Extended Leave Case Study

This case had several ethical, legal and professional ramifications, including aspects of cultural differences between non-indigenous and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander clients. There is a requirement for counsellors to actively understand the diverse cultural backgrounds, and differences in behaviour of their clients; stated in; The Australian Counselling Association (ACA-Au., 2008); Code of Conduct (2, 2.1), American Counselling Association (ACA, US, 2005), Code of Ethics (A.2c; B.1a; c.2a) and Education Queensland (EQ) Code of Conduct (1994) 2.1.1, and Education Queensland (EQ) (2008) Ethical Code, and Watson, Herlihy & Pierce, 2006.

Aboriginal people have an affinity connection with the land and spirits. The land owns the Aboriginal people, their land is their identity (Korff, 2015, P. 1). What would happen if you took them away from their land? How do you think they felt when mothers had their children torn out of their arms to be placed in foreign households (Kendal, 1995 P. 1). What then becomes of one’s identity when bereaved from your own culture, inflicted to act upon new customs and laws. The pain of identification loss and disconnection with the spirit of the land is a main cause in Aboriginal mental wellbeing. Statistics show Indigenous are more prone to suffrage in physical and mental health (Australian Bureau of Statistics [ABS], 2012-13

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.

If it is determined that an employee is not eligible for leave, but there is sufficient medical certification, any leave already taken will be reclassified as sick leave in accordance with Merit Rule 9 and is subject to department attendance policies. If an employee fails to provide sufficient non-medical certification, the conditional leave will be reclassified as unscheduled vacation leave and will be subject to the Merit Rules and department leave policies. Fire Rescue employees covered by the IAFF will be required to comply with existing departmental leave policies and the applicable collective bargaining agreement.

After careful consideration, June monthly sit-downs will be scheduled sometime in early July. Rather than conduct the sit-downs before the start of my annual leave, I decided to solicit feedback from various sources regarding your performance, then apply it to your monthly rating. This, I find to be in the best interest of fairness; me, taking personal leave should not preclude you from earning the highest performance rating applicable.

Throughout this unit I learned about the cultural loss that Indigenous Australians suffered, which lead to poor health outcomes along with poor social, emotional and mental wellbeing amongst Indigenous Australian population. Culture is part of our identity, which makes us who we are. Therefore culture is an important aspect of each individual. Culture is a unique way to make sense of the world; it is both material and ideological (Eckermann et al., 2010). Culture impacts all part of life including; health, illness and health care. It is important for health professionals to understand and work with the culture of Indigenous Australians to create a good health outcome. Through stolen generation, colonisation and the loss of land, language and community, the culture of Indigenous Australians faded. At the start of this unit, I wasn’t aware of all the damage that was done to Indigenous Australians and their community. I understand more about my culture as well as culture security and Aboriginal culture. I can understand what it feels to be separated from family and it feels as though some part of you is missing but to be separated from everything that is familiar and to be told that no one wants you is terrible. Now at the end of this unit, I still don’t fully understand the extend of the damage that has been made nor do I entirely understand what Indigenous Australians suffered and are still suffering but I do understand that this can be changed and that I can make a

With the data presented in this paper, it is clearly demonstrating that the Indigenous Australian continue to experience major disadvantage on health and social-emotional well being outcomes than other Non-Indigenous Australian. The cultural factor and the effects of unfairly social determinants of health are clearly contribute in poor physical and psychological health experienced by numerous Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. It is important for both health organisation and individual health professional delivery a culture safety care, help Indigenous people to improve the capacity of the mental health workforce, and working together with them to closing the gap between Indigenous and other Australian population.

To ensure cultural safety and professional relationships with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people I will need to “create an environment that is physically, mentally, spiritually and emotionally safe for people” where they are not judged for whom they are or how they live (Cultural Safety, n.d). I need to ensure that professional relationships in the workplace are based on shared respect, shared knowledge and experience, tolerance of diversity and shared understanding of cultural safety. I need to have an open mind. I need to be knowledgeable and professional at all times. Respect has to be earned. I need to ensure that I respect and behave in a sensitive manner towards Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, in order to get their

There were no Indigenous staff members employed by the organisation and no cultural competence training, even though our clients were multicultural, some of whom where Indigenous Australians. The training involved in becoming an aged care worker does cover some aspects of cultural sensitivity. However, the organisation provided little to no background information to staff members about their clients prior to visits. I remember feeling completely unprepared for some visits and think this is a prime example of a service greatly in need of cultural guidance. Furthermore, the care worker is supposed to be providing person-centered care with minimal disruption to the service users regular daily life. This is very difficult with a lack of information and could easily create circumstances of distress and discomfort for service users who are already feeling

This report is designed to outline and explain the benefits to both indigenous Australians and healthcare workers (specifically Radiographers) of providing culturally competent care. In radiography, like all healthcare settings culturally competent care is essential for patient comfort and experience. To provide culturally competent care one must first understand the history of the Indigenous Australians health and factors that have had an influence on it. Health care workers must be educated to have an understanding of the culture and beliefs of the indigenous Australians and Torres Strait islander population and how they may differ from European Australians. Understanding how to effectively communicate with Indigenous Australians and avoid unintentional offence creates ease and comfort for both the healthcare workers and Indigenous Australians.

To avoid this situation a visual holiday schedule could be used. The manager could write down the weeks of approved leave for each staff member within the next two months (the visual board would have a picture of each staff member on it, the month of leave and the number of days or number of weeks). To ensure that the Aboriginal worker knows when her leave starts and ends the manager has to make sure to verbally

I feel JSH should offer paid time off, the 401 (k) plan, and health insurance to its employees. They should provide these benefits, but do so in a way that fits their organization.

Within every organization there is some kind of pay plan or salary rates and plans for which employees fall within what grades. As well as those salary figures, many of the bigger companies have instituted bonus plans or incentives for their employees after a being with the company for a certain amount of time. These are things that are pretty common to us in society today. With that, today throughout this short paper I would like to take a moment to highlight was broad banding is, share the bonus system within the King Company and highlight FMLA versus the King companies leave policies. Then I will discuss King’s time off policy. Finally I will briefly discuss this issues with one of the employee who was mistakenly

When an Indigenous community member dies, the community follow traditional death ceremonies or ‘sorry business.’

Culture Shock or Cultural Adaptation is a major issue facing the non-Indigenous staff, who are working in ATSI community and Aboriginal children who are attending a non -indigenous service. We see it in possible symptoms like desiring to leave or feeling the need to indulge or feeling tired and unreasonably strong feelings of anger and sadness, and depression may result from any smallest and silliest of things (Culture shock) .