Health Disadvantages Indigenous Australians

Australia is one of the world’s most culturally diverse societies and it is commonly assumed that the country offers free and fair opportunities to all its inhabitants. However, on close observation it is clearly evident that the country’s indigenous population is at a social and economic disadvantage when compared to their non-indigenous counterparts and as a consequence the present aboriginal health is in a grave situation.

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

The health of Aboriginal people in Canada is both a tragedy and a crisis (Aboriginal Affairs and North Development Canada, 2010). Aboriginals have a higher rate of death among aboriginal babies, twice the national average, higher rate of Infectious diseases example gastrointestinal infections to tuberculosis, and chronic and degenerative diseases such as cancer and heart disease are affecting more aboriginal people than they once did (AANDC, 2010). Availability of important medical facility is not enough to accommodate the growing medical needs of Aboriginals. A socioeconomic and cultural issue also hinders the access of aboriginals to access health care in the community.

The World Health Organization (WHO) states that social determinates of health are the conditions in which people are born, grow, live, work and age. These are shaped by a number of factors such as; money, power, and resources. The social determinants of health are mostly responsible for the inequalities in health status (WHO, 2017). Moreover, an indigenous viewpoint can add some specific considerations of social determinants for the first Australians which include; social class; poverty; education; training; housing; history of health; the justice system and incarceration; employment; marginalisation and racism; powerlessness; income; family separation; land and reconciliation; and control over their own health. Furthermore, due to the implications

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

According to the 2011 census, there were 548,370 Indigenous people living in Australia making up 2.5% of the Australian population. It is known that many health inequalities occur between the indigenous and non-indigenous population, with indigenous people being more likely to experience a reduced quality of life. The differences between the health of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and the broader Australian population occur for a number of different reasons including differing levels of education, geographical location and genetics. Indigenous Australians have lower life expectancy than non-Indigenous Australians. In 2007 the gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous life expectancy was 11.5 years for males and 9.7 years for females.

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

Australia is considered one of the safest and best countries to live (OECD, 2016). For instance, Australia exhibits higher life expectancies (80.3 years for males and 84.5 years for females), lower mortality rates (5.4 per 1000 live births), high-quality education and health practices and many employment opportunities (ABS, 2015). However, there are wide disparities in life expectancy, mortality rates, heath outcomes, education and employment for indigenous people (Holland, 2014).For example, life expectancy at birth for indigenous population is 10.6 years lower than that of the non-indigenous male population and 9.5 years for females (ABS, 2015). The mortality rate for the indigenous

Health risk increased with unemployment. There is evident that the health risk is higher in areas where unemployment is common. Stable and secure work improves to individual’s job satisfaction, well-being and health. Deteriorate illness and premature death caused by higher unemployment (Wilkinson & Marmot 2003). A number of research form many foreign countries shows individuals and their families face comparatively high risk of premature death (Wilkinson & Marmot 2003). Australia indigenous peoples accounted for 2.4% of the Australian population, the impact of factors such as unemployment, imprisonment, low-income, eligible housing, lead them to life expectancy 9-12 years less than other Australian population(Cunningham & Paradies 2013).

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 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).

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).

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

It is well-known that the health issue of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people has been constantly discussed and analysed up to the present. Indigenous Australian experience poorer health outcome compare to other population in Australian, and also they experienced significantly higher rates of mental illness within their communities, and the suicide rate approximately more than double higher than for the general population (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare,2009). The purpose of this essay is to discuss the factor that associated with higher rate of mental illness and suicide behavior regard to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, the concept of cultural, social and emotional well-being that triggers this phenomenon.

Canada’s Aboriginal people have been experiencing adverse health outcomes that have been resonating across generations. As a result, Aboriginals are disproportionately suffering more from disabilities, diseases and high rates of mortality than other Canadians. The high rates of HIV, depression and chronic diseases among Aboriginals have been linked to experiences of poverty, unemployment, poor living conditions, and the loss of community ties. Although Aboriginal communities are suffering from a wide variety of health issue, Canadian society has been unable to find adequate solutions. My understanding is that as a society we lack the ability to find suitable solutions because we do not understand the correlations between various socio-economic factors and poor health.