Contemporary Indigenous Health and Well Being | Report

CONTEMPORARY INDIGENOUS HEALTH AND WELL BEING
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CONTEMPORARY INDIGENOUS HEALTH AND WELL BEING
Introduction
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people were the initial occupants of Australia are
refered to as the Indigenous people of Australia. They are geographically distributed in different
states such as New South Wales, Queensland, and Western Australia. A report released in 2001
showed several disparities between the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and the non-
Indigenous people of Australia. The disparities were in different sectors such as health,
education, employment, housing, and women disadvantage. Many of these issues were only
attended to after the release of social justice report in 2005, which put pressure on the Australian
government to intervene in reducing these disparities. The focus of this essay will be on health
and well-being among the Indigenous Australian population
Closing the gap policy is a plan of action by the Australian government that intends to
minimize the obstacles faced by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. The policy
addresses health and social issues faced by these people such as their life expectancy, the
mortality of their children, employment opportunities and gaining entry into early childhood
education (Royal Australian College of General Practitioners, 2018). Closing the gap policy was
born in 2007 upon the release of social justice report in 2005 by Professor Tom Calma who was
at the time commissioner of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice. The Australian
governments were requested by the report that they should devote to attain justness for the
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in matters life expectancy and health in no more
than twenty-five years after the report was released in 2005. The social justice report showed that
the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who are Indigenous Australians lived in low
social-economic communities and had no health facilities nearby. The effect of lack of nearby

health facilities was consistent with the short life expectancy of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander people as shown by the social justice report of 2005 (Brennan-Olsen et al. 2017). There
were seven targets were set to be achieved by closing the gap policy but recent data as
documented by the annual closing the gap report shows only two of them are showing substantial
progress and they include halve the gap in Year twelve attainment by 2020 and early childhood
education. Closing the gap policy was meant to significantly affect the health of the Aboriginal
and Torres Strait Islander people by halving the gap in childhood mortality and closing the gap in
school attendance and closing the gap on employment disparity (Brennan-Olsen et al. 2017).
Social determinants of health are environmental conditions that have an impact on several
outcomes in matters health, life expectancy and how people function. These environmental
conditions addressed under social determinants of health include where people are born and live,
where they learn, work and how they age till their death (Braveman and Gottlieb, 2014). The
most important social determinants of health that affect Judy who is 56 years old and lives alone
are social support and coping skills, access to health care services and access to education,
economic and job opportunities. These social determinants of health look into a person's locale
in the society in reference to their income, employment or education. Social support as a
component of social determinants of health dwells on the availability of having other people
around an individual who can be wholly depended upon in their time of need (Naz et al. 2016).
Judy is already aged as she is 56 years old and lives alone as her two children live close by and
available only when they can meaning that she cannot entirely depend on them. Judy lacks
suitable social support for her condition which requires a lot of assistance meaning she has
struggle alone especially now that she is aged, diabetic and has leg ulcer. Access to health
services is another social determinant of health that Judy will have to struggle with as she has no