Social Determinants In Australia

Thank you for taking time to read my letter. As a nursing student of University of Technology Sydney, I studied contemporary indigenous subject this semester. In this letter I want to illustrate 3 main social determinants of health that impact indigenous Australian health which I found and analysed during my recently study. And also offer some suggestion that could help the government improve aboriginal Australian mental health conditions in the future.

The healthcare improvement of aboriginal population in countries like Australia has been a challenging issue in front of both government and non-government healthcare organizations. Significant gap is present between the government legislations and policies regarding the health and social wellbeing between the native Australian and indigenous communities. It is a concern of human rights among the indigenous people of Australia and the matter has been a topic of debate in the committee meeting of United Nations (Bonvillain, 2016). Their access to healthcare is very low, lack of basics for daily living, lack of schools. The disadvantages and inequalities among the indigenous population has been demonstrated in Cassie’s case

For the last 200 years Indigenous people have been victims of discrimination, prejudice and disadvantage. Poor education, poor living conditions and general poverty are still overwhelming issues for a large percentage of our people and we remain ‘as a group, the most poverty stricken sector of the working class’ in Australia (Cuthoys 1983).

The Assimilation policy (1961) has impacted on Indigenous Australians within their physical and mental state and identity present in today’s society. Australia is commonly considered to be free and fair in their culturally diverse societies, but when the Indigenous population is closer looked into, it is clear that from a social and economical view their health needs are disadvantaged compared to non-Indigenous equals. In relation to this, the present Indigenous health is being impacted by disadvantages of education, employment, income and health status. Even urban Indigenous residents are being affected just as much as those residing in remote and rural areas of Australia.

“Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander people have a greater amount of disadvantage and significantly more health problems than the non-Aboriginal & Torres strait Islander population in Australia”

How we define health differs to how Indigenous Australians define health. The World Health Organisation defines health as “not only the absence of infirmity and disease but also a state of physical, mental and social well-being” (WHO, 1946) However, the National Aboriginal Health Strategy Working Party (1989)

The poor health position of Indigenous Australians is a contemporary reflection of their historical treatment as Australia’s traditional owners. This treatment has led to Indigenous Australians experiencing social disadvantages, significantly low socio-economic status, dispossession, poverty and powerlessness as a direct result of the institutionalised racism inherent in contemporary Australian society.

C. (2009). Is ‘Close the Gap useful approach to improving the health and wellbeing of Indigenous Australians?. Australian Review of Public Affairs, 9(2), 1-13.

This paper will examine the healthcare of Indigenous Australian peoples compared to non-indigenous Australians. The life expectancy gaps between the two are a cause for alarm when statistics show Indigenous Australian peoples die on average 17 years earlier than non-indigenous Australians (Dick 2017). This paper will examine the social determinants of health to explore these factors and what interventions are in place to improve health status and life expectancy gaps for equality. The Federal Government has seen the implementation of the Northern Territory Intervention and the Closing the Gap Initiative. This essay will examine these two strategies and discuss the effectiveness of both policies. It will explain the differences, similarities and look at the success so far to

What might explain these statistics, or at least serve as correlations, are the determinants of health. If the reader is not familiar with the determinants of health, the World Health Organisation (WHO) provides an explanation of them. In essence, these health determinants are factors that have significant impact upon one’s health. The main determinants for health are: socioeconomic status, where the rich and upper classes tend to be healthier; education, where low education is linked to stress, lower self-esteem and poorer health choices; environment, where purer air, cleaner water, healthier workplaces and better housing contribute to being healthier; health services, where access to services and proper equipment all contribute to health; as well as gender, genetics, culture and social behaviour (WHO, 2016). As there are so health determinants, where essays can be written on one alone, it is not within the scope of this essay to critically analyse each determinant for Indigenous Australians. With this in mind, the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (2014) documents an extensive list of data for Indigenous health, most of which discusses issues which are out-of-scope for this analysis. What is relevant, however, is outlined next. Across the board, in 2011, the Indigenous population was younger than the non-Indigenous population due to high fertility and mortality rates with those

The ‘Close the Gap’ campaign is a health promotion initiative that focuses on the lifestyle and decisions of indigenous people in Australia as well as explaining how the Australian government needs to focus on closing the gap of poor health between indigenous and non-indigenous Australians. Through the ‘Close the Gap’ campaign it advocates the five action areas of the Ottawa Charter, which are of the following:

The inequalities in today’s indigenous communities are still strongly evident. Heard, Khoo & Birrell (2009), argued that while there has been an attempt in narrowing the gap between Indigenous and non Indigenous Australians, a barrier still exists in appropriate health care reaching indigenous people. The Indigenous people believe, health is more than the individual, it is

Colonialism in Australia places a detrimental threat to the health of Indigenous Australians. Inherent in colonialism were scientific racisms, institutional racism and structural violence. These factors continues to persist in the fabric of Australian society today and limits the life chances of Indigenous Australians. This essay illuminates colonialism as a major contributor to the social marginalisation and low socioeconomic status experienced by indigenous Australian. An analysis of Aboriginal infant mortality rate, a health indicator highlights the difference between biomedical and sociological approach and the embedded negative impact of social marginalisation and low socioeconomic status on the health of Indigenous Australians. The

Equity of outcomes is affected not only by quality of care provided but also by environmental factors. One of the best example is equity of outcomes is the health status of our Aboriginal & Torres strait Islander population is appalling and need major policy attention. Factor Affecting health status in not going to remedied by action in health sector, as issue of dignity, identity and justice should be strategy to improve their health status. Reconciliation is one of the key element need for further progress (Jackson, L.R., & Ward, J.E., 1999).

Improving the health status within the Aboriginal communities is a challenge for governments in Australia. Despite some small improvements over the past couple of decades, Indigenous Australians continue to demonstrate the lowest levels of health indicators and outcomes in the country. During 2005 - 2007, Indigenous males and females experienced a life expectancy gap of 11.5 years and 9.7 years respectively, compared to the rest of the Australian population (1). High rates of chronic disease remain as a crucial feature of the Indigenous disease burden, with chronic diseases being responsible for 64% of the total disease burden for Indigenous Australians in 2015 (2).