Indigenous Health and Wellbeing in Australia

This assignment delves into the complex health challenges faced by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in Australia. It explores various determinants of health, including racial discrimination, education levels, employment opportunities, and lifestyle factors. The report emphasizes the significant impact these factors have on the overall well-being of Indigenous Australians and proposes preventive measures to mitigate negative consequences.

Determinants Of Health Factors Affecting The
Health And Well being Of A Person Of
Aboriginal Or Torres Strait Islander
Background

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
Impact of racism and discrimination on the health and well being of people........................1
Impact of health behaviours and lifestyle on the health and well being of people................2
Impact of education on the health and well being of people..................................................3
Impact of employment and income status on the health and well being of people................4
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................5
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................6

INTRODUCTION
Health factors are considered as those factors that has an impact on the health measures.
On an overall basis, health factors can be classified in four sub types and these include clinical,
social, health and economical. Determinants of health factors can be classified as the systems and
structures that can be termed responsible for any inequity associated with health. The report is
about discussing some determinants of health factors and its influence on an individual's health
who belongs to aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander background(Anthony, Weston and Vallen,
2018). The report will be include the analysis and understanding of four determinants of health
factors that are healthy behaviour, racism, education and employment.
Impact of racism and discrimination on the health and well being of people
For the people having aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander background, there have been
some factors that some have impact on their lifestyle as well as health. There are three types of
racial discrimination that has an impact on the individual's physical and mental behaviour. These
includes race based, direct and the indirect (Waters, 2017). In aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander
background area, it has been observed that more people and children are becoming the victim of
direct racism because the people in these areas are having an unequal distribution of all the roles,
power etc. People from other areas do not respect these people and do not involve them in any
major responsibilities or tasks. This has affected majority of the people in aboriginal or Torres
Strait Islander background. It has been observed that the people from aboriginal or Torres Strait
Islander background have to face racism by some communities because of which their mental
condition has been affected as well(Badland, Foster and Giles-Corti, 2017). Specially, in case of
children, it has affected their mental stability to a huge extent. It has further resulted in
influencing their physical and emotional behaviour as well to a huge extent. Although there have
been various government policies and legislations that focuses on excluding the racism and
discrimination from these areas.
As per the Equal opportunity Act 2010, it is being considered that there should be no sort
of discrimination or racism with anyone, whether it is on the basis of colour, race, gender etc. It
is not allowed at all and the guilty ones may have to pay huge penalties and the punishment may
also lead to the imprisonment of the person (Perales, 2014). It is because it focuses on
maintaining equality among all. It should be stopped because it affects the mental health of the
people living in aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander background and that can further cause
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various other complications such as health issues. It has been observed that for about 56% of the
children from aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander background suffer from sleep deficiency,
obesity, asthma etc. It is because these people do not afford to eat a healthy diet and that too
from time to time, so their children manages from the wastage of someone's etc., thus eating
whatever they get. Thus, in turn results in health problems like obesity and it can further lead to
diabetes as well(Bowman, McKinstry and McGorry, 2017). Also, it has been analysed that the
children who are being facing racial discrimination are having major difficulties in sleeping
because of which their lifestyle has been affected to a huge extent.
Impact of health behaviours and lifestyle on the health and well being of people
Because of lifestyle habits such as smoking, drinking etc. on a regular basis, the people of
aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander background also have to face major health issues. There
might be the possibility that as other people do not treat the people of aboriginal or Torres Strait
Islander background well, it affects their mental stability to an extent (Giles-Corti and Owen,
2016). So, for coping with these changes and ill behaviour, they might involve these lifestyle
habits such as drinking, smoking etc. This, further becomes responsible for various risk
associated health behaviours and risks. Also, it has been observed that the women population are
also indulging in the same because they have been depressed to a huge extent. So, for the women
who are also indulged in the same, they also have to face further complications because of this. It
happens because during pregnancy, smoking and drinking can actually affect the health of the
child in the womb to an extent(Fredericks and Duthie, 2017). This can also further result in
malfunctioning of the body of the child or others such as the child may be born weak etc. So, it is
very important to consider these factors so that they can decrease the rate of smoking and
drinking, thus leading to a healthy and happy life.
These people are not also able to consume a healthy diet because of the lack of
employment and the sort of racism they go through. This is considered as one of the reason why
their children find food to eat from rubbish etc. Sometimes they get but sometimes they did not.
So, they are not even able to consume food on a regular basis and whenever they had, it is either
found from rubbish or from some else means (Anthony, Weston and Vallen, 2018). A fact that is
to be ensured here is that the food they eat lacks in nutrition and is not healthy at all. This affects
their health to a huge extent. As a part of their lifestyle, overcrowding has also been observed in
the housing. For adjusting with various different means, groups of people have been shifted in a
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few houses and it has resulted in overcrowding as well. It has also further resulted in various
issues such as lack of facilities and because of that, there are chances of maximizing the risk of
various infections, viral etc. Sanitation has also got affected, which is very important to be
cleaned and maintained enough so that no sort of further infections or issues may arise. But,
because of overcrowding, they also have to manage in the sanitation etc. which is very unhealthy
and causes various further issues like infection etc(Giles-Corti and Owen, 2016). Therefore, it
can be concluded that decreasing the rate of smoking, drinking and other physical activities can
actually help in staying these fit and healthy, thus reducing the risk of deaths etc.
Impact of education on the health and well being of people
Education plays a very important role and can be considered as a very effective factor
that can help in maintaining a healthy lifestyle of the people from aboriginal or Torres Strait
Islander background. The attainment and the retention rate are both associated with this because
educational outcome is somewhere managed within this. In comparison, with the non indigenous
children, it has been observed that the children from aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander
background has a minimized attainment and retention rate . The government of Australia even
tried to diminish this gap completely by involving various means that can help in improvised set
of education (Bowman, McKinstry and McGorry, 2017). Also, it is obvious that if more
improvised set of academic processes will be involved, it will further help in various factors such
as in employment, housing, income, standard of living etc. It is because if the children will be
guided about the essential factors from the initial phases, it can help them in continuing the same
in their further phases as well. So, higher level of education can actually help in increasing the
understanding of people about these factors so that they can stay aware of the factors completely.
Whether it is about making changes in lifestyle behaviours such as smoking, drinking etc.
or providing guidance about the cleanliness required for a better health, they should be made
aware of all the advantages along with the dis advantages so that they can act understandable
enough(Mactaggart and et.al., 2016.). It is because if they were being taught about the
disadvantages of smoking etc., then there might be the possibility that they do not get involved in
any of such activity. So, it is very important to involve education as a major and important
determinant of health factor so that there can be observed some changes in the loop holes that are
being observed for causing issues for the people of aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander
background (Badland, Foster and Giles-Corti, 2017) . Educating people more aware of the health
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literacy is very important. It can be either developed by implementing a range of strategies that
can help in educating and guiding people about the importance of these factors. Also, when the
people of the aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander background will be well educated, the other
ones will also think before discriminating them. Other groups and people discriminate them
because they know that they lack in education, so they might not understandable enough to deal
with people. They found them weak because of this(Perales, 2014). So, it needs to be ensured
that there have been various different standards for education involved that can be involved in
order to educate every single child there. This will also further help in increasing their
confidence level and, they can be efficient enough to fight back with people who supports
discrimination etc.
Impact of employment and income status on the health and well being of people
Employment also plays a very important element as it helps in providing a source of
income that can further help in satisfying the needs and requirements of the basic life. There are
some specified measures of employment and these involve employment rate, unemployment rate
and the labour force participation rate (Fredericks and Duthie, 2017). There are various factors
that can get nourished enough because of a better employment status such as increased self
esteem, self development etc. Also, it has been observed that unemployment leads to various
complications such as health issues, poverty, affected economic status etc. Without employment
means an individual without money and it is obvious enough that without having an efficient
amount of money, it is actually hard to satisfy all the needs and expenses required(Waters, 2017).
These conditions are considered as quite hard to live a happier and healthier life because
employment is very necessary to promote a healthy well being of a person. This also helps the
person to stay healthy as well as happy enough. This is the same case with the people of
aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander background. Therefore, unemployment can have various
negative effects on a person and the lifestyle they are used to living in. The labour force
participation rate is when the labours work on timely basis (Ratnanesan, Howarth and Mann,
2014). The unemployed refers to the ones who are not employed presently and are looking for
some job. As compared with the other people in Australia, it has been analysed that the overall
participation of the labour force of the aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander background is less.
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CONCLUSION
It can be concluded from the report that people from aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander
background have to undergo enormous number of issues because of which their health as well as
other lifestyle factors have been affected. These determinants of health include racial
discrimination, education, employment and lifestyle factors. Every factor has some influence on
the health and well being of people aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander background, so
preventive measures can be taken accordingly in order to minimize the negative impact, thus
promoting a healthy life style. Analysis of each single factor with preventive measures have also
been included.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Anthony, B., Weston, D. and Vallen, S., 2018. Thumbs Up: The effective use of music in health
and well-being education for Australian Aboriginal youth in remote
communities. International Journal of Community Music. 11(1). pp.71-89.
Badland, H., Foster, S. and Giles-Corti, B., 2017. Examining associations between area-level
spatial measures of housing with selected health and wellbeing behaviours and outcomes
in an urban context. Health & place. 43. pp.17-24.
Bowman, S., McKinstry, C. and McGorry, P., 2017. Youth mental ill health and secondary
school completion in Australia: time to act. Early intervention in psychiatry. 11(4).
pp.277-289.
Fredericks, B. and Duthie, D., 2017. Gendered Indigenous Health and Wellbeing within the
Australian Health System: A Review of the Literature.
Giles-Corti, B. and Owen, N., 2016. City planning and population health: a global challenge. The
lancet. 388(10062). pp.2912-2924.
Mactaggart, F. and et.al., 2016. Examining health and well‐being outcomes associated with
mining activity in rural communities of high‐income countries: A systematic
review. Australian Journal of Rural Health. 24(4). pp.230-237.
Perales, F., 2014. The costs of being “different”: sexual identity and subjective wellbeing over
the life course in contemporary Australia (No. 2014-07).
Ratnanesan, A., Howarth, P. and Mann, D., 2014. Future Solutions in Australian Healthcare~
White Paper.
Waters, D., 2017. Australia’s children and young people. Paediatric Nursing in Australia:
Principles for Practice. p.1.
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