Impact of education and income on Indigenous health
The Indigenous Australians are seen to be suffering from a large gap in health status in comparison to that of the non Indigenous Australians. Different strategies and policies had been developed specifically the “closing the Gap” in order to address the contributing factors for the health status gap but very few of the goals could be achieved until now. There is a huge gap in the life expectancy of about 17 years between the Indigenous Australians and the non-native people (Fisher et al., 2016). Moreover, all the people living above the age of 65 years, the age specific death rates for the Indigenous (Mitrou et al., 2014). The concept of the social determinants of health is seen to be intricately associated with that of the socio-economic position. This would be helping in the explaining of both the gaps in the average health status of the Indigenous Australians and that of the non Indigenous Australians. People with higher income tend to live longer with better health than that of the people with lower incomes. Income therefore is considered to be one of the social determinants of health. The Australian Government Department of Health had developed a health promotion initiative called the “The Indigenous Australians’ Health Programme”. The Australian Government established this program on 1st July 2014. It mainly tried to cover four important action plans for development of better health of the Indigenous Australians (Baum & Friel, 2017). These are the health programs for mothers and children, primary healthcare services, Stronger Futures in the Northern Territory (Health) and even the programs for the chronic disorder management. This assignment would mainly be highlighting the social determinants of health that affect the Stronger Futures in the Northern Territory (Nursing Health), the different such factors mentioned in the health program initiatives and will discuss how these factors affect health of Indigenous Australians.
Poor income of the Indigenous Australians also contributes to the poor health condition of the people. Incomplete education often makes it difficult for the Indigenous Australians to get jobs with decent remuneration that help them lead proper quality lives. Moreover, another important contributor to lack of income is that the Indigenous Australians face racial discrimination and stigmatization in their workplaces that force them to leave their occupation. Many of the employers of the non-native region are also seen to avoid giving jobs to the Indigenous Australians (Couzos & Thiele, 2016). All these contribute to low employment rates of the Indigenous Australians and therefore they have poor financial security. These affect the condition of their health making them lead poor quality and unhealthy life. This can be described with the help of the example. It has been seen that they do not have enough funds to buy costly organic foods that are nutrient rich. They have to settle down with cheap calorific fast foods that expose them to the development of obesity and overweight situations. Moreover, they also cannot tend to afford housing that is hygienic, comfortable and safe for health. Therefore, this also leads to improper health conditions (Newman et al., 2015). Therefore, it is very important for the concerned authorities to undertake actions by which such social determinists of health can be tackled effectively.
Addiction and its impact on Indigenous health
Addiction is yet another social determinant of health that results in poor quality health of the Indigenous Australians. The percentage of the Indigenous Australians who are addicted to tobacco as well as alcohol are found to be higher in number than that of those non-native members who also drink and smoke. Poor education makes them unaware of the consequences of the drinking as well as the smoking tobacco and these makes them exposed to the occurrence of various negative health outcomes (Vallesi et al., 2018). In addition to this, lack of employment results them in boredom as well as makes them anxious and depressed about their financial condition. In order to overcome this stress, they smoke and drink alcohol. Researchers are of the opinion that drinking alcohol results in formation of an “altered reality” that helps them to overcome the stress. Therefore, smoking as well as drinking makes them suffer from poor health condition where they tend to live very poor quality of life. Data has shown that Indigenous Australians who have completed standard 12 were seen to be less likely to smoke than those people who had not completed this level of education successfully and this difference was about 22%. It was also seen people who were employed were also less likely to smoke than those who were unemployed and this differences was about 11%. It was also seen that year 12 completion was associated with lower probability of risky alcohol consumption as well as sedentary lifestyles (Munns et al., 2016). These social determinants of health had been seen to be the contributors of that of the cancer, lung disorders, cardiovascular disorders, strokes, hypertension, obesity and any others.One of the most important social determinants of health that had been addressed in the health care initiative taken by the Australian government department of health namely the “Indigenous Australians’ Health Programme” is the access of care of the Indigenous Australians from the western healthcare professionals. Different types of studies have been conducted which have shown that poorer access to timely as well as effective healthcare services is one of the most important factor which had resulted in the health gap of the Indigenous Australians (Phillips et al., 2016). The main reasons that had been commonly used by the Indigenous Australians for their inability to access the western healthcare system are the long waiting times, care not being available to them at the time of the request as well as due to the lack of services in their area. Moreover, other issues that had also resulted in inability for the Indigenous Australians to access the healthcare system are the transport as well as the distant issues, lack of the affordable services. Even the services that are provided to them are not culturally appropriate. Therefore, this health initiative ensured delivery of the healthcare services that were tailored to the needs of the Indigenous Australians along with the development of workforce who are culturally competent and culturally knowledgeable ensuring cultural sensitivity (Coffey et al., 2018). Development of care services in the remote areas was also proposed.
Access to healthcare for Indigenous Australians
One of the other initiatives that were also covered in the health initiative was the establishment of the primary healthcare system that would ensure development of the health education of the Indigenous Australians. The professionals had successfully recognized that the health literacy of the Indigenous Australians is quite underdeveloped. They have recognized the significance of making the people educated so that they become responsible about their open health and undertake healthy practices to prevent any form of chronic disorders. Therefore, they had set target health activities within which they have set one of the target actions as “health protection, preventive health and health promotion or education” (Azzopardi et al., 2018). Therefore they have set primary healthcare services where they have allocated professionals who are given the duty of developing their health literacy and make theme educated about the good health habits, the different negative habits that they need to stop practicing, the correct diets that they need to follow, the importance of physical exercises and many others. By these, they have correctly ensured that they are helping in development of the health literacy and this would ensure lessening the health status gap of the professionals successfully (Gordon et al., 2015).
Social exclusion is another social determinant of health that also contributes to the poor quality health of the Indigenous Australians. The Indigenous Australians are seen to face discrimination as well as stigmatization not only in the healthcare services that they attend but also in the different other domains in the nation. It has been seen that such people face discrimination in the western education systems in the schools, colleges and the universities as well. Moreover, the different organizations of the nation also do not appoint people from Indigenous Australians communities (Markwick et al., 2015). This determinants of health results in development of mental health condition like that of the depression, anxiety, substance abuse disorder. These determinants of health had not been addressed in the healthcare initiative. Therefore, it become very important for the future heath strategies of the government developed for the Indigenous Australians to address these issues and develop policies to reduce the stigmatization as well as discrimination faced by the. These would reduce the chances of mental health disorders in the cohorts (Brewstar, 2017).
Social determinants of health play an important role in the Indigenous Australians community in determining the health condition of the people. Since the time of colonization of the nation, there had been drastic changes in the lifestyle of the Indigenous Australians. In the present generation as well as they had got very less scope of effective healthcare services from the western healthcare system. This is mainly because the care services are neither culturally competent and neither they are able to meet the needs and requirements of the patients. They feel stigmatized as well as discriminated due to the culturally insensitive practices of the professionals. Beside inappropriate healthcare service develop other social determinants of health are low level of education as well as health literacy (Markwick et al., 2014). This could be explained with the help of an example. They are not undertaking physical exercisers and are mainly seen to live sedentary lifestyles. This is mainly because that they are not aware of the negative consequences because they do not have the literacy to understand the negative outcomes. In this way, the social determinants of health are affecting the Indigenous Australians. Low employment rates, stigmatization, social exclusion, addiction and similar others are therefore affecting the health of the cohort in much higher rate that the non-native people. Therefore, it is very important for concerned authorities to take responsibility and develop their lives. These concerns should be taken in consideration and these determinants of health should be addressed while caring for planning the initiatives.
Primary healthcare system for Indigenous Australians
One of the most important social determinants of health that should be considered during the time of planning is development of their education level and health literacy. This is because if they are not educated, they cannot understand the importance of changing their habits. Education level is one of the most important social determinants of health that result in the development of the health status gap in the Indigenous Australians and so it should be inclided in planning stage only. The attendance of the students in their schools is found to be higher in the non Indigenous Australians for about 93%, which in comparison to that of the Indigenous Australians is about 83%. It has been found that the non-native people are higher in number in completion of their higher education in comparison to that of the Indigenous Australians whose numbers are quite less (Chenhall & Senior, 2018). Even the decline in the numbers had also been seen in the secondary schools where more children from the native background are seen to leave their education in comparison to that of the non-native people. Therefore, poor education level is been found to be one of the main factors which in turn affects their knowledge about effective healthcare habits. They are therefore seen to be having poor knowledge health literacy and therefore they cannot understand the negative impacts of their improper health behaviors. They even do not know the procedures by which they can effectively care for their health. Therefore, improper health literacy and poor education often makes them more prone to harmful health habits thereby making them more prone to develop different disorders (MacPhail & McKay, 2018). Therefore the government can take the initiative of establishing culturally competent schools and colleges in their area during planning stage and implement them accordingly. Community nurses can be allocated for teaching them and developing their health literacy.
The health concerns faced by the mothers and babies in the community of the native people are higher in number than the non native people. The mortality as well as the morbidity rate of native mothers and babies is quite higher than non native counterparts. Poor parenting habits, lack of immunization centers, lack of nutritious foods for mother and babies, intake of alcohol and smoking habits of mothers, unhygienic lifestyle contributes to such consequences. Therefore during planning and implementation, professionals should consider them for effective program development.
Social exclusion and its impact on Indigenous health
From the above discussion, it can be seen that social determinants of health tend to play immense role in affecting the health condition of the people beside the biological as well as psychological determinants. The health status of the Indigenous Australians are seen to be much worse than the non native people and analysis of the social determinants can help in shedding more light on the reasons of such health gap. Lower levels of education, employment, high levels of addiction, inappropriate access to healthcare access, poor health literacy an even social exclusion all leads to poor quality health of the people. It is important to develop health promotion programs that would help in the development of factors effectively to ensure that they live quality and safe lives.
References:
Azzopardi, P. S., Sawyer, S. M., Carlin, J. B., Degenhardt, L., Brown, N., Brown, A. D., & Patton, G. C. (2018). Health and wellbeing of Indigenous adolescents in Australia: a systematic synthesis of population data. The Lancet, 391(10122), 766-782.
Baum, F., & Friel, S. (2017). Politics, policies and processes: a multidisciplinary and multimethods research programme on policies on the social determinants of health inequity in Australia. BMJ open, 7(12), e017772.
Brewster, D. R. (2017). Growth faltering, child rearing and social determinants of health in Aboriginal community children. Journal of paediatrics and child health, 53(1), 5-7.
Chenhall, R. D., & Senior, K. (2018). Living the Social Determinants of Health: Assemblages in a Remote Aboriginal Community. Medical anthropology quarterly.
Coffey, P. M., Ralph, A. P., & Krause, V. L. (2018). The role of social determinants of health in the risk and prevention of group A streptococcal infection, acute rheumatic fever and rheumatic heart disease: A systematic review. PLoS neglected tropical diseases, 12(6), e0006577.
Couzos, S., & Thiele, D. D. (2016). Aboriginal peoples participation in their health care: A patient right and an obligation for health care providers. Aboriginal and Islander Health Worker Journal, 40, 6.
Fisher, M., Baum, F. E., MacDougall, C., Newman, L., & McDermott, D. (2016). To what extent do Australian health policy documents address social determinants of health and health equity?. Journal of Social Policy, 45(3), 545-564.
Gordon, J., Kirlew, M., Schreiber, Y., Saginur, R., Bocking, N., Blakelock, B., … & Kelly, L. (2015). Acute rheumatic fever in First Nations communities in northwestern Ontario: Social determinants of health “bite the heart”. Canadian Family Physician, 61(10), 881-886.
MacPhail, C., & McKay, K. (2018). Social determinants in the sexual health of adolescent Aboriginal Australians: a systematic review. Health & social care in the community, 26(2), 131-146.
Markwick, A., Ansari, Z., Sullivan, M., & McNeil, J. (2015). Social determinants and psychological distress among Aboriginal and Torres Strait islander adults in the Australian state of Victoria: a cross-sectional population based study. Social Science & Medicine, 128, 178-187.
Markwick, A., Ansari, Z., Sullivan, M., Parsons, L., & McNeil, J. (2014). Inequalities in the social determinants of health of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People: a cross-sectional population-based study in the Australian state of Victoria. International journal for equity in health, 13(1), 91.
Mitrou, F., Cooke, M., Lawrence, D., Povah, D., Mobilia, E., Guimond, E., & Zubrick, S. R. (2014). Gaps in Indigenous disadvantage not closing: a census cohort study of social determinants of health in Australia, Canada, and New Zealand from 1981–2006. BMC Public Health, 14(1), 201.
Munns, A., Toye, C., Hegney, D., Kickett, M., Marriott, R., & Walker, R. (2016). The emerging role of the urban-based aboriginal peer support worker: A Western Australian study. Collegian, 23(4), 355-361.
Newman, L., Baum, F., Javanparast, S., O’Rourke, K., & Carlon, L. (2015). Addressing social determinants of health inequities through settings: a rapid review. Health Promotion International, 30(suppl_2), ii126-ii143.
Phillips, C., Fisher, M., Baum, F., MacDougall, C., Newman, L., & McDermott, D. (2016). To what extent do Australian child and youth health policies address the social determinants of health and health equity?: a document analysis study. BMC public health, 16(1), 512.
Vallesi, S., Wood, L., Dimer, L., & Zada, M. (2018). “In Their Own Voice”—Incorporating Underlying Social Determinants into Aboriginal Health Promotion Programs. International journal of environmental research and public health, 15(7).
Order an Essay Now & Get These Features For Free:
Turnitin Report
Formatting
Title Page
Citation
Outline
