health conditions of the aboriginals with physical wellbeing other factors also being included such as emotional, social and cultural wellbeing (Parker, 2010). The health conditions of the aboriginal people are very bad in comparison to other residents of Australia, the young people are dying at early age. While reading the various articles and journals I come to know that the aboriginals are facing problems of diabetes, mental health problem, chronic kidney disease, and repertory disease. The national indigenous health strategy defines the health of Aboriginals, it states that just considering only physical wellbeing as a whole concept is not enough the other things are also included in that particular concept such as social, cultural and emotional wellbeing of the whole aboriginals community (Shahid, Bleam, Bessarab, & Thompson, 2010). The biggest psychological, emotional and social impact was provided by the Government of Australia on Torres Strait Islander and Aboriginal population in 1804-1946 when they have made a policy to remove children from their parents, culture, and society and from their actual belongings. This essay is designed to understand the concept and reason behind the drafting of policy to remove children from their patents its impact on the Torres Strait Islander and Aboriginal population, their current health status in Australia, its impact on culture and few recommendations for equalising the conditions of the between Aboriginals and Non-Aboriginals.
During the course I come to know about the concept of Stolen Generation, it is one of the bad incident of Australian history and it provide a very bad impact on the people who belong to the aboriginal society and the impact of the that incident is visible on the community. In between 1910-1970 the government of Australia many Aboriginal children was taken away from their parents. The term used by Aboriginal Australian for this incident is stolen generation. The stolen generation are those aboriginal children are who was forcefully removed from their families by the government. The children’s were kept in the institutes made by State and Federal Government and in Church missionaries and among them white parents adopt some. The policy made to remove children from their families was named Assimilation. The concept behind Assimilation is based on the very unjust assumption that was ‘white people are superior then the black people’. Under this policy of the government, the stolen children were taught by the church missionaries to forget or reject their actual identity of being an indigenous heritage and were forced to adopt the white people culture (Whiteside, Tsey & Earles, 2011). The authorities who are responsible for the welling being of stolen generation has changed their names give them a name similar to white people the children were forbidden to speak their traditional language. The policy provides it more focus on those children who are half-caste children. The children with light skin colour are Half Caste children. The authorities consider half-caste children more valuable because of their lighter skin colour it become easy to assimilate them in the white community.
The concept of Stolen Generation
The impact of act of the government of government is still visible on the Torres Strait Islander and Aboriginal community and they are still affected by this act. The objective behind of government behind making the policy to provide shelter to aboriginal children, food, and health care and in addition to provide opportunities of education and protect them from racism and discrimination but the way they have used was very inhuman. I try to put myself at the place of those aboriginal parents or children but could not able to be at their place I got completely shattered. I cannot even image of losing my children or taken away from my parents and this act actually happened with aboriginal people gives me goose bumps. As a parent, I will not keep my child with someone who is unknown to me from one day and the aboriginal people loses their children in actual (Edwards, 2010). The condition of Torres Strait Islander and Aboriginal population is not good in past but in present the conditions has not changed much. They are facing problems like inequality in health, education, living standard and many more.
While conducting the research of on the conditions of the aboriginal people I come to know about the present conditions of the Torres Strait Islander and Aboriginal population, they are facing discrimination at every aspect of their life and every stage. The health conditions of the aboriginal people are worse in comparison to the Non-aboriginal people of Australia, the gap between morbidity and mortality rates among aboriginal and non-aboriginal is very high. The rate of Torres Strait Islander and Aboriginal people admitted into hospital is high in comparison to non-aboriginal people is very high. In hospitals, also they face the problem of discrimination they were provided poor health care facilities and because of that, the mortality rate increases. Health inequality between aboriginal and non-aboriginals is emerged as the huge issue. The inequality among aboriginal and non-aboriginals is clearly visible. In 2011, the Australian Bureau of Statistics conducts the survey in the survey report it is been found that that the gap between life expectancy ratio of Torres Strait Islander and Aboriginal people and Non-Aboriginal people is 11.5 years. The life expectancy ratio of aboriginal males is 67.2 years, aboriginal females are 72.9 years, the life expectancy ratio of aboriginal males is 78.7 years, and the life expectancy ratio of aboriginal females is 82.6 years (AIHW, 2017). While going through the report various new things about Torres Strait Islander and Aboriginal people was found out by me such as due to geographical conditions, social economic disparity and due to difference in the cultural the aboriginal people are experiencing various problems like perinatal mortality, low birth weight, infant child mortality, and age-standardizes death rates. In addition, the stated factors are responsible for various chronic diseases such as cardiovascular disorder, infectious diseases such as AIDS/HIV, sexually transmissible infections and diabetes mellitus. It is also stated in the survey report that in the northern part of Australia, 97.5% Torres Strait Islander and Aboriginal people speck their own regional language among them only 2.1% Torres Strait Islander and Aboriginal people speak English at their homes (Australian Government Department of health, 2018). It is also found out during the study that linguistic arrive as the cultural factor which affect the health care outcomes. An unproductive communication leads to the penetrating disappointment. The Australian health care system is considered to be a world’s best health care system but because of unproductive communication the health care providers fails to provide an effective treatment to the patients (Klimczak, Siwicki, Skibinski, Pysz, St?pien, Heidt, & Buczynski, 2014). With the help of effective communication, the health care providers were able to provide good health care facilities to the people but due to miscommunication, the aboriginals are not getting proper health care facilities. it is important for the government to fill the gap between Torres Strait Islander and Aboriginal clients and health care professionals.
Impact of Stolen Generation
The term culture refers to the feelings of people for their society, group or community. The biological and physical difference between the Torres Strait Islander and Aboriginal and non-aboriginal peoples shows a point of difference. It is obvious that the people who belong to the same community, religion, society and come from same class will trust each other more than others will because they share a same physiological as well as ethnicity (Tsey, Whiteside, Haswell?Elkins, Bainbridge, Cadet?James, & Wilson, 2010). In Australian hospitals it is been seen many times the black people refuse to get treated by white doctor visa-versa.
To address the problems and to tackle the various disadvantages received by the aboriginal population the Government of Australia has developed a framework and in addition they have developed a community for the wellbeing and health of the Torres Strait Islander and aboriginal by reducing the gaps. The Government knows that any framework will not get success till the partnership among the government and local supporter will take place, the government has developed a partnership with the Aboriginal community to reduce the gaps between the health care facilities (Chidarikire, 2012). The main vision behind development of health framework is to bridging the gap between the health inequalities among non-aboriginals and aboriginals. The framework focuses more on the wellbeing of the aboriginals who are suffering from various disabilities and health problem especially for young and ageing people (Feather, Woodyatt, & McKee, 2012). The framework focuses more on providing health facilities to the child health care. In 2008, the government has decided to work on the incredibly more essential tasks which includes improving health status and life expectancy of Torres Strait Islander and Aboriginal population in Australia by 2031 (Australian Government Department of health, 2018).
After conducting a whole research by going through journals, articles and survey reports my perception about the Torres Strait Islander and Aboriginal population changed completely. In previous I used to think that the aboriginals are not good people and I always used to avoid time because my perception about them is that for their bad conditions they are responsible. When I was a kid i thing that the black people are thieves and on streets they used to mugged people, this perception about the black people come to my mind because they used to wear old and smelly cloths and they was very unhygienic (Fronek, & Cuthbert, 2013). In my school, also I used to stay away from aboriginal peoples because I consider them to be different people. Before studying the course my perception about the Torres Strait Islander and Aboriginal people is different and after completing the course my perception about them got completely changed. While coding the research I come to know that the conditions of the is not good. The Torres Strait Islander and Aboriginal are having different spiritual values, laws and use of land. The British Colonisation has influenced the cultural values of the conditions of aboriginal and non-aboriginal people. The difference between the living conditions of the Torres Strait Islander and Aboriginal and non-aboriginals are clearly visible, the living conditions of aboriginal people are very bad they living in small houses with less facilities on the other hand the non-aboriginal people are living a lavish life and live in the designer house. In the designer and big houses of the non-aboriginal peoples, only few family members used to live and in the small less equip houses on big family live. In every aspect of life, the aboriginals face the problem of discriminations.
Present conditions of the Torres Strait Islander and Aboriginal population
After going through the whole course few things come into my mind with the help of which the conditions of aboriginals will be enhance. The few steps or solution that I want to adopt into my professional practice will be, before treating the aboriginal patient it is important that I should learn and admire the belief system, disparities and culture of aboriginals. Strengthening the health care professionalism and cultural competency can arise as the effective solution for reducing inequality in the health care. It is beneficial for the health practitioners to get full training provide by the government. To bridge the gap between the health care facilities among Aboriginal and non-aboriginal people, it is important the government will work with various aboriginal welfare organisations. The problem of communication is the main factor which is been arrived as hurdle in the treatment of aboriginals. To overcome the problem of communication health practitioners can learn the language of aboriginals or the government can provide translators who understand the language of the aboriginal peoples. There is a problem of discrimination is also arrive as a barrier while treating the aboriginals it is important for health practitioners to provide better health care facilities and treat each patient equally. It is important that health practitioners, government and other welfare organisation come together and work for betterment of Torres Strait Islander and Aboriginal.
References
AIHW. (2017). Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Performance Framework. Retrieved from: https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/indigenous-health-welfare/health-performance-framework/contents/summary
Australian Government Department of health. (2018). Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Performance Framework. Retrieved from: https://www.health.gov.au/indigenous-pdf
Australian Government Department of health. (2018). Indigenous Health. Retrieved from: https://www.health.gov.au/indigenous
Chidarikire, S. (2012). Spirituality: The neglected dimension of holistic mental health care. Journal of Advances in Mental Health, 10(3), 298-302.
De Bono, A. (2018). Seeing Aboriginal history in black and white: the contested history of the Stolen Generation. Journal of Emerging scholars in Australian Indigenous Studies, 2(1), 1-8.
Edwards, J. A. (2010). Apologizing for the past for a better future: Collective apologies in the United States, Australia, and Canada. Journal of Southern Communication, 75(1), 57-75.
Feather, N. T., Woodyatt, L., & McKee, I. R. (2012). Predicting support for social action: How values, justice-related variables, discrete emotions, and outcome expectations influence support for the Stolen Generations. Journal of Motivation and Emotion, 36(4), 516-528.
Fronek, P., & Cuthbert, D. (2013). Apologies for forced adoption practices: Implications for contemporary intercountry adoption. Journal of Australian Social Work, 66(3), 402-414.
Klimczak, M., Siwicki, B., Skibi?ski, P., Pysz, D., St?pie?, R., Heidt, A., & Buczy?ski, R. (2014). Coherent supercontinuum generation up to 2.3 µm in all-solid soft-glass photonic crystal fibers with flat all-normal dispersion. Journal of Optics express, 22(15), 18824-18832.
Kurian, A. (2016). A Midsummer Night’s Dream and the Stolen Generation. ANQ: A Quarterly Journal of Short Articles, Notes and Reviews, 29(1), 6-13.
Parker, R. (2010). Australia’s Aboriginal population and mental health. The Journal of nervous and mental disease, 198(1), 3-7.
Shahid, S., Bleam, R., Bessarab, D., & Thompson, S. C. (2010). ” If you don’t believe it, it won’t help you”: use of bush medicine in treating cancer among Aboriginal people in Western Australia. Journal of ethnobiology and ethnomedicine, 6(1), 18.
Tsey, K., Whiteside, M., Haswell?Elkins, M., Bainbridge, R., Cadet?James, Y., & Wilson, A. (2010). Empowerment and Indigenous Australian health: a synthesis of findings from Family Wellbeing formative research. Journal of Health & Social Care in the Community, 18(2), 169-179.
Whiteside, M., Tsey, K., & Earles, W. (2011). Locating empowerment in the context of Indigenous Australia. Journal of Australian Social Work, 64(1), 113-129.
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