Health Literacy Report: Indigenous Australians' Health and Strategies

This report delves into the critical concept of health literacy, particularly within the context of Indigenous Australians. It begins by defining health literacy and its importance in navigating the complexities of healthcare, differentiating it from general literacy. The report highlights the significant health disparities faced by Indigenous Australians, including higher rates of chronic diseases, mental health issues, and infectious diseases, underscoring the urgent need for health literacy initiatives. It explores potential barriers to health literacy, such as communication gaps and cultural insensitivity within healthcare systems. The report emphasizes the importance of effective communication strategies, including the use of plain language, diverse formats (audio-visual aids), and culturally sensitive practices to bridge these gaps. It also discusses the crucial role of cultural safety, advocating for healthcare providers to understand and respect Indigenous cultures. The report identifies key domains of health literacy, including fundamental, scientific, community, and cultural aspects. It concludes by emphasizing the necessity of integrating health literacy into education and healthcare policies to improve health outcomes and empower Indigenous Australians to better manage their health and access healthcare resources effectively.

Running head: HEALTH LITERACY
HEALTH LITERACY
Name of the Student
Name of the university
Author’s note

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Health literacy
The term health literacy was pioneered in the year 1979 and is of extreme importance in
the world of public health. It is involved with the abilities of the public to address complicated
demands of the health care in this recent world (Sørensen et al., 2012). A health literate can be
referred to as the factors responsible for a particular ill health, the predisposing factors behind the
ill health and the ways of mitigating them. There is much distinction between health literacy and
literacy in general. As per UNESCO, the word 'literate' is mostly familiar with the knowledge of
literature or education (Sørensen et al., 2012).
This paper strives to focus on health literacy on the context of the indigenous people of
Australia. The paper would begin by stating the purpose of health literacy, potential barriers to
health literacy, relevant concept of effective communication and cultural safety to promote
health literacy. The paper also discusses the possible strategies for spreading the importance of
health literacy among indigenous Australians.
The realm of health literacy relies in handling words and medical jargons. A report from
the Vass, Mitchel & Dhurrkay, (2018) indicates that almost half of the Australian population
faces challenges in understanding the medical terms. However health literacy does not literally
means that the health information will be only confined to the health care providers, but will also
be disseminated to the general public such that they can control their health more properly.
Health literacy needs an intricate group of reading, listening, critical and decision making skills
and also capability to implement the above skills in appropriate situations.

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The burden of diseases experienced by the indigenous Australians is three times more
than the non indigenous counterparts. The dominance of the chronic diseases like type 2
diabetes, cardiovascular diseases and chronic obstructive diseases are found in the community.
Mental health conditions and infectious diseases like skin infections and scabies are also widely
prevalent among themselves (Place, 2012). This wide spread prevalence of disease provides the
rationale for health literacy among the aboriginals.
The culturally and the linguistically diverse communities needs to access to the
knowledge for accessing the advantages of the heath care facilities. It is the health literacy that
influences their world views on health and community (Place, 2012). In order to impart fruitful
health literacy the health care professionals needs to understand health on their perspective.
In order to promote health literacy to people belonging to a culturally diverse
background, the health care service providers should be well aware of the responsibilities they
have for identifying the health care obstruction and to support the clients to become increasingly
health literate by the provision of intelligible information (Place, 2012). Communication is the
crucial aspect of promoting health literacy. Dudgeon & Ugle, (2014) have emphasized on the
communication gap amidst the health care professional and the aboriginal people. In order to
bridge this communication gap, it is necessary to create a non hostile environment for these
people. The health information should be provided in English and in various formats to be
understandable to the people, such as audio-visual aids can be used (Striley & Lawson, 2014).
All the information should contain minimum jargon and should include schematic diagrams,
symbols and pictures. Appropriate resources should be provided by the funding bodies for
ensuring the source materials used for translation is of supreme quality (Dudgeon & Ugle, 2014).

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All the public written materials in the clinical setting should be considered including the
signage, maps and the directories while communicating with the people from non- English
background (Striley & Lawson, 2014). Another main aspect of health literacy other than
communication is cultural sensitivity and cultural awareness. The health care sectors and the
multicare sectors have to be resources in such a manner that augments the cultural safety in heath
care (Vass, Mitchel & Dhurrkay, 2018). This can be done via the partnership projects,
knowledge sharing and by cross sectorial communication (Johnson, 2014). Culturally safe
practices such as health literacy to the women of indigenous background can be provided by
women health care professionals, which would empower the indigenous females to open up in
front of the health care professionals. In a word a health care professional should gave a
perception of his/her own culture for understanding the essence of other cultures.
Vass, Mitchel & Dhurrkay, (2018) has identified some key domains of health literacy-
they are fundamental, scientific, community and cultural. It is to be noted that the fundamental
health literacy of the Yolnu people in the North East Arnhem Land. One of the barriers in
providing health literacy to these people is that the amount of the English speaking people in this
community people is highly variable as a result most of the health promotion programs should
involve pictorial messaged (Place, 2012). Scientific literacy is also important for the people for
understanding the concepts of the microscopic world and the infection related to that (Woods-
McConney et al., 2013). Health literacy enables these culturally diverse people to understand the
reason for the infections, the probable hygiene maintenance, the possible modes of transmission
and also precautions from the diseases. Health literacy is required to understand the dosages of
the medicine prescribed by the doctors. Community health literacy is another factor that should
be focused on while providing education to the indigenous people. Certain people living in the

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remotest regions of Australia do not have the concept of what a hospital or a clinic is (Vass,
Mitchel & Dhurrkay, 2018). The main role of the health care professionals is to inform the
people about the community services available for them and to make them aware of their rights.
It becomes the duty of health care professionals understanding the traditions and the health care
beliefs of the indigenous people in order to know the loop and the gaps. Each of the community
should be served by a team of allied health care team members, community health care workers
and education teams.
HIV and other sexually transmitted disease have long been linked with lack of health
knowledge. Management of these deadly conditions involves proper screening, abiding by the
safety measures and adhering to the safety protocols (Lambert et al., 2014). Proper health
promoting campaigns can spread the awareness amongst the people. The most important step is
to integrate the health literacy into education. This could be accomplished by population health
programs, education strategies, school health education and marketing campaigns in social
domains. It is necessary to mandate the health literacy in the system itself that can be done by
developing and implementing policies at the organizational and the social level.
In conclusion it can be said that health literacy is the crucial knowledge required to
respond to a particular illness or get access to the health care options. Health literacy among the
indigenous Australians can be provided by effective communication strategies and by practicing
a culturally safety while disseminating knowledge to the people. For the non indigenous health
care professionals cultural literacy is still an area that requires continuous improvement. The
health care literacy programs can not only enhance their way of response towards the diseases
but would also improve their way of living.

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