Healthcare for The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People

Running Head: HEALTHCARE FOR THE ABORIGINAL AND TORRES STRAIT ISLANDER
PEOPLE
Healthcare for The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People
Students Name
University Affiliation
Date

HEALTHCARE FOR THE ABORIGINAL AND TORRES STRAIT ISLANDER 2
Introduction
According to the National Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organization
(2018), health is defined as not just a person’s physical wellbeing but the cultural emotional as
well as the social wellbeing of an entire society whereby every person is able to fully attain their
capability as a human being, thus, creating the whole wellbeing of their society. Enhancing the
health status of the Aboriginal and the Torres Strait Islander people has been considered as a
longstanding problem affecting Australian government yet is it one of the fundamental rights of
the people. Even though there have been steadfast improvements and development registered in
certain areas since the 1960s, overall the development has been viewed as inconsistent as well as
slow. The gap of inequality between other people of Australia and the Aboriginal and the Torres
Strait Islander people has remained wide and has not been bridged (DeSilva-Ranasinghe, 2014).
Unless bold and sustainable steps are taken by the government of the country, there is real and
actual prospect the of the Aboriginal and the Torres Strait Islander medical health status may
worsen in the years to come.
This paper will discuss in depth how the cultural safety, self-determination and the
collaboration are key to ensuring the health of the Aboriginal and the Torres Strait Islander
peoples. The paper will address how colonization has and continues to affect medical and
wellbeing of the indigenous Australian, how in my own cultural and Social location including
attitudes, beliefs and values, may influence my future health care practice with the Aboriginal
parents, their families and Aboriginal health workers. Lastly, the paper will discuss how as a
future health provider I will come up with advocacy strategies for health service delivery which
will contribute to the bridging the gap for the indigenous people.

HEALTHCARE FOR THE ABORIGINAL AND TORRES STRAIT ISLANDER 3
How Colonization Has and Continues to affect the Health as well as the Wellbeing of The
Aboriginal and Torres Islander Australian?
The current crisis in indigenous health is because of the generations of neglect,
inadequate cohesive and unifying public policy as well as the failure to offer adequate resources
and ensure that such resources reach individual in Australia. The major problems affecting the
delivery of health services to the indigenous people is due to colonization policies like economic
and social exclusion, poor sanitation and housing, lack of sufficient nutrition, low income,
unemployment and poor education. Historically, the Aboriginal and Strait Islander people have
had very little influence and power to these challenging factors and the decisions in public policy
which affect their health as well as lives. Due to Australian colonization, racism was rife (Dwyer
et al, 2016). The indigenous people were compelled to reside on reserves as well as on missions
where their freedom to live their normal lives were highly limited. Assimilation as well as
segregation policies were established coupled with geographical and institutionalization
limitations.
According to Fedele (2018), moreover, the indigenous people were not allowed to speak
their native language, practicing their traditions and educating their children on their cultures and
history. These limitations resulted to loss of life and liberty and irreparably changed the
indigenous people’s social as well as cultural behavior. Historical atrocities as well as the
continued segregation have established a longstanding psychological and physical impacts on the
indigenous people which are usually transgenerational. This is normally mirrored in several
psychological situations which show that racism and segregation towards indigenous people still
impacts their lives. For instance, rates of unemployment indicate a disparity with about 18%
unemployment for the indigenous people as compared to the 6% for the non-indigenous people