Reproductive and Sexual Health: Issues Faced by Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islanders in Australia

This article discusses the issues faced by Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islanders in Australia regarding reproductive and sexual health. It highlights the impact of separation policies on their physical and mental health, including trauma, chronic pain, and poor access to healthcare. The article also explores the factors contributing to higher indigenous mortality rates, such as poor utilization of healthcare services, obesity, excessive alcohol consumption, poor nutrition, and tobacco smoking.

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REPRODUCTIVE AND SEXUAL HEALTH
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Reproductive and Sexual Health
Question 1
Access to equitable medical services and healthcare for the Aboriginals and Torres
Straight Islanders has for a long time been an issue in Australia. The Australian scholarly
literature has dwelled on the same for a long time. The aboriginal Australians and Torres Strait
Islanders are groups that are considered to be culturally, politically, economically, and socially
disadvantaged. When laws, policies, and practices for eliminating indigenous cultures were
affected, the Aboriginal Australians experienced loss, trauma, and grief. Children lost love and
affection from their parents. The family, spiritual, and cultural ties were left broken and this left
an intergenerational effect on the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders. The notable impacts the
policies had on the Aboriginals and the Islanders were: physical and mental health problems,
being separated from their primary health care, broken families, behavioral and delinquency
problems, and racism.
The adverse effect of the separation policies was the lack of medical services, identity
loss, poor access to education, loneliness and low self-esteem among others. Many children were
separated from their parents and communities resulting in the anguish of identity search. It led to
depression, excessive alcohol consumption, and drug and substance abuse, which affected their
mental judgment. The separation also led to trauma that has been passed from generation to
generation. The trauma has also caused chronic pain among the Aboriginals and the Islanders.
Therefore, the policies for eliminating indigenous cultures affected both the physical and
psychological health of Aboriginals and the Torres Strait Islanders as well as their likeliness to
access health care (Bringing Them Home: Separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
Children from Their Families, 2014).

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Question 2
Mortality rates have for a long time been used for measuring the health status of a
particular population. It has been resourceful particularly for measuring improvement between
two different populations over time (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2014). Measuring mortality
rates also helps in knowing the gap that exists between the populations of the Aboriginal and
Torres Strait Islanders and the rest of the Australian Population. It also helps in identifying the
main cause of death, the manner in which it can be prevented, how it can be managed, as well as
its prevalence. It has been noted that the Aboriginals and the Torres Strait Australians are
characterized with higher death rates than other Australian populations.
The factors contributing to higher indigenous mortality are the poor or low utilization of
health care services, obesity or overweight, excessive consumption of alcoholic drinks, poor
nutrition, and tobacco smoking. The factors contribute to diseases and illnesses that cause death
among the Aboriginals and the Islanders. The main diseases and illnesses are digestive diseases,
respiratory diseases, circulatory diseases, neoplasms, nutritional and metabolic diseases; and
endocrine. The indigenous life expectancy was 67.2 years and 72.9 for males and females
respectively. It was 11.5 years and 9.7 years lower than for non-indigenous males and females
respectively ("Mortality in a Cohort of Remote-living Aboriginal Australians and Associated
Factors," n.d.).

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Reference List
Australian Bureau of Statistics. Causes of Death, Australia, 2012. Underlying causes of death
(Australia). Canberra: ABS, 2014.
Bringing Them Home: Separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children from Their
Families. (2014, June 11). Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=Sl82VMuuKI0
Mortality in a Cohort of Remote-living Aboriginal Australians and Associated Factors. (n.d.).
Retrieved September 16, 2018, from
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5886486
.