Health Inequalities

Running head: Health Inequalities 1
Health Inequalities
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Health Inequalities 2
The health inequalities between the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community and
other communities challenged my thinking in the first module. In the introductory part of this
course, the World Health Organization statistics indicated that the indigeneious community is
the largest group in the world with the highest health inequalities. For instance, the health
inequalities range from life expectancy (Bates, Hankivsky, & Springer, 2009). I least
expected such health inequalities to exist in the 21st century and in a developed country like
Australia.
Description
The Aboriginal people have the largest health inequalities in the World (Bates et al., 2009).
Their life expectancy was approximated to be 10.6 years for males in 2010-2012, and 9.5
years for the females. This was far much lower than their counterparts. Furthermore, the issue
of health inequalities among the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander population is a
historical issues that has been in existence for a long and time and can be traced back to the
colonisation of Australia (Markwick, Ansari, Sullivan, Parsons, & McNeil, 2014), and
continued systemic discrimination (Shepherd, Li, & Zubrick, 2012). Health inequalities have
really impacted me and even influenced my thinking. I never thought or imagined that a
developed country like Australia can have some of its population suffer from health
inequalities due to systemic discrimination. I am convinced that I will have to help merge the
gap in the health inequalities at my capacity, even if it means championing for their rights or
providing healthcare services without discrimination whatsoever. The issue of health
inequalities has also impacted the community in that they have limited access to quality
healthcare services and increased incidences of non-communicable diseases.
Feelings