Essay: Indigenous Health

As a people, our rate of chronic disease is still 2.5 times higher than that of other Australians, and Indigenous people in this country die 15 to 20 years younger than those in mainstream Australia. More than half of

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 health standards are so low today that all most half aboriginal men and a third of the women die before they are 45. Aboriginal people can expect to live 20 years less than non-indigenous Australians. Aboriginals generally suffer from more health problem and are more likely to suffer from diabetes, liver disease and glaucoma. The causes of their poor health and low life expectancy are poverty, poor nutrition, poor housing, dispossession of their traditional land, low education level, high unemployment, drug and substance use, unsafe sex, limited health care and diseases.

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 status of Indigenous health in contemporary Australia is a result of historic factors as well as contemporary socio-economic issues” (Hampton & Toombs, 2013, p. 1).

Close the life expectancy gap between indigenous and non-indigenous Australians by 2030: This target is not on track because still, the life expectancy of indigenous people is 10 years less than non-indigenous people (PM&C,

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

As health professionals, we must look beyond individual attributes of Indigenous Australians to gain a greater understanding and a possible explanation of why there are such high rates of ill health issues such as alcoholism, depression, abuse, shorter life expectancy and higher prevalence of diseases including diabetes, heart disease and obesity in our indigenous population. Looking at just the individual aspects and the biomedical health model, we don’t get the context of Aboriginal health. This is why we need to explore in further detail what events could have created such inequities in Aboriginal health. Other details that we should consider are the historical and cultural factors such as, ‘terra nullius’, dispossession and social

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

     Many of the inequalities in the health of the Aboriginal people can be attributed to the

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

The 2014 AIHW report on ‘Aboriginal health and welfare emphasizes that the social determinants mentioned above contribute to their poor maintaining of healthy lifestyle choices. For example they have high rates of tobacco use, alcohol consumption, illicit drug use, overweight and obesity, poor nutrition, physical inactivity, exposure to violence and poor housing conditions all of which exemplify the destructive impact that determinants of inequity have in relation to their poor standards of health and living. Data from a number of sources indicate that across a range of socioeconomic and health related indicators the Indigenous population is disadvantaged. Evidence suggests the gaps in access to primary health care and specialist services persist, for geographical, social and cultural reasons, mainstream services are not always accessible to, or are the most appropriate provider of health care for, Indigenous Australians. Due to aboriginals cultural background they may experience difficulty in accessing health facilities and services due to a number of reasons such as cultural beliefs about medical treatment or language difficulty due to English being their 2nd language.

In Australia, the health of indigenous peoples has been a long-standing concern for the government and the United Nations (U.N.) (Calma, 2007). Data from The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) indicates that indigenous Australians continue to live in conditions of enormous social and economic disadvantages which is reflected in the fact that there is gap in the life expectancy between Indigenous and non-indigenous a 17-year

As stated in the 2015 report ‘The health and welfare of Australia’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people’, Indigenous Australians were twice as likely as non-Indigenous Australians to have severe or profound disability and their life expectancies were significantly lower in 2010-2012. The life expectancy was 69.1 years for Indigenous males, which is 10.6 years lower than for non-Indigenous males (79.7 years) and 73.7 years for Indigenous females, which is 9.5 years lower than for non-Indigenous females (83.1 years). In 2014, the leading causes of death for Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islanders were diseases of the circulatory system, cancer, diabetes, respiratory diseases, diseases of the liver, external causes, such as accidents and self harm, and infant mortality (Australian Bureau of Statistics 2016). Indigenous Australians and Torres Strait Islanders suffer from a disadvantage for many reasons, some of them being due to their historical legacy and generational transfer of disadvantage, apathy and persistent discrimination shown by non-Indigenous Australians and Government policies, lack of funding and lack of services. As a result of lack of services, such as schools and hospitals, many Indigenous Australians fail to understand the risk factors

The Aboriginals also known as the Indigenous people are the first people’s inhabitants of mainland Australia (WIKIPEDIA). Historically, Aboriginals enjoyed better health before any invasions from non-Indigenous peoples. They didn’t suffer from any major illnesses though they did have other type of health issues, but their life was happier and content. Everything started to change after 1788 when non-Indigenous people introduced illnesses where the mortality rate of Aboriginals population started to increase, and this affected their life and the community (http://www.healthinfonet.ecu.edu.au/health-facts/overviews/the-context-of-indigenous-health). There are various factors that contribute to the poor health status of Indigenous people, and this is part of the social determinants of health which should been seen in a broader context (1)(2). Factors such as employment, income, stress, gender, education, behavioral aspects, working and living conditions, social networks and support, are interrelated and complex, and are part of the social