Understanding the Health of Aboriginal People

This article discusses the Koolin Balit plan for Aboriginal health in Victoria, Australia. It focuses on the health problems of the indigenous people and aims to provide better education and health facilities for the Aboriginals within the next ten years. The article also discusses the three social determinants of health affecting Aboriginal mothers and babies. The policy is trying to provide better health services and care services to these poor people and it is showing better results day by day.

Running head: UNDERSTANDING THE HEALTH OF ABORIGINAL PEOPLE
UNDERSTANDING THE HEALTH OF ABORIGINAL PEOPLE
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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UNDERSTANDING THE HEALTH OF ABORIGINAL PEOPLE
Executive summary:
This article aims to provide a proper structure of the Koolin Balit: Victorian Government
strategic directions for Aboriginal health 2012–2022. The report offers proper informations
about the health problems of the indigenous people. The policy aims for better education and
health facilities for the Aboriginals within the next ten years. Koolin balit means ‘healthy
people'. Victoria Aboriginal population is mainly young, and it is growing day by day. The
policy ensures a great start in their life at the same time it is also providing proper care for the
old people and education for young people to provide them with a healthy transition. The
article concludes that the policy is trying endlessly to provide better health services and care
services to these poor people and it is showing better results day by day.

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Table of Contents
Introduction:...............................................................................................................................3
Discussion:.................................................................................................................................3
Koolin Balit: Victorian Government strategic directions for Aboriginal health 2012–2022:3
The main priority area of Koolin Balit: Victorian Government strategic directions for
Aboriginal health 2012–2022:................................................................................................4
Discussion of three relevant chosen social determinant of health:........................................5
Conclusion:................................................................................................................................8
References:.................................................................................................................................9

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UNDERSTANDING THE HEALTH OF ABORIGINAL PEOPLE
Introduction:
The following article will focus on the Koolin Balit outline by the Victoria
Government that is designated for the Aboriginal health in the Victorian aboriginals for the
next ten years. It has six primary targets that can help in the improvisation of the Aboriginal
health. Australian government targets endlessly to close the gap between the Aboriginals and
the non-aboriginals. Prime objectives of the act are to terminate the factor that is influencing
the death of the children under the age of five. Besides, it is also targeting to focus on the
betterment of the education and employment outcome among the aboriginal children. This
policy mainly focuses on the Aboriginal Victorians, and the three social determinants of this
policy are education; unemployment and job security and early childhood development. The
following paragraphs will explain about the Koolin Balit: Victorian Government strategic
directions for Aboriginal health 2012–2022 in detail. In addition, the article will also focus on
the relevant three other policies that helping in the health betterment of the Aboriginal people
(Mitrou et al. 2014).
Discussion:
Koolin Balit: Victorian Government strategic directions for Aboriginal health
2012–2022:
The Koolin Balit plan is a strategy of the Australian Victorian government to ensure
the betterment of the Victoria Aboriginal for the next ten years. The minister of health first
introduced it at the aboriginal health conference of May 2012. The evaluation of the plan will
occur in May 2022 (Www2.health.vic.gov.au, 2018). This plan targets the young generation
as its strategy is the fresh start of the young generation of the Aboriginals. Data explains that
the childhood mortality rate of the aboriginals is much higher than the non-aboriginal
children. This plan schemes to make the mortality rate half within next ten years by providing
the proper health care and nutrition guide to the children and the adults. This policy tries to
close the gap between nutrition and health concerns among the Aboriginals and non-
aboriginals. Another essential aim of the strategy is to provide better education and better job
opportunity and security to the Aboriginal young adults so that they can progress through
better and specific goals. Lack of opportunity raises many health concerns among the
Aboriginal. They tend to get misguided and do many destructive things such as smoking

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UNDERSTANDING THE HEALTH OF ABORIGINAL PEOPLE
(StGeorge 2015). This policy will track the transition period of the young adults. The primary
determinants of this strategy are to provide early child nutrition, education and providing job
opportunities and job securities. The key strategy of the plan are:
1. A healthy start star to life
2. Caring for older people
3. A healthy childhood
4. Addressing the risk factors
5. A healthy transition to adulthood
6. Managing the illness better with effective services
There is a presence of three enablers that provide the foundation for the plan by
supporting the key priorities and their achievements. The main motto of the policy is to make
the Aboriginals concern about their health and to provide practical, evidence-based health
services. The enablers are:
1. Improving the data and evidence
2. Strong aboriginal organisations
3. Cultural responsiveness.
The central priority area of Koolin Balit: Victorian Government strategic
directions for Aboriginal health 2012–2022:
The koolin Balit strategy has given priority to the Healthy Start plan because it is
known to us that a healthy start can provide excellent health through our the life of a person.
Studies has shown that the sixteen per cent of the Aboriginal population gets sick at the age
of twenty-four because of their neonatal nutrition condition. High mortality rate in the
newborn state is the primary concern that seems to be a tragic experience of these poor
Victorian Aboriginals. The fetal mortality rate is seen to be higher of the Aboriginal
Victorians in about approximately double than the non-Aboriginal mothers. This policy sets
out the leading indicator that provides the baby's birth weight that can be dangerous to them.
Babies with a low birth weight of under 2500 grams can have a higher risk. These babies can
suffer poor nutrition, premature death and even disability. The factors that are found to be
affecting the reduced birth weight of the Aboriginal babies are smoking and alcohol intake,
poor oral health and socioeconomic factors during pregnancy. Prenatal mortality reflects the
status of the health of that particular population. The main risk groups that targeted in these
plans is the mother and the child. In aboriginal people, the age of the mother is noticeably

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less and that can effect their physical strength to greater extends. The lack of nutrition leads
to the poor nutrition development of both the mother and the babies. Besides, it is noted that
the Aboriginal mother doesn't breastfeed their babies often compare to the non-aboriginal
mothers and it is known that the breast milk is the healthiest food for the newborns. Breast
milk provides proper nutrition, immunity to the infants. However due to the malnutrition of
the mother often unable to breastfeed their babies; as a result, the babies grow unhealthy and
develop a lack of nutrition. This policy aims to provide proper education and health services
for both the mother and the children to ensure better health.
Discussion of three relevant chosen social determinant of health:
This section includes the details about the three social factor selected that is relevant
for the priority areas and desired health outcomes of the one risk group that is discussed
above (People 2016). The determinants are:
1. Income and income distribution
2. Food
3. Health services
The income and the income distribution is the determinant that can be outlined as the
priority areas for the Aboriginal mother. This determinant is in direct link with this particular
risk group. It is noticed that is because of the low income among the Aboriginal people they
lack in their daily nutrition. According to the researches all Aboriginal mothers are diagnosed
and notified to be undernutrition. They frequently require the proper protein, carbohydrate
and minimum fat in their diet; but lack of these results into fragility and mortality. Their
nutrition status does not support their childbearing capacity. This often harms the health of
both the mother and the child. The koolin balit strategy aims to provide job solution for the
Aboriginals that they can income enough to keep their wives fed (Aboriginal 2015). While in
pregnancy there is a need for proper dietary plans and to provide a proper nutritional plan
they need decent income and adequate income distribution. The reason for the lack of
appropriate income distribution is that all the people of Victorian Aboriginal can get their
income equally distributed. Otherwise, the formation of distinct groups amongst the
population will occur (Browne, Hayes and Gleeson 2014).
Food is another primary social determinant that contributes a more substantial reason
for Aboriginal mothers to be in a risk group. Availability of food can make the Aboriginal
mothers and babies both health whereas lack of food can cause malnutrition among the

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UNDERSTANDING THE HEALTH OF ABORIGINAL PEOPLE
mothers and babies. The aboriginals are poor people they often do not have much money to
facilitate a proper diet for their family. The mothers who already are atearly age, are not able
to cover their nutrition requirements as a result eventually they are not able to provide their
children with any proper nutrition. Studies suggest that there is a higher range of mortality
rate among the young Aboriginal mothers due to inappropriate nutrition coverage (Lindquist
et al. 2015). The Victorian Aboriginal groups often tend to stay in the places where they need
to hunt and go for a regular quest for the foods. The seasonal influences often limit their
availability of food from their surroundings. The above mentioned koolin balit plan aims to
increase the availability of the food in the localities of the Victorian Aboriginals by
continuous support from the main cities. This can close the gap between the Aboriginals and
non-Aboriginals. Ordinary people can get more aware of the nutritional status of these
Aboriginal mothers. The target of this plan is to aid the risk group, which is the mother to be
out of the risk groups with the help of food to higher their nutritional values (Kingsley et al.
2013).
The determinant of health services is prioritized as the top need of this indigenous
people. This poor people often suffer mainly due to the lack of health services. The primary
plan of the policy is to provide better health services in the area of the Victorian Aboriginals.
The Victorian mothers often don't get a chance to check their health, and they lack proper
guidance and proper education for their pregnancy (Baum et al. 2013). That can lead to the
dangerous outcomes of the early mother. The health services can make the mother aware of
any health complications of them or their babies that is unknown to them. They can consult
the doctors when they feel any concerns. The Aboriginal mothers cannot talk to anyone about
their health problems as they lack education. Health services can provide an appropriate base
for these apparent problems (Genat et al. 2016).
Figure: Table to show the rate of fatal death of indigenous

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UNDERSTANDING THE HEALTH OF ABORIGINAL PEOPLE
Babies and their birth quality.
Source: (Aboriginal 2015)
Conclusion:
It can be concluded that the report was focused on the emerging health problems of
the Aboriginal. In this article, the detail of the koolin Balit strategy of the Victorian
government is given. The main criteria of the plan are to provide health services to the
impoverished indigenous group with respects to the primary key areas which need to be
focused within the next ten years. The study has shown that the mortality rate of young
Aboriginal mothers and the Aboriginal newborns are higher than the mortality rate of the
non-Aboriginal mothers and babies. The leading risk group which is focused throughout the
article is the aboriginal mother and their babies. This can be evaluated from the article that
the Aboriginal mothers an children are often found to be undernutrition. There are many
factors found to be contributing to this phenomenon, and there are lack of food, lack of
income, lack of education and lack of health services. The plan determinant to provide the
necessary facilities to half the mortality rate of Aboriginal mothers and their babies.

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References:
Aboriginal, A., 2015. Success in Closing the Gap: favourable neonatal outcomes in a
metropolitan Aboriginal Maternity Group Practice Program.
Baum, F.E., Legge, D.G., Freeman, T., Lawless, A., Labonté, R. and Jolley, G.M., 2013. The
potential for multi-disciplinary primary health care services to take action on the social
determinants of health: actions and constraints. BMC public health, 13(1), p.460.
Browne, J., Hayes, R. and Gleeson, D., 2014. Aboriginal health policy: is nutrition the
‘gap’in ‘Closing the Gap’?. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health, 38(4),
pp.362-369.
Genat, B., Browne, J., Thorpe, S. and MacDonald, C., 2016. Sectoral system capacity
development in health promotion: evaluation of an Aboriginal nutrition program. Health
Promotion Journal of Australia, 27(3), pp.236-242.
Kingsley, J., Townsend, M., Henderson-Wilson, C. and Bolam, B., 2013. Developing an
exploratory framework linking Australian Aboriginal peoples’ connection to country and
concepts of wellbeing. International journal of environmental research and public
health, 10(2), pp.678-698.
Lindquist, A.C., Kurinczuk, J.J., Wallace, E.M., Oats, J. and Knight, M., 2015. Risk factors
for maternal morbidity in Victoria, Australia: a population-based study. BMJ open, 5(8),
p.e007903.
Maternity Services Inter-Jurisdictional Committee, 2014. The Characteristics of culturally
competent maternity care for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women.
Mitrou, F., Cooke, M., Lawrence, D., Povah, D., Mobilia, E., Guimond, E. and Zubrick, S.R.,
2014. Gaps in Indigenous disadvantage not closing: a census cohort study of social
determinants of health in Australia, Canada, and New Zealand from 1981–2006. BMC Public
Health, 14(1), p.201.

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UNDERSTANDING THE HEALTH OF ABORIGINAL PEOPLE
People, H., 2016. 2020. Social determinants of health. Healthy People, 2020.
StGeorge, J., 2015 Submission to the National Children’s Commissioner| Megan Mitchell.
Watson, B., Progress in Aboriginal health. Public Administration Today, (34), p.30.
Www2.health.vic.gov.au. (2018). Koolin Balit: Aboriginal health strategy. Available at:
https://www2.health.vic.gov.au/about/health-strategies/aboriginal-health/koolin-balit