Contemporary Indigenous Health and Wellbeing| Report

Running head: CONTEMPORARY INDIGENOUS HEALTH AND WELLBEING 1
Contemporary Indigenous Health and Wellbeing
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CONTEMPORARY INDIGENOUS HEALTH AND WELLBEING 2
Contemporary Indigenous Health and Wellbeing
Inequalities affect most societies and threaten the existence of some groups who are
underprivileged. In Australia, the Aboriginals and Torres Trait Islanders who are the indigenous
inhabitants faced health inequalities for a long time (Carey et al., 2017). Fortunately, the United
Nations and the development of the closing gap developed strategies to change their health status
by prioritizing it as a human rights concern. This paper would review the implications of CTG
concerning Judy as a case study.
Closing the GAP was introduced in the healthcare sector as a governmental plan to
address the challenges that resulted in Aboriginals and Torres Trait Islanders being
disadvantaged while seeking health solutions. The strategy by the government was aimed at
reducing some of the challenges that faced the Aboriginals and Torres Trait Islanders which
include accessibility to early childhood education, high incidences of child mortality, low life
expectancy and employment issues (Doran et al., 2016).
The development of the closing gap policy in Australia and its adoption was influenced
by a social report in 2005 as well as the close the gap social justice campaign. According to the
report, the average median age of the Aboriginals and Torres Trait Islanders was 21 years while
that for the non-indigenous was 36 years. Also, as of 2001, 39 percent of the Aboriginals and
Torres Trait Islanders were below the age of 15 relative to that of non-indigenous that was at
20%. Similarly, the report indicated that 57% of the Aboriginals and Torres Trait Islanders
people were below the age of 25 years (Griffiths et al., 2019; Griffiths et al., 2016). These
statistics indicate the low life expectancy and hence health inequality that was being experienced
by the Aboriginals and Torres Trait Islanders relative to the non-indigenous counterparts.

CONTEMPORARY INDIGENOUS HEALTH AND WELLBEING 3
Later, in the year 2008, both the Australian government and the Aboriginals and Torres
Trait Islanders inhabitants came to a common agreement to achieve health equality regarding
their health status and life expectancy (Parter, Wilson & Hartz, 2018). The health equality desire
was to be realized between Aboriginals and Torres Trait Islanders and the non-Indigenous
Australians by the year 2030. The agreement led to the signing of “Indigenous Health Equality
Summit Statement of Intent”. Subsequently, the Council of Australian Governments established
measurable targets and goals to evaluate the implementation of the agreement. The Prime
minister of Australia releases a report to the parliament yearly on the progress of the reports
(Deravin, Francis & Anderson, 2018).
Certain barriers affected the changes making up the CTG program for solving indigenous
issues. The timeframes that had been previously determined did not take consideration of the
challenges that would face the government in the comprehensive implementation of the
strategies effectively. Most of the changes that had been stipulated required longer time to be
experienced by the Aboriginals and Torres Trait Islanders (Altman, Biddle & Hunter, 2018).
According to the case study, some of the social determinants of health that would
manifest potential consequences include socioeconomic status, employment and connectedness.
From the information provided in the case study, Judy does not own a car. This indicates that her
accessibility to healthcare services that are 10 kilometres away will be difficult as she is largely
immobile. Hence, prolonged diabetes would seriously affect the socioeconomic status of Judy as
she would have to rely on primary healthcare services being offered at home that could be costly
(Li, 2017). CTG has developed a comprehensive primary health care system. Notably, primary
healthcare provides an initial line of contact for the indigenous people to the healthcare system.