Health Inequities Of Indigenous People

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.

Although the health of some Aboriginal peoples is gradually improving, it is generally still poorer than the health of non-Aboriginal peoples living in Ontario. The Aboriginal Peoples Survey indicates that the most commonly reported chronic health conditions for Aboriginal peoples in Ontario over 15 years of age and living off reserve are: arthritis or rheumatism, high blood pressure, asthma, stomach problems, diabetes, and heart problems. (Noelle Spotton. 2001, page. 20)

Among the different ethnic and socioeconomic groups, each is associated with health disadvantages. While some have more advantages than others, the most disadvantaged groups are among the Blacks and Native Americans. These two groups have the highest rates of several health disparities. The two groups, Blacks, and Native Americans have the highest rates in infant mortality and cardiovascular disease. Research has shown several key risk factors that are associated with these high rates. Some include poor environment, lack of access to care, physical inactivity, tobacco use, and high blood pressure. These health disparities and disadvantages are what causes Blacks and Native Americans to have higher mortality rates.

Inequality in health is one of the most controversial topics within Australian Health Care. Inequality in relation to health is defined as being “differences in health status or in the distribution of health determinants between different population groups” (World Health Organization, 2012). Within Australia inequality affects a wide range of population groups; however Indigenous Australians are most widely affected therefore this paper will focus on how inequality has impacted their health. Research shows that Australia’s Indigenous people suffer from a multitude of social and economic inequalities such as inadequate access to nutritious food and health care, being socially and

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.

Carson, B., Dunbar, T., Chenhall, R. D., & Bailie, R. (2007). Social determinants of Indigenous health. Allen & Unwin.

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

“Structural inequities produces suffering and death as often as direct violence does, though the damage is slower, more subtle, more common and more difficult to repair” (Indigenous politics, 2005). The overt difference in health between aboriginal and non-aboriginal

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

Health is known as a state where an individual is socially, mentally and emotionally stable without the presence of any illness, disease or infirmity (Carson, 2007). Jenny, an indigenous woman is 34 weeks pregnant, she has been complaining about her abdominal pains and after seeing the flying doctor, she was asked to fly back with him as she might be in an early labour. Jenny is concerned about her family; she wonders how they will manage without her. Her mother-in-law lives with her sister-in-law and she wonders if she will be able to come and help as her mother has a diabetic leg ulcer and needs treatment so cannot travel. This essay will discuss about the health issues before colonization and after colonization, Jenny’s

Queensland is home to just over 30 per cent of Australia’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, equalling to a total 4 per cent of the state’s population1. Over the last decade, cardiovascular disease among the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities has slightly decreased2, although documented cardiovascular diseases still remain five times higher than those of non-Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander descent1,3. Cardiovascular diseases are more than often encouraged by a large variety of pre-existing illnesses1 such as obesity, renal diseases, diabetes and hypertension4, which are common among indigenous communities4. Early detection is key, as the majority of health problems indigenous communities are undergoing are treatable1,

The substance of this paper will be to discuss the discourse regarding the inequalities facing aboriginal peoples living on reserves in the northwestern corner of Ontario. Inequality is not naturally occurring; poverty is not an innate cultural trait that accumulates at the feet of the marginalized (Schick & St.Denis, 2005, p.304). Stephens, Nettleton and Porter stated in the Lancet (2005) “Aboriginal people in Canada suffer enormous inequalities in health and in accessibility to health

For thousands of years Indigenous peoples have been the guardians of our environment and its medicines. Their knowledge has been built on a holistic communal view of humanity, society, health and its links to the ecosystem. Sadly enough widely reported evidence shows that they are among the most marginalised and disadvantaged people within many nations. Often their environment was destroyed, land appropriated and they have the worst health indicators(1). The World Health Organisation argues that their crisis situation is: ‘most clearly reflected in the health status of indigenous peoples around the world, with disparities between the health status of indigenous peoples and non-indigenous peoples within the same country’(2). This accounts

President Truman once said that international development is about relieving the suffering of people. It has for goal to make people’s lives better, especially focusing on the difficult lives of the population of developing countries, minorities, children, and women. It’s a multidisciplinary discipline , with multiple actors such as countries, NGOs and international organization like the United Nations. Unfortunately, international development is a hard and long process, and it has many obstacles along the way: A recurrent problem is social disparities. Social inequalities can be found everywhere, in every sphere of society, at a local and at an international level. First of all, gender inequality is an enormous challenge: 1.2 billion of people in the world are living in extreme poverty, and 70% of this number are women. The gap between women’s condition of living and men’s is undeniable. Moreover, some women suffer from a double burden: Being a minority and a woman. Indigenous population have, since the European colonization, being discriminated in many ways. We will focus on this paper on the discrimination over indigenous people and the double-burden of aboriginal women, then study the empirical case of health for indigenous women and how is this a development issue. We will first study how indigenous people and above all aboriginal women