Indigenous Health Inequality In Australia

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 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.

The majority of health issues that the Aboriginal community faces are related directly and indirectly to social, economic, cultural and political areas. Infrastructure, housing, employment, income, environmental and education are connected to the individual and community based effects of health.

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

There has been some major improvement in the health and wellbeing of Indigenous people in the past years, there is still some health issues that remain a problem in the indigenous community which still increase the percentage of mortality and morbidity among the group. As of June 30, 2011, there was an estimated 669,900 Indigenous people across Australia which represent the 3% of total Australian population, where the majority of indigenous Australian live in metropolitan or regional and 8% lives in remote areas of Australia according to Australian Bureau of Statistics (2013). The death rates for indigenous population are much higher compare to non-indigenous population across all age group and largest contributory cause of death are circulatory diseases (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, 2011).

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.

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

Different ethnic backgrounds immigrate to Canada making it a very multicultural society. Immigrants coming to Canada have made it progress to a more multicultural society, making other nations believe that this is the case, however this does not include native societies that have been living in Canada for the longest period of time. The purpose of this paper is to analyze how Aboriginals live in Canada. This paper argues that aboriginals in Canada are not treated with the same equality as non-aboriginals livening in Canada, even though Canada is known as a multicultural society. By studying the history of Aboriginal settlement in Canada

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

Indigenous people of the Australia, New Zealand, USA, and Canada suffer the high mortality compare to the overall population. Amongst them Australian aboriginals suffer highest disparity in life expectancy. Australia’s 5,17,200 Aboriginals make up 2.5% of population and they are the most disadvantaged group. Drug abuse, alcoholism, and infant mortality rates are high in the aboriginals compare to the other people. They also suffer from diseases associated with the poor living condition. Diabetes and Heart diseases are thrice and twice more common respectively in aboriginals between age of 35 to 45 compare to other population. Eliminate trachoma by 2020 was launched by the World health organization (WHO) in 1998. Blinding trachoma occurs still in 54 countries and Australia is the only developed country in that list. Large disparity exists in aboriginals for diabetes mortality. When Indigenous mortality rates were compared with non-indigenous mortality rates in Australia, Aboriginal

Despite living in a time of formal equality, Indigenous Australian youth still face many challenges growing up in a contemporary Australian society. Indigenous youth are impacted by inequalities, due to marginalisation, stereotypes and pressures from Western cultures. The films 'Black Chicks Talking' ('BCT') and 'Yolngu Boy' are used as examples, touching on the search of identity and Indigenous morals and beliefs. This essay explores the ways in which Indigenous youth are affected, connected and interdependent to both a dominant and Indigenous culture. Marginalisation, is a social phenomenon by which a minority or sub-group is excluded, and their needs or desires ignored (Businessdictionary,2018).

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

This study examined the health inequalities among different socio-economic groups from 2004 to 2014 among Australians whose age ranging from 20 to 65 years old. According to the study, the health risk factor behaviour; smoking by sex results indicated that males smoking were higher than females during the study period. The highest rate of smoking were reported among males in 2004. Smoking status by education groups suggested that the highest rate of smoking were accounted in year 12 or below group in all three years, while university degree holders accounted for the least group. The different income groups showed that the poorest people smoking percentage were higher compared to the richest and the percentage had increased when it was moving

There is an obvious disadvantage towards Indigenous individuals living in Australia. This is a highly prevalent issue facing modern Australia, and to be fully understood it is important to incorporate sociological perspectives. Sociology begins with individuals’ experiences in order to explore the collective themes and patterns of human behaviour that shape our society and the distribution of health within it (Willis, 1993). The application of the sociological imagination, including cultural, historical, social and structural factors assist in forming our understanding on the disadvantage of Indigenous Australians, especially surrounding concepts of Aboriginal health and Illness. The ‘sociological imagination’ asserts that people do not exist in isolation but within a larger social network (Willis,