Indigenous Health and Trauma-Informed Care

This assignment explores the significant health disparities experienced by Indigenous Australians, particularly highlighting the impact of historical trauma. It emphasizes the need for a trauma-informed approach to healthcare delivery, encouraging practitioners to understand and address the underlying causes of these disparities. The focus is on empowering Indigenous communities through culturally safe and respectful care practices that promote healing and well-being.

Running head: CONTEMPORARY INDIGENOUS HEALTH IN AUSTRALIA
Contemporary Indigenous Health in Australia
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1CONTEMPORARY INDIGENOUS HEALTH IN AUSTRALIA
Introduction
The purpose of the following paper is to demonstrate the impact of the trans-generational
trauma on the indigenous Australians. The indigenous Australians are the aboriginals or the
Torres Strait islanders who are deprived of the facilities that are given to the common Australian
people. In reality, the common Australians are given all sorts of facilities by the government.
However, these indigenous people have been deprived of these opportunities for ages now. It has
been seen many times that the indigenous Australians suffer from many things and trauma is one
of those things invariably. The indigenous patients have to be taken care of properly so that their
health could be improved. The indigenous Australians have been facing several issues and
challenges in their society. They have been victims of many injustices all over. This is why the
government is trying to find some way outs to tackle with this injustice caused to the indigenous
people. Some strategies would be found out to fight against the causes of trans-generational
trauma among these people.
The trans-generational trauma among indigenous Australians
The indigenous people have been facing many issues like the mental health, grief and
loss among the people, transmission of trauma and many others. Some dysfunctional issues can
be transmitted to the people and they can be affected a lot through some transmission problems
(Jorm et al. 2012). The issues can depend on the parenting styles or the personality issues of the
people at large. The effects of trauma have been very much significant in understanding the
behaviors of the human beings in the Torres Strait islands (Jamieson et al. 2012). It is very
important to understand and address the reasons for the trauma that is being caused among the
aboriginal and indigenous people in Australia. Very often it has been seen that the cause of
trauma has been one person and his one activity has brought the trauma among these people.
There are many theories of trauma that can be addressed in this section (Jamieson et al. 2012).
The impact of the trauma on the families of the aboriginal people and the people of the Torres
Strait islanders can be very huge indeed. One thing that can be attributed to this context is the
dysfunctional community syndrome. Some reasons can be found for this trauma is like the
traumas caused in the childhood or the reasons of taking part in the violence. They have been
victims of the sexual harassment or inappropriate behavior as well. These things have caused
trauma (Shepherd, Li and Zubrick 2012).

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The causes for trauma have been some incidents that have not been appropriate for the
people. Some important strategies should be taken to address these issues properly. The reasons
for trauma can also be one single reason or a series of events in particular. Some important
aspects of the trans-generational trauma should be discussed here. It can be presumed that in the
first generation the traumatic experiences had been gained by the killing, imprisoning or making
the indigenous people as slaves (Shepherd, Li and Zubrick 2012) They were not being able to
provide their families with the food. Another issue of the trans-generational trauma for the
indigenous Australians have been noticed that some of them had been the victims of the
excessive use of drugs or alcohol in many ways. This is why their social position might have
been diminished. This has been affecting the entire indigenous community as a whole. This is the
reason the people want some way out for it. It can also be considered the incidents of violence
can also affect the mental stability of the indigenous people (Sherwood 2013).
It is very significant indeed to get involved in the eradication of the causes of trauma
among the indigenous Australians. The mental support has to be given to the indigenous people
in Australia in all the places (Sherwood 2013). The big movements have to be built in the
schools, colleges, churches and other community places. All the Australians should come up
together in order to build a better and healthier Australia by removing the main causes for trauma
(Durey and Thompson 2012). As trauma is considered to be an incident that leaves a person
almost numb with shock and in utter confusion, most times it has been seen that the indigenous
people are left nowhere because of this. It has been noted as a very important aspect that the
trauma passes down from the earlier generations to the later generations indeed. Thus the
generations suffer from those same traumatic experiences. These traumatic experiences can be
caused because of ill parenting practices,, violence among people, some problems regarding the
behaviors and many others (King, Brough and Knox 2014).
There are some serious issues that can be caused due to the trauma among the indigenous
people in Australia. The things that can result from this trauma are the bad health issues, mental
health issues, addiction to alcohol and drugs, domestic violence, harming self, committing
suicide and others are the impacts of the trauma among the indigenous communities (Atkinson
2013). The probable cause for trauma among the indigenous Australians is the colonization.
They have been the victims of domestic violence, their loss in the culture and land. This is very

3CONTEMPORARY INDIGENOUS HEALTH IN AUSTRALIA
important to be noted indeed. There are other reasons for the trauma among the indigenous
Australians like the fact of removing the children forcefully (Herring et al. 2013). It has been
noticed that this trauma has been passed on from generation to generation and it has been causing
severe effects in their mindsets (Bielefeld 2012). They can get engaged in the behaviors where
they want to destroy their existence. These are the ill effects of the traumatic experiences among
the indigenous Australians. They feel pain and distress within themselves (Hollinsworth 2013).
As a nurse, there are some strategies that could be taken in order to eradicate the
traumatic experiences among the indigenous Australian people.
The first strategy
The registered nurses should always take care of the patients through following the
decision making framework. The nurses should always take care of the patients through the
professional and collaborative practice. They should implement the knowledge they have gained
from their nursing courses. They should obey all the legal, ethical and professional guidelines
properly. The nurses should be acquainted with the professional environment that they have
faced during the practice of taking care of the indigenous people (Durey et al. 2012).. They
should always provide the patients with the utmost care indeed. Thus the nurses should care for
all the indigenous people indeed. They should also talk with them and make them understand
that they are there to do them good. They should hold sessions with them and ask them their
problems. Then they should build up an action plan as per the problems of those patients. This
will be helpful for them to assess the conditions of the indigenous Australian patients (Durey et
al. 2012). They should provide the care plans for the betterment of the patients. They can also
arrange some referrals as required. They should talk to the indigenous people about the positive
things and cheer them up to live a better life in their future. They should monitor the mental state
of the patients on weekly basis and this would help them to understand what more things they
need to do.
Second strategy
The second strategy that could be applied to the benefit of the indigenous Australians is
the fact that the registered nurses have to talk to the families of the patients properly. This will
make them understand the real problems of the patients. They have to understand the real reason

4CONTEMPORARY INDIGENOUS HEALTH IN AUSTRALIA
behind the trauma of the patients. When they will be able to understand the real issues only then
they can be able to address the situation properly (Willis, Reynolds and Keleher 2016). They will
have to improve their communication skills properly in this manner. This will give them the
opportunity to understand the needs of the patients. Otherwise they cannot bring out the proper
solutions for them. They will have to provide the direct care to the patients. They can provide the
patients with the proper care indeed. They can arrange for the awareness campaigns that would
help all the indigenous people to have the idea of the ways to become normal. These are the
ways the indigenous people can become better indeed (Willis, Reynolds and Keleher 2016).
Strategies according to the NMB standards
It is the responsibility of the nurses to set the goals for improving the nature of their care.
They have to assess the problems properly. They have to look after the safety aspects of the
aboriginals and the Torres Strait islanders. There are many quality issues regarding the health of
the aboriginal people in Torres Strait island. The doctors and nurses will have to go through an
extensive research work on how they can improve the services. The government will have to
imrpve the facilities by implementing new policies that will be helpful for the aboriginal people.
The health workforce will have to be increased and they have to work properly to reach every
person individually who are suffering from trauma.
The doctors and nurses will have to increase the awareness among the people. They have
to get rid of the fear and uncertainties that revolve round them all the time. The maninstream
organizations should come forward to help the aboriginal people. They have to implement some
effective strategies that should be based on the proper evidences. They should always use the
resources for making the condition better. The health organizations should look after the
problems that arise and analyze the probable resources to resolve it. Then they can implement
those issues properly.
Guidelines according to the Australian nursing policy
As per the Australian General practice, the nurses will have to play the complementary
roles in the nursing practice. The enrolled nurses and the registered nurses will play the roles
together as a part of their profession (Nursingmidwiferyboard.gov.au 2018). This will increase
their understanding with each other and positively impact on the well-being of the aboriginal

5CONTEMPORARY INDIGENOUS HEALTH IN AUSTRALIA
health. The enrolled nurses and registered nurses need a lot of supervision on some of the
important factors like the improvement of their skills and competence. They are liable to meet
the requirements of patient safety as well as they will have to continue their practice in an
effective manner. They have to understand the acuteness of disease of the patients and improvise
their knowledge to its best effect. The complexity of the patients will have to be understood by
the registered nurses as per the NMB guidelines and this will help them to assess the critical
conditions of the patients (Nursingmidwiferyboard.gov.au 2018) Rather they will have to take
actions according to that only. The care that has to be provided by the nurses will always be of
top quality. They have to be attentive in this manner as well. Their clinical performance will be
reviewed. Thus the registered nurses should comply with the strategies made by the national
practice standards for nursing practice by NMB. Thus they will provide the proper care to the
aboriginal people to make them overcome their trauma.
Conclusion
This paper can be concluded by saying that the indigenous Australians have been the
victims of several problems and injustices all through. This is why they have not been able to
interact with the common Australians all through. They should try to overcome these fears of
being victimized again through racist comments. They are a huge part of the Australian
community and this is why they deserve all the facilities that the common Australians get. The
type of the traumas they suffer and the historical contexts of those traumas have been discussed
in this paper. The patients should be taken care of properly by providing the direct care. They
should provide the patients with the ways by which they can revive themselves and come back to
the normal life.

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