Health Inequities and Social Determinants

This assignment delves into the significant issue of health inequalities and the social determinants that contribute to them. It examines a range of research articles focusing on various aspects of this topic, including the impact of socioeconomic status on oral health, adolescent well-being, and alcohol's harm to others. The assignment encourages a critical understanding of how factors like income inequality and access to healthcare influence population health outcomes.

Context of Human Services -
Change Proposal
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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Description of issues........................................................................................................................3
Development of change strategy......................................................................................................4
Relevance and feasibility of a change strategy................................................................................6
Recommendation.............................................................................................................................6
Reference.........................................................................................................................................7
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Introduction
Health inequality can be defined as a difference in health status or in a distribution of
determinants between population groups. The health inequality goes against the principle of
social justice because they are avoidable. As they never occur randomly or by chance but are
socially determined by circumstance (Elgar, McKinnonand Currie, 2016). The present report is
based on We Al-li Pty Ltd. At the time of working in We Al-li Pty Ltd , issue which is identified
is related to inequality while providing services to service users. It is a A-li trauma informed that
promotes well being and suitable pathways of positive change for individuals and families. It
also focusses on providing quality life to an individual who suffer from health issues. In the firm,
people are treated on the basis of their wealth, community and social well -being. The present
report will cover health services because it is the main way for a government to provide
opportunity to be healthy. Working as health care provider, focus is on sending proposal to
government to make sure that primary health care can be accessible to people who belong to
Aboriginal and Islander community.
Description of issues
Issues which are needed to be addressed are related to promote equality in health and
social care firm in order to promote well-being of each and every human being who is living in
Australia. Torres Strait Islanders are the indigenous people of the Torres Strait islands who are
the part of Queensland Australia. They are different from the Aboriginal people of Australia
people and rest of the Australian people. There are many health services which are not available
and user-friendly for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in Australia which add to the
higher level of disadvantage (Mitrou, Cooke and Zubrick, 2014). There are many times health
services are not culturally right which means that health care workers do not consider Aboriginal
people cultures and specific needs while providing services. The issues faced by indigenous
people related to health services have a long and complex history. It is continuing because of
large as a result of decades of government inaction and a continuing lack of inappropriate
funding’s and right medical services (Bartley, 2016).
Social determinants of health
Equity in health is all about making sure poorer and vulnerable people in the community
are provided a chance to accomplish health. Socioeconomic, cultural, educational and
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environmental factors all interact and essential for promoting and maintaining health (Delany,
Doughney and Ewen, 2018). These are the factors which health care staff must remember. In the
organisation, it is an important determinant of indigenous health and inequality includes the lack
of equal access to primary health care and a lower standard of health infrastructure as compared
to other Australian. Social and economic inequalities are obvious in the rough distribution of
wealth in society. It simply shows that aboriginal people are provided service separately from
other people in Australia such as unequal distribution of ability to make the purchase of goods
such as education, health care services etc. and choice of doing (Badland, Whitzman. and Giles-
Corti, 2014). Due to this reason in health care firm, they are treated differently and provide less
service as compared to other Australian people which are not right. Apart from this, many person
in health care firm are treated unfairly due to poverty, less educated etc. If people do not have
enough money to spend on their health, then it became quite tough for them to access high-
quality health care services at We Al-li Pty Ltd. In Australia health status, Aboriginal people and
Torres Strait Islander people are poor as compared to other which reflect large equality gap.
Along with this, they are also experiencing socioeconomic disadvantage and are at greater risk
(Kröger, Pakpahan and Hoffmann, 2015).
Development of change strategy
For government department, it is important to address the problem with the use of
appropriate strategies and policies so that Aboriginal and Islander people can easily access health
care services without facing any problem and live a healthier life. Along with this, changes need
to implement within the We Al-li Pty Ltde for delivering quality services. To work in partnership
with Torres Islander strait and aboriginal people is one of the critical success factors. The
government of Australia needs a resources, supported, consulted and empowered to address all
the health issues which are faced by this Aboriginal community (Karriker-Jaffe, Room and
Greenfield, 2018). Through providing proper resources services in control of community aids in
bringing positive changes. Apart from this, Australian medical association has calculated that it
is required to provide $500 to aboriginal people in order to gain access to primary health care as
other Australians.
To improve health in these areas and for making sure the following practices:
 For We Al-li Pty Ltd, it is important to make sure that health equity promotion is
thoughtful, clear and routine in all interventions.
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 Firm should increase collaboration with and empowerment of affected communities that
is Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
 Further, encouraging and documented efforts help in accomplishing success in improving
health services equity. Therefore, organisational performance needs to be monitored
regularly and make changes if required on time. In We Al-li Pty Ltd, the Aboriginal and
Torres Strait Islander Health Performance Framework can be used for informing policy
development monitoring progress in indigenous health services.
In order to address inequality in health services issues, Australia government can focus
on the efficient and equitable health system in order to overcome inequality issues. The
government should invest in the indigenous advancement strategy. Therefore, the government
can work in partnership with the Aboriginal and Torres Strait islander people so that it can
effectively implement IAS system (Cushing, Morello-Frosch and Pastor, 2015). The government
of Australia can start Indigenous Australian health programme with the aim of improving the
health needs of aboriginal people and promote equality.
The government at all level should follow steps for health equality that are as follows:
 Commit openly to make sure universal access to high quality, competent safe, publicly
funded health care which is based on the principal of comprehensive primary health care
(Do, Scott and Spencer, 2014).
 Firms can adopt a cross-cultural approach to policy development for health making sure
that policy consistency across health care, social protection and economic policy.
 Facilitating the respondents of population group such as Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander people who are facing health injustices in the planning development, governance
and assessment of services for developing a social condition for good health (Kawachi
and Subramanian, 2014).
 The Australian government should undertake regular and comprehensive monitoring of
health care access. It can also consider health status, exposures, risk, disaggregated to
disclose injustices after affecting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
 The government needs to ensure that all the policies and laws made by them in respect to
promote equality in health care firm are implemented properly and strictly. All
Aboriginal and Torres Strait islander people are receiving services without any
discrimination or not (Chan, Leung, Quinn and Hall, 2018). It should be properly
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monitored by the government authorities so as to remove this issues completely from
health and social care organization. The present proposal is different because in this,
focus is on promoting health services equality among people in Australia.
Relevance and feasibility of a change strategy
There are some challenges in the present project proposal such as to implement this
project lots of time and resources are required. However, there are many social factors which can
affect this project such as issues related to the inequality in age, gender, and income can create a
problem in the successful implementation of the proposal (Cooke and Bartram, 2015). To
implement this proposal successfully, it is important for that health care organisation support
people in the implementation of equality in health services for Aboriginal and Torres Strait
islander people. Along with this, different communities can also support in this program through
providing funds and resources available (Do, Scott and Spencer, 2014).
Recommendation
It is recommended that in We Al-li Pty Ltd, it should focus on resolving issues related to
the inequality faced by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander while taking services for them. Staff
should be hired who are ready to promote equality culture so that all patients whether they
belong to a different culture, background or race received services equally within the firm.
Health care firm can hire health care professional who is highly equipped with better cultural
competencies and their awareness can reduce healthcare inequalities.
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Reference
Badland, H., Whitzman, C., Lowe, M., Davern, M., Aye, L., Butterworth, I., Hes, D. and Giles-
Corti, B., 2014. Urban liveability: emerging lessons from Australia for exploring the
potential for indicators to measure the social determinants of health. Social science &
medicine, 111, pp.64-73.
Bartley, M., 2016. Health inequality: an introduction to concepts, theories and methods. John
Wiley & Sons.
Chan, G.C., Leung, J., Quinn, C., Weier, M. and Hall, W., 2018. Socio‐economic differentials in
cannabis use trends in Australia. Addiction, 113(3), pp.454-461.
Cooke, F.L. and Bartram, T., 2015. Guest editors’ introduction: human resource management in
health care and elderly care: current challenges and toward a research agenda. Human
Resource Management, 54(5), pp.711-735.
Cushing, L., Morello-Frosch, R., Wander, M. and Pastor, M., 2015. The haves, the have-nots,
and the health of everyone: the relationship between social inequality and environmental
quality. Annual Review of Public Health, 36.
Delany, C., Doughney, L., Bandler, L., Harms, L., Andrews, S., Nicholson, P., Remedios, L.,
Edmondson, W., Kosta, L. and Ewen, S., 2018. Exploring learning goals and assessment
approaches for Indigenous health education: a qualitative study in Australia and New
Zealand. Higher Education, 75(2), pp.255-270.
Do, L.G., Scott, J.A., Thomson, W.M., Stamm, J.W., Rugg-Gunn, A.J., Levy, S.M., Wong, C.,
Devenish, G., Ha, D.H. and Spencer, A.J., 2014. Common risk factor approach to address
socioeconomic inequality in the oral health of preschool children–a prospective cohort
study. BMC Public Health, 14(1), p.429.
Do, L.G., Scott, J.A., Thomson, W.M., Stamm, J.W., Rugg-Gunn, A.J., Levy, S.M., Wong, C.,
Devenish, G., Ha, D.H. and Spencer, A.J., 2014. Common risk factor approach to address
socioeconomic inequality in the oral health of preschool children–a prospective cohort
study. BMC Public Health, 14(1), p.429.
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Elgar, F.J., McKinnon, B., Torsheim, T., Schnohr, C.W., Mazur, J., Cavallo, F. and Currie, C.,
2016. Patterns of socioeconomic inequality in adolescent health differ according to the
measure of socioeconomic position. Social Indicators Research, 127(3), pp.1169-1180.
Karriker-Jaffe, K.J., Room, R., Giesbrecht, N. and Greenfield, T.K., 2018. Alcohol’s harm to
others: Opportunities and challenges in a public health framework. Journal of studies on
alcohol and drugs, 79(2), pp.239-243.
Kawachi, I. and Subramanian, S.V., 2014. Income inequality. Social epidemiology, 126.
Kröger, H., Pakpahan, E. and Hoffmann, R., 2015. What causes health inequality? A systematic
review on the relative importance of social causation and health selection. The European
Journal of Public Health, 25(6), pp.951-960.
Mitrou, F., Cooke, M., Lawrence, D., Povah, D., Mobilia, E., Guimond, E. and Zubrick, S.R.,
2014. Gaps in Indigenous disadvantage not closing: a census cohort study of social
determinants of health in Australia, Canada, and New Zealand from 1981–2006. BMC
Public Health, 14(1), p.201.
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