Cultural Safety in Indigenous Health

This assignment delves into the critical topic of cultural safety within Indigenous health care. Students are tasked with analyzing scholarly articles that discuss the significance of cultural safety for Indigenous patients, providers, and communities. Additionally, students will examine a news article about the impact of social determinants on Indigenous health in Western Australia. The goal is to understand how cultural safety can bridge healthcare disparities and promote equitable health outcomes for Indigenous people.

Running head: CULTURAL SAFETY IN AUSTRALIAN HEALTHCARE
Cultural Safety in Australian Healthcare
Name of the Student
Name of the university
Author’s note

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Role of Australian media in influencing the health care of the Australian multicultural
community.
Introduction
Australia is a multicultural society. Due to the cultural adversity among the Australians,
disparities lies between the accessibility of the Australian health care. Most of the cultural
differences is reflected between the non indigenous and indigenous population of Australia.The
health status of the aboriginal Australian were always found to be in a critical state, due to some
social determinants of health like, racism, lack of health equity, lack of proper education and
several more (Brascoupe et al., 2009). Apart from the non indigenous population, Australia is
diversified by other group of people coming from countries all over the world. There are several
linguistically diverse group of Australian population are also there. They face with several
cultural, structural and service related barriers to access equal care (Brascoupe et al., 2009).
In order to mitigate the problems faced by the diverse population of Australia and to
increase the public awareness regarding the health care issues in Australia, Medias like news
releases, videos plays a huge role (McPhail-Bell, 2015). There are several media studies that
depicts that Maori health is openly described in the deficit model, further there are also negative
media portrayals that perpetuates the racist stigma among the Australian population. There are
also several media items that focus on the role of cultural safety in Australian health care
(McPhail-Bell, 2015).
This paper focuses on two media releases that will focus on the way it is influencing the
health care of Australia.

2CULTURAL SAFETY IN AUSTRALIAN HEALTHCARE
Discussion
Role and Power of Australian media
Public health had always been a concern for the governments of the world, both in the
developed and the undeveloped countries. Public health is profoundly affected by the
globalization of health. With the increasing global challenges the epidemiological pattern of
many diseases are also changing drastically. It has been reported that the Australian population
has a high prevalence of many diseases like obesity and cardiac diseases (Stoneham, Goodman
& Daube, 2014). It should be noted that the Australian population is diverse and consists of
people all over the world. Due to the widely diversified nature of the Australian population, there
are lots of problems faced by the health ministry of Australia. Among the different strategies
taken up for overcoming the health issue and ensuring cultural safety in health care, the media
are widely used by the government, international agencies and the non profitable organizations to
disseminate information to the people and to bring them together for reaching a state of
comprehensive physical, social and emotional well being (Stoneham, Goodman & Daube, 2014).
Health is always impacted by social and political factors as well. It is the media that increases the
public awareness regarding the social and the political impacts (Durey, 2010). Aboriginal health
and cultural safety associated to the aboriginal health had always been a discussed topic in
Australian health care. According to the government, continuous reforms are going on to
improve the health status of this people and to understand their grievances. But as per the
researches and field studies, the gap still exists in the aboriginal healthcare (Rigby et al., 2011).
The different media releases helps to disseminate the news to the rest of the population. It is
already known from that the Aboriginals are faced with racism in most of the aspects of their life
that had kept them aloof from the indigenous population (Durey, 2010). The Australian media

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helps the Public to know the actual history of the aboriginals and the other linguistically
diversified groups. The Australian media helps to expose the issues to the public and in a way
forces the government authorities to take actions to mitigate the health issues in Australian
population.
Role of media in association to cultural safety in Australian healthcare
Cultural safety can be defined as provision of an environment associated with health care
that is safe for all cultures of people. It is deals with several shared factors like self-esteem,
shared importance, shared level of understanding and experience of working, living and learning
together in complete dignity. A cultural safety among the Aboriginal s needed to strengthen their
culture (Stoneham, Goodman & Daube, 2014). It can be known from the studies that the initial
views of the people regarding the Aboriginal and the Torres Strait Islanders were judgmental
without even knowing or questioning whether the source of information was true or false. The
Australian media have helped to break the stereotypical views of the Australians regarding the
Aboriginals. The Australian print media is extremely concentrated and only have 3 media owners
and of them popular ones are Fairfax Media News Limited and APN News and Media. It
comprises of 98% (approx) of the media sector. These two media giant, together comprise of at
least 88% of the Australian print media assets (Stoneham, Goodman & Daube, 2014).
The Australian media has also increased awareness in the non indigenous health care
population and the caregivers. It has helped in building a conducive environment for the
aboriginals and the CALD people (Stoneham, Goodman & Daube, 2014). It is required for the
professionals in health care to have an acceptance to all types of cultures. Acceptance to
diversified culture will be helpful in creating the patient- therapist interpersonal relationships that

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would help them to provide a proper care to the culturally diversified people. The local new is a
vehicle to preserve and transform the cultural values. The media releases have helped the health
practitioners to move beyond the cultural awareness by understanding the differences and
addressing those inequities. Addressing to cultural safety is extremely important in nursing.
Media source can be used in any discipline to enhance knowledge. Both the verbal and the
visualized form of the information can be useful in making concepts more acceptable to the
people (Stoneham, Goodman & Daube, 2014). The press release and the various media have
helped in reducing the negative perceptions in people regarding the aboriginal people. There is a
social stigma that the culturally backward people are more susceptible to drugs and alcohols. It is
the media that has brought forward the underlying reasons behind the drugs and alcohol
consumptions in CALD people (Stoneham, Goodman & Daube, 2014). Therefore it can be
rightly said that the Australian media had played a great role in addressing cultural safe care to
the culturally diversified Australian population.
Business as usual’ health care unsafe for Indigenous Australians
https://indaily.com.au/news/2017/09/06/business-usual-health-care-unsafe-indigenous-
australians/
The key issue of the news is that in spite of the several reforms that have undertaken by
the government to improve the health status of the aboriginals, the barriers continue to block the
equity in the health care for the culturally and linguistically diversified Australians. The news
report says that researches by the Royal Flying Doctor Service (RFDS) and Flinders University
shows that the health practitioners and the clinical staffs are not following the culturally safe
health care practices which are resulting in poor health outcomes amongst the Australian

5CULTURAL SAFETY IN AUSTRALIAN HEALTHCARE
aboriginals. Therefore the actual purpose of the National Close the gap initiative is not being
served (Peiris, Brown & Cass, 2008). The news suggests that the Australian indigenous people
have higher rate o hospital readmissions and death expectancy rates than the non indigenous
population of Australia.
Professor Dennis McDermott from the Poche Centre for Indigenous Health and
Wellbeing at Flinders University, in collaboration with Professor Tom Calma, Patron of the
Poche Indigenous Health Network and RFDS CEO Martin Laverty has published a paper which
says that although the awareness of cultural safety among the Australians has been showing a
significant rise, it is not yet efficiently incorporated within the current medical practices that can
substantially change the landscape of the aboriginal health care delivery (Peiris, Brown & Cass,
2008).
According to Professor Dennis McDermott, there are several barriers to cultural safety in
the Australians. The involuntary dependence on the stereotypes, language diversity and the
inherent imbalance in the power between the patient and the provider contribute to a medical
practice that is not culturally safe (Peiris, Brown & Cass, 2008). The following factors are
sometimes exacerbated by the lack of knowledge about the well being of the indigenous people.
Another thing which he had pointed out is that, most of the concepts inculcated by the health
practitioners are influenced or dominated by the western viewpoint. Professor McDermott’s
statements are supported by the analysis of Dr Rosalie Schultz from the Centre for Remote
Health. According to Dr Rosalie Schultz, the health care setting had always overlooked the link
between the Aboriginals and their land. He has stated that mere government investments alone
will not be able to reduce the health care disparities amongst the aboriginals. Dr Rosalie Schultz
has emphasized upon the fact that in order to achieve a culturally safe health care it is necessary

6CULTURAL SAFETY IN AUSTRALIAN HEALTHCARE
to involve the patients in the decision making centering their own disease treatment regimen and
should be able to become a part of the team for maximizing the effectiveness of the
plan(Stoneham, Goodman & Daube, 2014). In order to be responsive from the cultural
viewpoint, the health practitioners and the clinical staffs should be more regardful to the patient,
should consider the effect of the power relationship and should enable the patient to determine
their own safety. According to the professor, each and every practitioner should be able to live
the ethos that is culturally safe and the health care organization will be able to embed the
principles of cultural safety in their organization (Peiris, Brown & Cass, 2008).
In a nutshell in order to practice a culturally safe health care some simple rules are to be
followed. As per the information provided in the media release it is not essential for the common
people to understand all the rules and stories of the aboriginal culture. The stereotypic stories
related to the Aboriginals should not be believed as most of them are related to only a specific
individual which do not guarantee information about the other members of the community
(Peiris, Brown & Cass, 2008). In order to dismantle the barriers that are opposing the cultural
safety, it is essential to develop health care settings that are free from racism. The health care
professionals need to integrate the cultural safety into their clinical system.
Thus this media release discusses about the barriers and the possible interventions to dismantle
the barriers for cultivating cultural safety in Australian health care.
MEDIA ARTICLE 2
It's a war zone out there': confronting video shows WA alcohol, drug violence
http://www.watoday.com.au/wa-news/its-a-war-zone-out-there-confronting-video-shows-wa-
alcohol-drug-violence-20170809-gxsgxu.html

7CULTURAL SAFETY IN AUSTRALIAN HEALTHCARE
It has been noticed that the Australian media coverage offers an over whelming negative
portrayal of aboriginal health and cultural safety. It has been reported that almost 75% of the
articles focused on the negative stories within the community. The negative portrayals of
Aboriginal health involve child abuse, alcohol and drug dependency (Nguyen, 2008).
This media provides with the different measures that can be taken to ensure cultural
safety amongst the Australians. According to the speaker trust and relationships are of paramount
importance to the aboriginals. Unlike the other communities of over the world, their relationships
are the part of their health (Nguyen, 2008). Their spiritual well being and peacefulness aligns
with the physical well being of the aboriginal. Many Australian news and videos also cast or
expose the positive sides of the aboriginal culture (Stoneham, Goodman & Daube, 2014).
Australian aboriginal cultures are one of the oldest cultures found to exist in earth and should
therefore be preserved and anticipated. Although there are several holes that are yet to be filled
in Australian health care (Rigby et al., 2011). According to this media there are certain measures
that have brought about significant changes in the aboriginal health care. Most of the media news
describes about the strange stories related to the aboriginals which had formed a bad perception
regarding the aboriginals. The following report describes about the tendency of violence among
the aboriginals (Stoneham, Goodman & Daube, 2014). What is shown by the media is sometimes
the partial truth and forms the ignition to the formation of a particular stigma. The indigenous
health professionals who are unacquainted with the actual truth often find it weird or insecured to
treat the aboriginals (Rigby et al., 2011). There the partial truth shown by the media often caters
to the barriers in the cultural safety of the aboriginals. The media focuses on the following that
the culturally diverse people of Australia are more prone to prison entry and drug abuse. The
media portrays the image of the aboriginals to be drinkers and drug consumers. This particular

8CULTURAL SAFETY IN AUSTRALIAN HEALTHCARE
media focuses on the problems and not on the driving factor behind this (Stoneham, Goodman &
Daube, 2014).
It should be noted that the problem with alcohol in the indigenous people began with the
invasion and it can be said that contrary to the perception of the public, only fewer aboriginals
are addicted to alcohols and drugs (Rigby et al., 2011). Media normally portrays the habit of a
few. An analysis by The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare detected that about one out of
five Australians binge-drink only once a month. There are many Australian surveys that have
shown that the Indigenous Australians are less likely to consume alcohol as compared to the
white people (Stoneham, Goodman & Daube, 2014).
Conclusion
There are several factors that impact of the cultural well being of the indigenous
Australians. The most important factor that caters to the well being of the aboriginals is the
spirituality, it is an intangible factor that cannot be hold but only perceived. The Australian
media has greatly influenced the perception of the non indigenous Australians regarding the
Indigenous Australians. Some of the media releases describes about the negative Performa of the
aboriginals. The first media article focuses about the barriers to culturally safe health care in the
aboriginals and focuses on the possible measures that can be adopted to provide a health care
delivery that is culturally safe. It further focuses on the self realization of the health practitioners
to involve the patients in the decision making about their own disease prognosis. They should be
able to become a part of the team for maximizing the effectiveness of the plan. It is necessary to
understand the core reasons behind the back wardens of the aboriginal health care and address
the requirements that would bring about both physical and mental well being in the aboriginals.

9CULTURAL SAFETY IN AUSTRALIAN HEALTHCARE
The second media article describes about the drug and alcohol dependency of the
Aboriginals, which generally generates a sense of biasness regarding the characters of the
indigenous people. This sense off biasness caters contributes to the lack of cultural competence
in aboriginal health care. Such abusive news are disgraceful and just strikes the fire of racism.
These type of abuse by the media profiles the aboriginals as the second class citizen of their own
country. Further it can be concluded that for dismantling the barriers that are affecting the
cultural safety, it is essential to develop health care settings that are free from racism. The health
care professionals need to integrate the cultural safety into their clinical system. These can be
only accomplished by the dissemination of correct informations regarding the Aboriginals.

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References
Brascoupé, S., & Catherine Waters BA, M. A. (2009). Cultural safety: Exploring the
applicability of the concept of cultural safety to Aboriginal health and community
wellness. International Journal of Indigenous Health, 5(2), 6. (Nov 2009): 6-41.
Durey, A. (2010). Reducing racism in Aboriginal health care in Australia: where does cultural
education fit?. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health, 34(s1).
DOI: 10.1111/j.1753-6405.2010.00560.x
Gerlach, A. J. (2012). A critical reflection on the concept of cultural safety. Canadian Journal of
Occupational Therapy, 79(3), 151-158.
http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.2182/cjot.2012.79.3.4
McPhail-Bell, K. (2015). We don’t tell people what to do’: an ethnography of health promotion
with Indigenous Australians in South East Queensland. Doctor of Philosophy),
Queensland University of Technology, Kelvin Grove.
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Nguyen, H. T. (2008). Patient centred care: cultural safety in Indigenous health. Australian
family physician, 37(12), 990. 2008 Dec: 990-4

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Peiris, D., Brown, A., & Cass, A. (2008). Addressing inequities in access to quality health care
for indigenous people. Canadian Medical Association Journal, 179(10), 985-986.
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Phiri, J., Dietsch, E., & Bonner, A. (2010). Cultural safety and its importance for Australian
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direct=true&profile=ehost&scope=site&authtype=crawler&jrnl=17591422&AN=372182
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APPENDIX 1
APPENDIX 2
http://www.watoday.com.au/wa-news/its-a-war-zone-out-there-confronting-video-shows-wa-
alcohol-drug-violence-20170809-gxsgxu.html

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