Improvement of Health Status of Indigenous Australians in Northern Territory

This essay discusses the challenges faced by the indigenous population in Australia, particularly in the Northern Territory, in terms of health disparities and social determinants. It explores the impact of housing and homelessness on health outcomes and provides recommendations for improving the health status of indigenous Australians.

Running head: HEALTHCARE
HEALTHCARE
Name of the student
Name of the university
Author note

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Improvement of the status of the health of the indigenous population in Australia has
been a long debatable challenge for the government of Australia. The gap that exist among the
indigenous and the non-indigenous people in Australia has been one of the factor that has
remained unacceptable in a wide basis (Biddle 2017). This factor has been recognized and
identified as one of the concern related to major violation of the human rights by the committees
of United Nation and has been thoroughly acknowledged by the government of Australia. The
thesis statement of the essay argues with the fact of the inquiry regarding the using status of the
Ingenious Australians residing in the Northern Territory and the relevant social determinants of
the health that the government should consider while providing effective recommendation for the
improvement of the policy.
Background
Social determinants theory highlights that the inequality and the health of the population
is generally determined by many of the interconnected factors of the society. It has been one of
the basic tenet of the law of the human rights that all the rights are interconnected and tends to
effect over the enjoyment of the other population.
The choice of the housing that has been available to the indigenous Australians tends to
be more constrained as compared to other non-indigenous Australians on the basis of some of the
factors like high rate of unemployment, lower rate of wages, lower dimensions related to the
budgetary proficient and non-accessible home proprietorship (Humanrights.gov.au. 2019).
The northern territory has been significantly overrepresented in the homelessness
statistics that represents more than 12 percent of the national homeless population irrespective of
being less than one percent of the population of the Australia. According to Slhd.nsw.gov.au.

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(2016) 21% of the indigenous population residing in the Northern Territory are reported to be
homeless. Among these population, majority of the indigenous people resides in the remote
communities in overcrowded houses which lack the basic necessities. These people are homeless
people of Australia. Furthermore as per the reports, the indigenous population lives outside the
urban territories among which 19% of Ace springs, 9% of Darwin and 28% of Katherine has
distinguished their community from the time of 2011 enumeration (Humanrights.gov.au. 2019).
These community of people residing in the Northern Territory of Australia lacks their basic
opportunity for accessing to the natural assets and control their own lives for a healthy living and
existence.
Social determinants of health (SDOH)
The social determinants of health is the condition where people grow, work, love and
age. These factors are basically the circumstances that are shaped by the power distribution and
the resources at the national and the global level. According to the research by Christensen et al.
(2016) there lies a very close connection among the social and the economic status of the
indigenous population to their status of the health. It has been furthermore estimated that
differences towards the access towards the social determines of the health among the indigenous
and the non-indigenous population of Australia explain one third and one half of the gap in the
rate of the mortality.
According to the research studies, living in poor, unsafe and degrading quality together
with unsecure housing is generally associated with the poor health status of an individual
(Spinney, et al. 2016). The factor of stress related to the overcrowding, the challenges towards

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accessing the housing and the lack of the affordability of the housing tends to adversely impact
on the health (Markham and Doran 2015).
One of the major reason behind the poor condition of the housing of the indigenous
population of the Australia are the inappropriate design towards the cultural practices and the
local climatic conditions (Lea and Torzillo 2016). Furthermore low quality constriction and the
limited rate of maintenance are some of the other factors towards the homelessness of the
majority of the indigenous Australian residing in the Northern Territory. The factors such as the
wellbeing and other prosperity are just not an individual issues but the challenges for the entire
society.
Source: (Ware 2013)
The figure above illustrates the ratios of the health related challenges among the
indigenous population due to poor housing and homelessness among the Northern Territory of
Australia. The figure highlights how the factor of housing is one of the key social determinants

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of the health and how the rate of the disease remained unchanged among the aboriginal
population due to poor housing and homelessness (Crawford and Biddle 2017).
Some of the few social determinants of health and their link towards the health outcomes are
illustrated below.
Socio economic status / Poverty
The indigenous people residing in the Northern Territory of Australia experience socio
economic disadvantages over all the major indicators. At the year 2001 in the national census,
the average income of the community people of the Indigenous in the continent was $364 per
week which constituted about 62% of the rate for the people who are non-indigenous who have
$600 per week (Humanrights.gov.au. 2019). The social inconvenience together with the lack of
proper social economic status is the main hazard towards wellbeing for the indigenous
population. According to research, there lies associations among the social and economic status
of the individual and their rate or the status of health. The context of poverty is clearly associated
with the range of the poor health (Flatau et al. 2013). Poor education and literacy are linked with
the poor status of the health and impact the capacity of the people towards the use of the health
information. Lack of socio economic status reduces the accessibility towards the health care
services and the medicines (Grant et al. 2017). Run down and overcrowded housing is
furthermore associated with the poverty and ends to contribute to the spreading of the
communicable diseases among the community people. Furthermore poor infant diet and lack of
house is associated with the poverty and the chronic disease. The factor of smoking and the high
risky behavior is furthermore associated with the lower socio economic status. The absence or
the lack of the secure, reasonable and suitable pattern of housing results in various negative

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outcomes that includes the homeless, congestion and psychological wellness contributing to
social exclusion.
Linkage among chronic stress and perceptions of control
As per the national aboriginal health strategy (1989), it has been reported by the
indigenous population that their health status is connected to their dignity, self-esteem of
community and control over the physical environment and regarding the justice. It has been
accepted that the individual’s perception regarding the lack of control over their lives tends to
contribute to the burden of unhealthy stress, chronic disease that is furthermore contributing to
the challenges of the mental health, substance abuse and violence (Gilroy and Emerson 2016).
One of the indicator of chronic stress in the population group is the high rate of the health risk
behavior notably the factor of substance abuse. In the year 2012, one half of the population
among the indigenous people aged among the 15 years reported of being a daily and chain
smoker (Humanrights.gov.au. 2019). They reported of adapting the habit from the degrading
environment and the remote areas they live which lacks the basic health and hygiene facilities.
The congestion, lack of proper infrastructure and the structural damage facilities
influences the development of stress (Steen and MacKenzie 2013). High rate of mental
challenges furthermore indicates chronic stress contributing to high rate of mental and behavioral
disorders among the indigenous population among the population residing in the northern
territory. Hence relatively negative and permanent features of the social environment triggers the
intergenerational poverty and the chronic stress. According to WAACHS, lack of environmental
safety and stress caused due to the inappropriate health status and homelessness are the biggest
killer of the indigenous community people (Buergelt et al. 2017).

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Housing
The quality of the housing and the accessibility are some of the essential determinants of
the status of the health of the aboriginal people. Housing influences the prosperity and wellbeing
through various pathways that effect the chemical, physical financial and social components.
Poor and degradable condition like the lack of safe drinking water, mold and overcrowding has
been greatly associated with the high and increased risk related to the morbidity from the disease
which are chronic and infectious and poor nutrition and mental and behavioral disorders among
the aboriginal people (Paradies 2016). Hence the lack of affordable housing, homelessness and
the usage of the degraded quality and temporary shelters influences the poor health outcomes and
high rate of the risk relate to the premature death.
Inadequate residential facilities, practice of insufficient cleanliness and overcrowded
family unit effect the social issues and wellbeing of the remote community of indigenous
population in Australia (Humanrights.gov.au. 2019). The impact and the causes of the lodging
over the wellbeing differ depends on the climatic and geographic areas. The effect of the
congestion blend with the other natural elements like the poor hygiene quality, water and
spreadable irresistible disease and the introduction to the perils like the habit of smoking
expanding the damage inside the home (Anderson and Collins 2014). Thus overcrowding,
homelessness are unequivocally linked to weak rate of health among the indigenous population.
There lies a clear link among the quality and the area of the wellbeing and lodging.
Recommendation
Secure and appropriate housing is very must essential and critical to the health and the
wellbeing of the rural and the urban community people specifically the health aboriginal

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community people. According to the evidences and the repots, it is suggested and recommended
that there lies a lack of suitable housing that is available to the aboriginal people and families and
there lies a limited information regarding the preferences of indigenous families and the housing
preferences (Ball et al. 2015). The choice available incudes the public housing the aboriginal
housing, the private owed housing and the private rental housing. Thus it is recommended for the
government of Australia to consider building housing for the group of the indigenous people. It
is essential for the government to identify the housing preferences of the indigenous population
in the Northern Territory (Pateman et al. 2016). The government should furthermore facilitate
the increase in the number of the indigenous families in the LHD areas that have took
appropriate options of housing. The policy for housing for the aboriginal people furthermore
should advocate for the increase in the stock of the affordable. Appropriate, secure housing
facilities for the families in the urban areas.
Figure - Framework for the housing and the improvement of health

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Source –( Bailie and Wayte 2006)
The figure above illustrates the ecological intervention including three major interventions for
the government for improving the policy regarding the housing and the health status of the
indigenous population. As per the above figure, the government of Australia should initiate in the
improvement and promotion of a healthier policy for the targeted population since the
environment of policy is crucial for the creation of the context of the infrastructures and the
promotion of health programs for the indigenous housing and health outcomes.

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