Understanding Health: Victorian Government's Strategic Directives for Aboriginal Health

This report focuses on the Victorian government’s strategic directives for the health of Aboriginal people living in Victoria over the next decade. It provides an overview of the outlined vision and set objectives for improving Aboriginal health.

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Understanding Health
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Understanding Health
Introduction
This report focuses on the Victorian government’s strategic directives for the health of
Aboriginal people living in Victoria over the next decade. The government together with other
service providers is committed to improving the Aboriginal community health through the health
department.
It provides an overview of the outlined vision and set objectives for improving Aboriginal health.
There has been a big gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians as reaffirmed by
the National Indigenous reform agreement (NIRA) in 2008(Stewart, Hardcastle and Zelinsky,
2014).
The following at-risk – groups that are targeted are indigenous pregnant women, young and
vulnerable children and ageing or old people of the Aboriginal community. Three social
determinants of health that include education achievement, employment, and economic
development will then be critically analyzed.
Overall Plan Description
The overarching goal of this plan shall focus on;
 To increase the life expectancy of the Indigenous people of Australia.
 To improve health outcomes of the Aboriginal people and the general population.
 To make health services accessible to the Indigenous people.

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The government has six key priorities that focus on key stages of life as well as continuous
healthcare. These priorities include:
 a healthy start to life,
 a healthy childhood,
 a healthy transition to adulthood,
 caring for older people,
 addressing risk factors and
 Managing illness better with effective health services.
The government is determined to increase the health of Indigenous people. This plan
acknowledges that determinants of health contribute to the broader wellbeing of the Aboriginal
people in their good physical and mental health.
Determinants of health such as educational achievement, employment, social and community
context and economic development are key issues targeted by the Victorian government together
with Victoria’s Aboriginal communities, service providers, other departments, the
Commonwealth, professional bodies and research organizations. They all focus to ensure that
Aboriginal health becomes everyone’s responsibility (Lopuszanska-Dawid, 2018).
Priority Area: A healthy beginning to life.
It’s an indication of good health throughout life for the Victoria’s young and rapidly growing
Aboriginal population. The VIAF sets out the Victorian Government’s goals to significantly
reduce the rate of Aboriginal perinatal mortality in Victoria as it contributes to lower life
expectancy.

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Low birth weight babies (2,500 grams)are very risky to poor health, disability, and early death.
Such babies at their old age will develop diseases such as cardiac arrest, diabetes, and kidney
failure. Breastfeeding among indigenous mothers iskey to a healthy start to life(Kopasker,
Montagna and Bender, 2018). It ensures that babies at old age do not suffer from such diseases
as mentioned above.
Low – birth weight and perinatal mortality may be triggered by factors such as socioeconomic
disadvantage, poor nutrition, poor oral health, smoking, alcohol intake, and poor health during
pregnancy. The VIAF ensures that the government educates pregnant mothers about such risks
and sets goals to reduce the rate of smoking in pregnancy by mothers of Aboriginal babies (Naka
and Anastassiadou, 2011).
In summary, a healthy beginning to life can be achieved by the following:
 mothers should be encouraged to visit health facilities early during pregnancy.
 there should be programs that supports positive lifestyle behavior of young children and
pregnant mothers.
 creating relationships between programs and initiatives across departments

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Three health determinants
The determinants of health include the following factors; economic stability/development,
education achievement, social and community context.
1. Education achievement
Education is the process of teaching and learning, acquisition of knowledge and skills, values
culture and beliefs. Education will play a key role in the early life of a child. It fosters in
embracing the right attitude to indigenous pregnant mothers as well as nonindigenous mothers.
Appropriate stimulation and positive early experiences during early stages of the Aboriginal
people will have a great impact on their cognitive, emotional and psychomotor skills that will
help them deal with health issues appropriately(Patil, 2014). The Victorian government should
focus on education to uplift the livelihood of the Aboriginal people in order to fight health
problems they do face in Victoria.
One of the best ways to uplift the health of Indigenous people is to focus on evidence-based
policies in education(Katikireddi, 2016). This will lift the health of the next generation.
Education will also help to address the achievement gap between Aboriginal people and non-
Aboriginals because they will be more economically secure.
VIAF and other concerned stakeholders and professionals should pay attention toeducation and
child care programs to minimize the risk factors of inequality among people. They should take
actions to overcome problems related to prenatal mortality, low birth weight through
discouraging alcohol consumption and smoking and advocating for the right breastfeeding within
the first six months among the Aboriginal people.

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2. Economic Development
Economy is associated with producing, distributing and consuming of goods and services. A
healthy population is a growing population as they determine the extent to which potential labor services
can be embodied effectively in the population (Kamp Dush, Schmeer, and Taylor, 2013). For the
Aboriginal people to develop economically, they should have an active and healthy population of mostly
the young. Old people sometimes tend to lower the economy of a given country because they can’t work
instead they should be taken care of.
Good policymaking by the Victorian government such as increasing levies on cigarette sales can
uplift the health of her people that smoke. The government should put in place safety Acts in
roads to reduce mortality rates through road accidents leading to a healthy growing economy of
Aboriginal population (De Viggiani, 2007).
Income and social status will determine the health of people. It's attributed by a fact that increase
in income and social status are direct ricket to better health. The Victorian government should try
her best to minimize the difference between the richest and poorest people in order to have
healthy Aboriginal.
Technological progressive activities in which innovations are involved permits sporadic
productivity of a nation, and hence the Aboriginal people will all be involved in production
where they earn wages that will help to improve their health standards in return increasing
country’s GDP(Nayebpour and Koizumi, 2018). The government will therefore not spend on
treating the ever sick population.
3. Social and Community Context

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We look at the social well being of Aboriginal people and in this context, good help from
families, friends, and communities is associated to better health. The risk - groups (the
indigenous pregnant women and children) will get support in terms of advice, the food they eat
and entertainment leading to healthy Victorian people.
The government should have structured mechanisms that would reduce cases of outdated
cultures and traditional practices among the Aboriginal people that affect their health. There
should be policies or acts that both the Indigenous and non-Indigenous people adhere to in order
to improve their health.
The Victorian government should focus on a healthy physical environment. The risk targeted
groups should have safe water to drink, clean air free of pollutants, healthy workplaces and safe
houses. The Aboriginal people should access and use hospitals efficiently in order to better their
health.
Conclusion
This report has briefly discussed the health of the Aboriginal people of Victoria State in
Australia. It has gathered evidence from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW)
about the Indigenous people’s health. It has also discussed factors such as smoking, alcohol
consumption and poor diet that lead to high prenatal mortality and low birth weight among the
vulnerable indigenous women of the Aboriginal community.
The report has looked at a healthy beginning to life as one of the six key priorities that focus on
key stages of life. It has discussed mitigation measures that the Victorian Government should
focus on to ensure a healthy community.

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The report has outlined three determinants of health i.e. educational achievement, economic
development and social and community context.
In summary, the Victorian government should focus on lifting the livelihood of the Aboriginal
people, reduce the health gap that is currently existing between the Aboriginal and non-
Aboriginal people. Empowerment through education and economic development will help to
improve the health status of Aboriginal people especially the targeted group of indigenous
pregnant women and young children.

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