Culture as a Determinant of Health Report
Added on 2020-04-07
10 Pages3370 Words84 Views
Culture as a determinant of healthNameTitleUniversity Affiliation
Culture as a determinant of health 2Culture as a determinant of healthAbstractIndigenous populations in Australia are subject to venerable outcomes of historical suppression. These consequences result to high mortality rates, poor health conditions n comparison to non indigenous populations and inexplicably high levels of diseases like diabetes, mental health problems and alcoholism. There extreme poverty levels translate directly to low levels of education that reflect to economic adversity, lower attainment in education, no access or little access to high quality healthcare and social dysfunction (Iwelunmor et al., 2014).Traditional Medicare approaches primarily focus on disease treatment and progression, therefore cultural complexities and indigenous healing processes are not capturedin plan designs meant to improve healthcare and change health behaviors’ in these communities. These papers role hence is to describe the role of culture as a determinant of health and strategies to work effectively with these cultures.SummaryModern medical science views health as primarily lack of defect or disease in the body, whereby, the body systems are operating normally. These poses limitations as new technology, new drug and treatment discoveries increase the cost of Medicare. This has continued to rise in the recent past. In practice, this materialistic approach therefore results in symptomatic and piecemeal approach to ill health. Specific cures fix symptoms and cure diseases without dealing with symptom causes and individuals as a whole.Focusing only on aspects measured and observed in the laboratory leaves a large blind spot that the medical model cannot solve as it views people like body systems working together. Using an approach that takes into account human spirit, emotions and mind brings about other factors that determine healthcare. The population health approach insists on a state of complete mental, social wellbeing. In analyzing individual and populations’ health, non medical determinants come into play. Cultural identity, equity, safety, education, social economic status, infrastructure, social integration, inclusions, community and geography influences provision of or access to medical services (Basnyat & Dutta, 2012). Important determinants of Australians indigenous populations’ health is inequality; including the lower standards of infrastructures of health and healthcare equal access when compared to other
Culture as a determinant of health 3Australians. The National Strategic Framework for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health 2003-2013 guides Australia’s indigenous health policy. The main concern therefore is to bridge the gap between the indigenous people and the other population.Human rights and empowerment practiceRights inherent to all human beings are termed as human rights. No matter what our place of dwelling, nationality, color, national or ethnic group, language, religion or other status, human rights are entitled to all without discrimination. These rights are indivisible, interdependent and interrelated. They are guaranteed and expressed by law in forms of customary international law and treaties. The ICESCR (International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights) includes the right to education, the right to adequate living standards i.e. adequate food, housing and clothing and the right to enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of mental and physical health in articles 13, 11 and 12 consecutively. The covenant in article 2 requires that governments to the maximum of their resource will take steps to make realizable all the rights in the covenant. In addition to that non discriminatory enjoyment of the rights should apply. The human rights based health approach has a set framework that is focused to offset inequalities and ensure people enjoy the highest health standards attainable (Dutta et al., 2015).It emphasis governments accountability for outcomes of social economic nature in different sectors as legal obligations measured against human rights system norms. Fundamental principles are established that guide development of policies that ensure equal opportunity provision to indigenous people and that there is no discrimination against throughdistinctive cultural status recognition. It outlines a criteria used to asses program interventionsand health policy to ascertain that services are of sufficient quality, appropriate, available and accessible by ensuring they don’t fall below the essential minimum level for human rights. Requires the government to demonstrate; targeted approach of issues in collaboration with indigenous people; to achieve within a timeframe the defined goals (Rubincam et al., 215). It places on the government a burden to justify use of all resources in its disposal as a matter of priority to satisfy the right to health.Dynamics of power and culture that shape health and wellbeingIn the empowerment matrix, community health work terrain is multidimensional with the health worker being the primary instrument that is involved in practice since the work is
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