Effect of historical event or policy on the health of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People
Discuss about the Impact On Transmission Of Pig-Associated Zoonoses.
The current study focuses upon the health context of the Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People. They belong to the Australian indigenous group of people who had been isolated from the local community and inhabiting the outskirts or the remote areas of the country. Therefore, owing the social isolation and the racial discriminations met against such people they are often deprived of adequate health reforms and policies. As mentioned by Smylie et al. (2016), the healthcare professionals working for the local communities decline to visit the indigenous group of people are they are remotely settled. This further result in unequal distribution of the healthcare services at different levels of the community. As mentioned by Durkalec, Furgal, Skinner and Sheldon (2015), in the lack of an effective partnership between the government and the federal government agencies the quality for the health services met out to the indigenous group of people suffers.
The Aboriginal Torres Strait Islander People were the first most or the native Australians who were driven from their own habitat or the mainland as an aftermath of British colonisation. A number of health policies have been developed for providing sufficient and equitable healthcare services to the indigenous group of people. Some of the policies which had been drafted in this regard are – closing the gap services implemented in the year 2008. The policy had been implemented in order to provide equitable healthcare services to the indigenous population group with an aim to reducing the gap by the year 2031. Additionally, reducing the mortality rates for children aged below five as well as provision of improved variety of healthcare services to the indigenous women. It also aims at reducing the gap in basic educational features provided to the indigenous group of people. Some of the other health plans in this regard are the aboriginal cultural security framework 2016-2026. The framework enlists a number of policies, which has been discussed as follows, such as increasing the diversity of the health workforce (Napier et al., 2014). This has been implemented with the view of increasing the rate of inclusion of the indigenous group of people within the workforce. This helps in reducing the communication gaps in healthcare which arises due to inability to speak in the local language of the indigenous group of people.
Therefore, working as a healthcare professional I had to face a number of challenges in dealing with the indigenous group of people. One of the major difficulties which had been faced by me in this regard was communicating with the indigenous group of people in a language other than English. However, as per the newly implemented healthcare policy more and more people from the indigenous group need to be included within the community healthcare setups. As mentioned by Hackett, Feeny and Tompa (2016), inclusion of local individuals in healthcare setup can help in e removing the reducing the demand of medical interpreters.
The effect of policies on the role of healthcare professional
The implementation of closing the gap healthcare policies places sufficient pressure on the healthcare staffs to visit the remote areas on a frequent basis to provide them with adequate health services. As mentioned by Day, Nakata, Nakata and Martin (2015), the healthcare policies, aims at bringing the maximum number of people under social inclusion. However, visiting the remotest sites of the country it often becomes problematic for the healthcare professional to convince the indigenous group if people for receiving the healthcare services. This is because the indigenous group of people are guided by their own cultural beliefs and paradoxes as per which bad or till health befall a upon an individual based upon their own course of actions. Thus, it becomes increasingly difficult to convince the parents regarding the fact that their children need to be provided with vaccinations to prevent the occurrence of diseases.
There are a number of social determinants of health which had been affecting the health of the indigenous group of people considerably. Some of these could be presented as follows such as the influences of the past upon the present life situations of the indigenous group of people, the system of stratification of the Australian society and the effect of poor economic conditions on the overall health patterns of the society.
For example, the past history of abuse and negligence may affect the present status of health of an individual. Additionally, the layers of stratifications present within the Australian society further add to the grievances of social exclusion suffered by the Australian indigenous group of people. As mentioned by Kolahdooz et al. (2014), the social stratification is the grouping of the society into different categories and classes with different levels of access to power and privileges. For example, the indigenous group of people has to wait in the hospitals for long hours before receiving the support care services. This could be attributed to the lack of concern as well as effective communications between the patients and the hospital authorities.
The social stratification was also seen in the division of labour within the Australian society. As per the Australian society some of the topmost and most highly rated professionals were those of doctors, engineers, lawyers , professors etc , whereas the ones performing less significant jobs such as clergyman, truck drivers , sweepers etc were looked down upon by the society. As mentioned by Eckermann, Dowd and Chong (2010), the social stratifications have also been reflected within the paying system, of the society where the ones performing white and blue collar jobs are given higher amount of pay whereas the ones engaged in less significant jobs or menial jobs are paid on an hourly basis. The economic disparity along with the social exclusion has further been seen to affect the social conditions of the indigenous group of people. Additionally, the lack of sufficient amount of educations within the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people also acts as an disadvantage where they are not able to adjust themselves to the additional roles and responsibilities of the jobs owing to lack of expertise in relevant areas. As mentioned by Truong, Paradies and Priest (2014), one of the major drawbacks in this aspect is the prevalent language issues. The language issues further makes it difficult for the indigenous group of people to relate to or understand the academic or educational curriculums taught within the mainstream Australian classroom.
Effect of social determinant of health on the well being of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People
The racism has been seen to produce significant impact on the mental health of the Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People. In this respect, the racism is defined based upon the colour, creed, caste, nationality and gender of an individual. As mentioned by Krakouer (2015), there is a constant social misbalance owing to the amount of privileges and benefits, which are provided to the white Australians compared to the indigenous group of people. As the indigenous Australians are different based upon skin colours and languages, they are often excluded from the mainstream society. As mentioned by Waterworth, Dimmock, Pescud, Braham and Rosenberg (2016), there is 50% reservation within the Australian society for the indigenous population groups, which amounts to 21% within healthcare. However, none of these figures are actually followed and implied as little awareness is present within the social classes regrading the rights and privileges of the Australian indigenous group of people.
I think the racial discrimination could be dated back to the past times where the colonial or the British rule had separated the Australian indigenous group form the mainstream land saying that they were refugees . During the separation, some of the children of the indigenous community were separated from their parents owing to identity crisis.
In my opinion, such resentful attitude towards the indigenous community group had led to the development of angst and frustrations within the indigenous population group towards the Australian community and society which led to them further accepting the behaviour of social exclusions. The long term separation further enhanced the language gaps, which led to development of misunderstanding between different sections of the society. The misinterpretation of the objectives of the different social groups could be attributed to the difference in language, which widened the bridges between the communities. As mentioned by Wieland (2014), the unequal distribution of social and healthcare services further widened the racism views within the indigenous group of people. In my opinion some of the aspects such as delay in answering the health care distress calls, less reservation for indigenous group of people in schools as well as in colleges further makes the social discrimination grow stronger.
Every indigenous group of people wants to be felt loved and valued and not judged simply because they belong to a certain group or section of the society. Therefore, as a healthcare professional I have felt that simply spending time with the Aboriginal and Torres community groups can help in bridging the health gaps. Though, my experience I have realized that women and children were frustrated simply from the lack of response. The social negligence made the indigenous group of people to be constantly drunk (Wilson, Magarey, Jones, O’Donnell & Kelly, 2015). This behaviour often caught them in mishaps in unlawful activities. Therefore, as a community nurse one of my predominant roles was to serve as a counsellor who could help the indigenous group of people accept their way of life and respond to it positively.
Racism on the mental health of aboriginal and torrs strait islander people
The effective communication with the indigenous group of people is further affected by the incident of cultural shock (Maclean, 2015). In this respect, the cultural shock is precipitated by losing all possible symbols of communication with the social groups (Hunt et al., 2015). Some of these cultural shocks could be described with reference to the everyday scenario when we shake hand to meet people, when we say hello. I think losing some of the basics of this communication from everyday life further deepened the feeling of cultural shock within the society. Therefore, an unfamiliar culture may further deepen the feelings of anxiety within a certain segment of the society (Burniston et al., 2015).
In my opinion, working with more than one healthcare channel or medium can help in reducing the chances of cultural shocks. By this, it is implied that more and more people from the indigenous background needs to be included within the mainstream which will help in removing the communication gaps. For example, inclusion of the indigenous group of people within the heath and support care services can help in removing the cultural gaps (Jongen, McCalman & Bainbridge, 2018). Additionally, working as a non –aboriginal person who goes to work in an aboriginal setting think the multilingual and multicultural society can also help me in removing the ethical dilemmas, which may be faced by me during provision of the healthcare services.
Working as a healthcare professional, I can take a number of steps in looking after the indigenous group of people. For example, spending more time with the indigenous group of people along with working along with indigenous healthcare workers to support their healthcare causes can provide the community with more autonomy.
Additionally, providing the community with further educational programs can help me in making them stronger by being able to participate in more mainstream professional or work roles (Velderman et al., 2015). This will also allow me in communicating better with the indigenous group of people as taking some of their major concerns into limelight such a health ,education can empower them to the best of abilities.
References
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