Brief History of the Organization
This article mainly aims to explain the facts about the chosen South Coast medical service aboriginal corporation. The organization had been established in the year 1980. The organization supports the local employment in order to support the cultural values of the local aboriginals (Lohoar, Butera & Kennedy, 2014). The services provided by the organization are education for children, and provision for mental and physical support to children as well as the adults. The organization chose community wellbeing as its primary work guide. The following paragraphs will explain the brief history, vision and objectives of the organisation. It will also include the health services, membership (who makes up the community or target population), contacts and location, issues and challenges of the chosen organisation.
The South Coast Medical Service Aboriginal Corporation is mainly built in the year of 1980 by the local aboriginal communities. The community members were really concerned about the cultural understanding of the health service providers. The medical services provided earlier focused on stereotype approaches for the treatment of the aboriginal people. The organisation was mainly came into action in 1982 in Nowra (Shah & Reeves, 2015). At that time the Redfern aboriginals’medical service was doing innovative treatments for these aboriginal people, so they provide the foundation of the work of the South coast medical services. The department of Aboriginal Affairs, in the year of 1986, funded the organisation. The NSW department of health, due to the service provision concern in the year of 1990, also funded the organisation. The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission (ATSIC) ceased all the funding in the year of 1991 as they thought the number of the general physician is much more than the requirements of the local indigenous people.However, the staffs of the South coast medical service aboriginal corporation continued their working without wages with the assistance of the local volunteers (South Coast Medical Service Aboriginal Corporation, 2018).
The vision of the South coast aboriginal corporation is to provide the health services without making any profit. This organization is highly regarded as the non-governmental aboriginal controlled health organization that provides health and health related services.
The main objectives of the South coast health organization is to provide health services for the aboriginal people that can help in the betterment of the wellbeing of these indigenous people. Their aim is to avail the services for the indigenous people without making any kind of profit (Castellano, 2014).
The organization works in collaboration with different sectors for the wellbeing of the Aboriginal people. The sectors, which are covered by the organization, are the employment of the aboriginal, services for the child and the family and disabilities of the aboriginal population. The organization also provide health benefits for the indigenous people that also involves social health. The organization helps in the employment of the aboriginal people by providing volunteers and community support officers. Accordingly, to the Racial Discrimination Act 1975, aboriginal people needed to be placed in the offices and proof of the aboriginality is necessary while interviewing (Whiteside et al., 2017).
The organization also help in the services of the physically disabled aboriginal people of the age group of nine to sixty four. The staffs from the South coast health organization helps to set goals and in the planning of the future. The organization develops support networks in order to build the confidence of the local aboriginals. This action helps in the decision making of how the participants should contribute in his or her community. The volunteers also help in the developmental delay of an aboriginal child. The staffs provides assistance in recognizing the individual and family strength in order to develop support network.
Vision and Objectives
The health services provided by the organization includes different type of Medicare cards offered to the aboriginal people in order to provide better services. There are Medicare enrolment card and other concession cards (Hunt et al., 2015). The primary services provided by the organization are:
- Emergency services of accident, pain
- Preventative care, interceptive and restorative care
- Prosthetic services
The organization provide assistance in the betterment of
- Community safety
- Psychologist, mental health
- Social and emotional wellbeing
- Tracking indigenous smoking
Social health services provided by the organization mainly aims for the reduction of the causes by the use of tobacco and drugs. This overall affects the improvement of the community safety and emotional wellbeing of every individual. The cultural programs that are sensitive towards the cultural values of the indigenous people helps in achieving this target ( Vallesi, Wood, Dimer & Zada, 2018). The organization also provide a holistic approach to fulfill the requirement of emotional, cultural and psychological needs of the aboriginal people. They organize counseling and therapeutic group healing to achieve mental wellbeing of the aboriginal people.The organization introduces the SMART recovery system, whicheducates the aboriginals for self-management (Cairney et al., 2017). The assisting group helps any person with problematic behavior that can include alcohol and cigarette addiction. They provide the choice of healthy lifestyle (Silburn, Reich& Anderson, 2016).
The organization also supports the community health services for the betterment of the aboriginal community. That can include the social and emotional wellbeing of an individual and a family. The staffs teaches the women group activities that can increase their self-confidenceand,self-esteem, health and wellbeing. They hold weekly program on Tuesday from 10:30 a.m. to 14:30 p.m. at the south coast beach. The aboriginal women participates in the
- Art and craft
- Smoking concerns
- Education
- Healthy cooking
- Healing sessions
- Cultural yarning
The men group are also taught some moral issues. They are taught to provide wellbeing and safety to the aboriginal community. The men are educated against the addictions and the changes due to the addictions. Then organization educate the men group to provide better health and better wellbeing to self and his family. The services help the men who suffers with loneliness and domestic violence. The program aims to improve the community relationship, health and wellbeing of the total aboriginal community(South Coast Medical Service Aboriginal Corporation, 2018).
In early 1980, Jane Ardler and the local community members aimed to start an organization to support the local aboriginal people. They were concerned that the health service providers were not culturally knowledgeable to value their thoughts. The organizations is a non-profit organization not regulated by the government. Most of the staffs are local volunteers. The members are mainly above 18 year old. The prospective members have to give written application. The members have right to speak and vote. They can suggest a resolution to make the services better (Raman et al., 2017).
All the contact informations are clearly mentioned in their website. Their office address of the Nowra is Jane Ardler Centre, 51-53 Berry Street Nowra NSW 2541. Their office phone number is 02 4448 0200. The executive and financial supports are done in the 73 North Street, Nowra 2541. Education services are given in the Boori Preschool, Lot 424 Albatross Road, Nowra 251 and the health services are done in the Jane Ardler center, 51-53 berry Street, Nowra (Contact | South Coast Medical Service Aboriginal Corporation, 2018)
Collaboration with Different Sectors
The main issue and challenges faced by this organization is that they don’t have the governmental support and adding to this problem the organization do not have any funding from the government for the betterment of the aboriginal people. These factors creates problems in the recruitment of the new staffs. Often there is a lack of funding for the new programs and other facilities that can promote the services to the new level. The location of the centeris also a problem that need to be addressed as they the location only targets the Nowray region for the services. It is not well spread due the government acknowledgement.
The south coast organization is a selfless non-profit organization. This organization mainly aims for the quality service for the aboriginal community. While researching I found that the organization approaches holistic ways to treat all the mental and physical health issues of the aboriginal. They targeted to educate the adults as well as the children to ensure and better physical and mental health. It provides directions for the better community and family relationship strength for the men and women who requires help.
I was attracted by the fact that the organization is building the confidence and self-esteem of the local aboriginal women as well as the men. It educates against the alcohol, drug addiction and the domestic violence that can ruin the total community wellbeing. Throughout the research, I found that the organization is really trying to focus on its strength, weaknesses, opportunities and threats to ensure a quality service for the aboriginal community.
There are issues and challenges that are faced by the organization on daily basis. These issues needed acknowledgement soon. These issues are:
- Funding issues.
- Locality issues.
- The resources
- Number of healthcare staffs
- Less reliance on healthcare clinics
Conclusion:
It can be concluded that the south coast aboriginal service is an independent and non-profit organization that provide services for the aboriginal people. The founder of the organization was mainly worried that the service providers from the outside were not aware of the cultural values of the aboriginal (McGough, Wynaden&Wright, 2018). Therefore, it was considered appropriate if the organization can include the local volunteers for the betterment of the community. This can lead to the solution of the unemployment of the aboriginals and the new staff can relate to the cultural values. The patients can be more comfortable if they find their own community people in the organization. The organization focused on the mental health as well as the physical health of the aboriginals. They educate the people with better solutions to be confident and to maintain their self-esteem.
Reference:
Cairney, S., Abbott, T., Quinn, S., Yamaguchi, J., Wilson, B., & Wakerman, J. (2017). Interplay wellbeing framework: a collaborative methodology ‘bringing together stories and numbers’ to quantify Aboriginal cultural values in remote Australia. International journal for equity in health, 16(1), 68. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12939-017-0563-5
Castellano, M. B. (2014). Ethics of Aboriginal Research1. Global bioethics and human rights: Contemporary issues, 273.
Contact | South Coast Medical Service Aboriginal Corporation. (2018). Retrieved from https://www.southcoastams.org.au/contact/
Hunt, L., Ramjan, L., McDonald, G., Koch, J., Baird, D., & Salamonson, Y. (2015). Nursing students’ perspectives of the health and healthcare issues of Australian indigenous people. Nurse education today, 35(3), 461-467. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nedt.2014.11.019
Lohoar, S., Butera, N., & Kennedy, E. (2014). Strengths of Australian Aboriginal cultural practices in family life and child rearing. Retrieved from Australian Institute of Family Studies. https://aifs.gov.au/cfca/sites/default/files/publication-documents/cfca25.pdf
McGough, S., Wynaden, D., & Wright, M. (2018). Experience of providing cultural safety in mental health to Aboriginal patients: A grounded theory study. International journal of mental health nursing, 27(1), 204-213. https://doi.org/10.1111/inm.12310
Raman, S., Ruston, S., Irwin, S., Tran, P., Hotton, P., & Thorne, S. (2017). Taking culture seriously: Can we improve the developmental health and well?being of Australian Aboriginal children in out?of?home care?. Child: care, health and development, 43(6), 899-905. https://doi.org/10.1111/cch.12488
Shah, C. P., & Reeves, A. (2015). The Aboriginal Cultural Safety Initiative: An innovative health sciences curriculum in Ontario colleges and universities. International Journal of Indigenous Health, 10(2), 117-131. Retrieved from https://journals.uvic.ca/index.php/ijih/article/view/14388
Silburn, K., Reich, H., & Anderson, I. (2016). A Global Snapshot of Indigenous and Tribal Peoples’ Health: The Lancet-Lowitja Institute Collaboration. A Global Snapshot of Indigenous and Tribal Peoples’ Health: The Lancet-Lowitja Institute Collaboration, vi. Retrieved from https://search.informit.com.au/documentSummary;dn=546572336923501;res=IELIND
South Coast Medical Service Aboriginal Corporation. (2018). About. [online] Available at: https://www.southcoastams.org.au/about/
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). Retrieve from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6068821/
Whiteside, M., MacLean, S., Callinan, S., Marshall, P., Nolan, S., & Tsey, K. (2018). Acceptability of an Aboriginal Wellbeing Intervention for Supporters of People Using Methamphetamines. Australian Social Work, 1-9. https://doi.org/10.1080/0312407X.2018.1473455
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