Health and Wellness in Australia

This assignment delves into various aspects of health and wellness within Australia. It discusses the potential risks and benefits of combining traditional Chinese medicines with Westernized drugs. The role of placebos in perceived health improvement is also examined. Furthermore, the seven components of wellness—physical, emotional, intellectual, social, spiritual, occupational, and environmental—are outlined.

Running head: AUSTRALIAN HEALTH CARE
AUSTRALIAN HEALTH CARE
Name of the Student
Name of the university
Author’s note

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1. The Australian Health Practitioners regulation Agency (AHPRA) regulated the
nursing and midwifery profession and allied health professionals and doctors (Britt
et al., 2013).
2. 5 functions of the nursing midwifery board of Australia can be stated as follows:-
 The NMBA provides a large number of regulatory policies and professional codes
of conduct and ethics for the nurses and the midwives of Australia
 It provides ethical, regulatory and legal frame works for the nursing practice.
 They are responsible for the registration and the accreditation of the registered
nurses.
 NMBA provides guidelines for the quality and safety of the nurses.
 The key role of NMBA is to protect the population of Australia by providing a safe
care.
3. Benefits of joining the Victorian branch of the ANMF (Britt et al., 2013):
1) It will provide access to a number of legal, professional and industrial
representatives which would help in assisting with quality advice, if encountered
with any problem at the work place.
2) Private health insurance, where the dividends are not paid to the investors and
the shareholders. Thus, any surplus is formed is reimbursed to the members by
low premiums and other beneficial services.
3) Legal services related to disciplinary hearings, personal injury, will criminal laws
and family laws, are also provided by the lawyers of ANMF.
4) ANMF have personal online shopping options where attractive discounts are
given along with complementary movie tickets.
4. a) Medicare scheme: Medicare is the insurance scheme introduced by the
Australian government, by which an Australian citizen can get access to some
medical facilities free of cost in a public hospital. Medicare provides benefits
regarding private scheme for doctors, Benefits in different tests such as pathology
tests and X-rays, eye tests by the optometrists, some dental surgeries and specific
items under the EPC (Enhanced primary care program). Medicare reimburses

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100% of the MBS scheme for a GP and 85% in case of a specialist (Wills et al.,
2016).
b) Private health insurance-highest coverage: Private health insurance of Australia
provides some facilities over the Medicare system such as it helps to avoid the public
hospital waiting queue and occurs as per the patient priority order. Money can be
claimed back on Non-Medicare health facilities. It provides the patient with the
opportunity of choosing his patients. It will help to avoid the surcharge of the Medicare
levy and it will give the highest coverage on lifetime health cover. Private health
insurance would cover ambulance, dental treatment, chiropractic treatment, podiatry,
physiotherapy, occupational therapy, speech therapies, and complex surgeries (Britt et
al., 2013).
c) Veterans’ Affairs-Gold card: Veteran's affair gold card provides medical and surgical
care; medical procedures and consultations under the MBS scheme. It provides a wide
range of services such as community nursing, chiropractic service, diabetes education,
emergency short term home relief, occupational therapy, osteopathic services, palliative
care, residential aged care payment and means tested fee, referral for community
support, rehabilitation aids, veteran's and veteran families counseling services, x-rays,
computerized tomography, ultrasound. Veteran’s affair gold card provides services for
the veterans and the war widow. All the health care facilities are free for the card
holders except some exceptions such as Veteran's home care. In case of any service is
obtained from Medicare DVA will not pay for that particular service.
5. Identify four benefits of private health insurance for the individual or the public health
system.
1) Private health insurance will save the time of standing in the long hospital queue.
2) Private health insurance gives coverage to a large number of health facilities which
are not covered under the Medicare benefits.
3) It will help to avoid the surcharge of the Medicare levy.

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4) Private health insurance provides options to the patient of choosing suitable doctors
and staying up in private rooms, depending upon the extent of the policy.
6. services provided by government funding-
 No projects or initiatives will be taken to spread the awareness among the people
where the risks of alcohol are the most a campaigning and making of projects
involves a lot of money.
 Rehabilitation and workshops will not be feasible due to the lack of funds.
 The rate of alcohol consumption and the alcohol related risks will increase (Willis et
al., 2016).
7. Health care service options in Victoria:-
1) Local and general practitioners, for preventative and nonemergency care, specialist
doctors.
2) Public and private hospitals for inpatient care and attending the outpatients.
3) Ambulance services and nurse on call.
4) Maternal health and child health support.
5) Vaccinations and immunizations for protecting the children and the adolescents.
Four strengths of the local health care system:-
1) Availability of specialist doctors, ambulatory care.
2) 24 hours availability of nurses on call, provision of emergency number.
3) Community aged care facilities for improving the quality of life of the older
populations.
4) Private and public hospitals for attending the inpatients and the out patients.
Weaknesses of the local health care system:-
1) Obesity and chronic disease still cannot be managed by the allied health care
facilities.

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2) The Victorian aboriginals still have high rates of hospitalizations and mortality due to
diseases. Hence the health care facilities need to be extended to those people.
3) The increased rate of the private insurance is taking a toll on the economic life of the
local people.
4) Some sectors of the general practice often face difficulties in managing the demand
for the services due to capped funding and lack of proper work force.
8. a) One important health care issue is regarding the oral health care facilities for the
local people. The rural residential aged care services of the Victoria do not get
access to proper oral health facilities, in terms of dentists, clinical staffs. This is
increasing the risks of tooth decay, gum disease and oral cancers (Ossenberg et al.,
2015).
b) The Department of Health & Human Services funds Dental Health Services Victoria
(DHSV) provides both routine and urgent dental care.
c) In spite of all the initiatives and the awareness campaign provided by DHSV, there is
a need to build a strong team for the oral aged care, who will be able to provide oral
hygiene care for the residents of the aged care. Portable equipments, gerodontic
training and proper workspaces are required.
9. Health may be defined as the complete physical, mental and spiritual well being of a
person, and is not merely confined to the absence of any disease or illness (Edlin &
Golanty, 2012).
10. The seven principles of primary health care can be stated as follows (Edlin &
Golanty, 2012):-
1) Overall improvement in the community health care.
2) Reduction in the occurrence of both the communicable and the non-communicable
diseases.
3) Mitigating the morbidity and the mortality rates among children and the mother.

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4) Equable health care among all the sections of the population irrespective of the
socio-economic status.
5) A comprehensive health care depend upon the availability of sufficient number of
health care professionals and multidisciplinary team.
6) Adoption of new technologies in the field of health care.
7) Provision of community aged care for the improvement of their quality of life.
11. Primary health service- It is the first level of health care system and is the general
care provided by the doctor involving minor health issues (Mitchell et al, 2012).
Secondary health service- This health care refers to the acute care that requires
treatment for a short period of time, but for serious illness. Patients normally require
referrals from the primary care professionals to proceed further for a secondary care.
Tertiary health service- It manly focuses on a particular health issue and involves
consultative and skilled care.
12. a) 3 health issues faced by the refugees when arriving at Australia can be listed as
follows (Brit et al., 2013):-
 Communication issues, health care costs for the linguistically diverse background
are the barriers to health care for the refugees.
 The refugees are developing chronic conditions such as diabetes, cardiovascular
diseases.
 Health can be impacted by the adoption of the Australian habit of diet, alcohol and
smoking, stress due to new migration.
b)
 Refugees who have arrived through that the Refugee and Humanitarian program
and have obtained bridging visa are eligible for the Medicare facilities.
 There should be proper provisions for the health assessment of the refugees and
the asylum seekers.

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14. 4 leading causes of death among the Australian aboriginals according to AIHW are
as follows (Jan, Essue & Leeder, 2012):-
1) Cancer
2) Diabetes
3) Cardiovascular diseases
4) Respiratory diseases.
15. a) 2 allied health services that can be used for treating endocrine disorders are:-
 A diabetes educator for imparting the knowledge regarding the self management
of diabetes (Scanlon et al., 2012).
 A podiatrist, as aboriginals are vulnerable to foot diseases due to diabetes.
b) 4 services community and allied health services utilize to make health care more
accessible to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are (Francis, 2012):-
 Mobile dispensaries can be provided such that necessary health care can reach
the consumers.
 Provision of aboriginal health care worker for the aboriginal population for
practicing a cultural safe care.
 There should be provisions for immunization.
 The health care facilities should be made free of cost for the people.
16. 3 key social determinants of health (Braveman & Gottlieb, 2014):-
a) Income status- Low income status is directly proportional to poor health. People
having higher income will be able get access to more health care facilities in lieu of
money.
b) Education- Ignorance to disease can deter a person from getting suitable
treatment. Lack of education reduces the chance of the self care efficacies.
c) Social inclusion or exclusion- Support from family, friends and the community can
promote better physical and mental health.

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17. According to the AIHW report (2016), coronary heart disease is the leading
cause of death among the Australians (Australian Institute of Health, 2012).
18. 2 behavioral risk factors-
 Tobacco smoking and alcohol consumption
2 biomedical risk factors-
 Obesity and diabetes
19. 1 behavioral risk factor of Australian health
Alcohol consumption- increases the risk of liver diseases, cardiovascular
diseases, some cancers and oral health problems and obesity (Kelaher et al., 2015).
1 biomedical risk factor
Obesity- It increases the risk of cardiovascular diseases, sleep disorders,
psychological problems, high blood pressure, diabetes and some musculoskeletal
conditions.
20. Non westernized models of health care (Adams et al., 2012)-
Herbal medicines- Herbs can be used to treat a large number of illnesses like colds and
allergies and can also be used to boost the immunity and stamina. Herbs can contain
elements that serve as potent medicines. It also interferes with some drugs.
Traditional Chinese medicine- acupuncture can be used in giving relief to some
musculoskeletal pains. It involves the pricking of fine pins in specific parts of the body to
reduce pain (Adams et al., 2012).
Reiki- this is a natural form of therapy where non invasive gentle touch is used to
promote feelings of well being. It is normally done alongside with some other therapies
where the therapist places their hands in different positions of the body and does not
involve any physical manipulation (Adams et al., 2012).

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21. I would definitely tell Mr. Wong to stop taking those medications as Chinese
traditional medicines might have some good effects but it can interfere with the mode of
action of the westernized drugs, which again can have some detrimental effects.
22. A placebo normally does not have any therapeutic effect but the persons receiving
this believes that this contain medicines and provides cure to the health problems.
23. Seven components of wellness are as follows (Edlin & Golanty, 2012):-
Physical, emotional, intellectual, social, spiritual, occupational and environmental factors

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References
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complementary and integrative medicine: an international reader. Palgrave
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Australian Institute of Health. (2012). Australia's Health 2012: In Brief. AIHW.
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