Caring for the Indigenous People: Programs and Initiatives

This article discusses the different programs and initiatives taken by the government to address the health inequalities faced by the native people of Australia. The initiatives are based on the principles of primary health care and mainly aim at educating people to live better lives.

Running head: CARING FOR THE INDIGENOUS PEOPLE
CARING FOR THE INDIGENOUS PEOPLE
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Introduction:
By the term indigenous health, one can refer to the physical, social, emotional as well as
the cultural well being of the Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islander people. Due to the
exploitation over many centuries by the Europeans, indigenous people have very poor quality life
where they are physically, socially and economically unstable. Lack of education, proper health
literacy, inaccessibility with the urban healthcare centers, low financial ability and many others
have been affected their health conditions largely. Studies say that indigenous Australians are
seen to be affected by respiratory disorders, diabetes, cardiovascular issues, kidney disorders and
birth problems in higher percentage in comparison to that of the non-indigenous people in the
nation (Freeman et al., 2016). However, over time, governmental health care departments have
identified the urgency of the situation and they have proposed and implemented various kinds of
healthcare programs that would help in addressing their concern and give them better quality life.
These assignments will be discussing how the programs had helped in overcoming different
barriers and providing them with effective care so that better lives are lived by the indigenous
people.
National Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organization
National Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organization can be described as the
national peak body in the nation of Australia that mainly comprises of about 143 Aboriginal
Community controlled Health services called the ACCHSs. They are mainly concerned with the
health and well-being of the aboriginals trying their best to deliver holistic, culturally appropriate
as well as comprehensive care to the community. The community has the power of controlling it
through the locally elected Board of Management. This healthcare initiative was important to

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address the social care needs of the indigenous people (Brigg et al., 2017). The social
determinants of health of such people were found to be highly affected because of years of
exploitations and torture and the present day situations are worse. Unstable circumstances that
were shaped by the distribution of money, power as well as resources of national and local levels
needed to be addressed and this program has successfully attended to the requirements. The
program has been highly respectful to the culture of the native people and had accordingly
developed initiatives that were culturally sensitive to the people (Shibthorpe et al., 2016). They
have made sure to implement strategies by which they have provided accessible health services,
flexible approach to care, effective community participation, self determination and
empowerment of the native people, continuous quality improvement of the children, providing
holistic health care and appointing culturally appropriate and skilled workforce for better service
delivery. One of the examples of their initiatives can be stated here. The QUMAX program was
established by the effective collaboration between the NACCHO and the Pharmacy Guild of
Australia. The Commonwealth Department of Health funded it. This program has sufficiently
contributed to the improvement in the quality use of medication. This programs has tried its best
to achieve its goal by seven important initiatives under the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme
(PBS). They are cultural education, Dose Administration Aids Agreements and Flexible
Funding, Transport, QUM Education, QUM Pharmacy Support, QUM Devices and Home
Medicine Reviews (HMR) models of support.
Close the Gap campaign for Indigenous health equality:
Close the Gap is one of the oldest governmental strategies that mainly aim in reduction of the
disadvantages between the different aboriginal as well as Torres Islander people. These are
mainly in the fields of poor life expectancy of the native people, child mortality, providing

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proper access to children for education, proper employment outcomes and many others. This
program also tried to attain the Aboriginal and Torres Islanders equality in health within a period
of 25 years. Exploitation and severe torture of the Europeans had continued for a huge number of
years, which had resulted the native people to develop poor quality life, poor education, deprived
opportunities for better living and poor health conditions. The different social determinates of
health had been affected in such ways where there was no hope for the native people to
overcome their poor living conditions (GGwenye et al., 2016). Therefore, the initiatives of the
“close the gap” campaign were established with different periods like closing life expectancy gap
between the native and non-natives within 2031, halving the gap of mortality rates of children
under 5 years by 2018, having the gap of employment outcomes within 2018 and many others.
Some of the important building blocks of this program had been developing the early childhood
of native children in ways by which there remains no gap in the quality of education received by
natives and non-native people. Proper parenting programs and supports were also provided so
that the children can develop under proper guidance of their parents. These initiatives were also
based on providing adequate access to the preventive as well as comprehensive care of the
people so that there can reduction in the number of deaths (Angell, Eades & Jain, 2017). Closing
the gap is also important to meet the economic crisis faced by the native people as it is an
important social determinate of health that has great capability to alter the health status of human
beings. The campaign also provides importance on the enhancement of the employment
opportunities of the indigenous people, business creation opportunities, wealth creation and
providing economic independence to the oppressed native people. The plan also referred to
various types of social, structural and financial incentives for helping the disadvantaged job
seekers and helping them to develop better quality lives. Besides, the initiatives are also taken to

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develop healthy homes in order to develop their living conditions like water sewage systems,
electricity, proper waste collection and many others. Researchers are of the opinion that
developing scientifically developed hygienic homes can contribute to development of health of
the native people. Besides, safe communities and effective governance and leadership also
ensured that the gap found among the native and non-native people in their health conditions and
disparities could be met effectively thereby overcoming health disparities.
Primary healthcare can be defined as the first line of care in a particular community
where the healthcare professionals are considered to be the first level of contact with that of the
patients or clients. Such level of care is seen to provide holistic as well as personalized treatment
and care for patients of different age groups. They are seen to comprise of different important
aspects that include effective public education, proper nutrition to the clients, ensure clean water
as well as sanitation, maternal and child healthcare services, immunizations, local diseases
control, accessible treatment, drug provision, health screening and many others. Primary
healthcare services helps communities in number of ways by helping people to focus on the ways
of preventing many communicable as well as non communicable disorders, guidance and
improved care to patients, effective early management of health conditions of the community
members, reduction in the chances of visiting specialists for adverse situations and similar others
(Gratzer & Goldbloom, 2017). By providing effective primary healthcare, nursing professionals
have the capability to address the social determinants of health and counsel and educate clients
about the approaches they can take in their life to overcome different barriers. Besides, they can
also advocate on behalf of the native people to the higher authorities regarding the necessities of
changes of plans required to effectively modify the social determinants of health for betterment
(Li et al., 2017).

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Primary healthcare services remain concerned with the provision of giving the first line
of protective and comprehensive care strategies that help patients to modify their lifestyle, habits,
diet or social determinants in ways that help them to live better quality life. It is quite different
from acute care where treatment is provided after the disorder or diseases have affected
individuals. From the strategies taken by the NACCHO, it becomes clear that the initiatives are
aimed at providing primary care services to the community members of the natives. The different
initiative of NACCHO mainly aims at providing a holistic as well as comprehensive primary
health care approach that help in modifying the social determinats in ways by which native
people can set the scope of better living (Couzos et al., 2015). Coordinated and integrated
activities, strategic partnerships and alliances with different organizations, proactive and
responsible actions taken by primary healthcare workers – all ensure that they can protect the
aboriginals from several chronic disorders, help them to learn about different healthy habits,
health screening objectives, provision of drugs, medications, and preventive advices that ensure
developed health of native people. Initiatives were also taken to maintain the equity and quality
of the healthcare services ensuring that no health disparities occur in the community. QUMAX,
AUSTRALIAN TRACHOMA ALLIANCE – SAFE EYES PROGRAM, Ochre day and many
others are all iniatives that are based on primary healthcare services (www.naccho.org.au, 2018).
Similarly, the initiatives taken for the “close the gap” initiatives also aimed at overcoming and
successful handling of the structural and social determinants of the health like the unequal
distribution of the power, unequal income among the different communities and many others.
They also incorporate initiative like aiming the poor conditions of daily life like inappropriate
access to healthcare, schools and educations, their homes, conditions at work, opportunities of
job and many others. The initiatives of “close the gap” campaign mainly is focused on educating

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the native people, developing their health literacy, advocating and ranging for importance of
proper living conditions, education for children from early years, diet management programs and
any others. All the initiatives follow the principles of primary care addressing the social
determinants of health of the native people and therefore both the programs are said to be based
on the morals of primary healthcare.
Conclusion:
From the entire discussion above, it is seen that the government has tried its best to
address the health inequalities faced by the native people of Australia. For them, they had
proposed different programs like “close the gap” as well as “National Aboriginal Community
Controlled Health Organization” in order to address the different social determinants of health of
the native people. These initiatives are based on the principles of primary health care and mainly
aim at educating people to live better lives. Not only that, several initiatives had been taken by
the organizations to provide opportunities to native people by which they can develop the quality
of lives and live in better health conditions. Several other initiatives to make them self-sufficient
are also done so that the bridge between the quality of lives of native and non naives can be
bridged.

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