Analysis of Holistic Care among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders

Running head: ANALYSIS OF HOLISTIC CARE AMONG ABORIGINAL & TORRES
STRAIT ISLANDERS
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Analysis of Holistic Care among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders
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ANALYSIS OF HOLISTIC CARE AMONG ABORIGINAL & TORRES STRAIT ISLANDERS2
Analysis of Holistic care among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders
The Holistic health care services involves total care of a patient including emotions,
social level, economic level, physical and even divine needs of a person on how she or he
responds to illness on the effort to take self-care needs (Papathanasiou et al., 2013). Individuals
who suffer from intellectual and developmental disabilities mostly suffer from healthcare
comorbidities thus they require care from all angles of health services, support, and reliance on
natural assistance for their emotional, physical and social needs as included in the National
Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organization (NACCHO) (Demaio, Drysdale & de
Courten, 2012). This can be achieved through many approaches like education, medication,
communication, treatments and individual support (Bullington & Fagerberg, 2013). The
indigenous Australians like Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander over time have suffered radical
morbidity and greater mortality rate as compared to the non-indigenous Australians. Their life
expectancy is less than the non-indigenous people in Australia. This can be attributed to chronic
diseases that they often suffer from such as cardiovascular, diabetes and kidney related diseases.
They live in remote areas where availability of health services is poor. (Parker & Milroy, 2014).
Therefore, the idea of holistic health care covers a central role in providing health services for
the indigenous people living in Australia. But providing these services has faced many
challenges hindering effective provision of holistic health demands of Aboriginal and Torres
Strait Islanders. In this article factors derailing holistic healthcare provision among Aboriginal
and Torres Strait Islanders will be examined.
Holistic Health
Holistic care involves profoundly understating the needs of the sick people as per
NACCHO contitution. First, it ensures that they are provided with sufficient education to help

ANALYSIS OF HOLISTIC CARE AMONG ABORIGINAL & TORRES STRAIT ISLANDERS3
them undertake individual care on their bodies through self-reliance. The objective is to makes
patients to be confident and aware of their illness which will enable them to effectively
communicate to healthcare practitioners making them to understand the causes of this illness. It
also enhances harmony that exists between the body, mind and emotional environment of an
individual. The America Association of Holistic Nurses agrees with the practice and points that it
cures the complete of a person (Dossey & Keegan, 2012).
Most health service providersfor example the nurses have no full freedom in performing
their duties as most of them are taken by doctors (Maslach et al., 2013). Through the use of
holistic care, they can complete the process of healing and give them an independent view of
their responsibilities. Holist concern means caring for patients, and this is originally derived from
Florence Nightingale who came up with the system during World War I (Papathanasiou, Sklavou
& Kourkouta, 2013). Aboriginal Community Control in medical providers as defined in
NACCHO constitution, allows the native community of Aboriginal to be included if affairs and
problems facing the community.
The current healthcare systems of nursing lack the in-depth knowledge and understanding
of holistic care (Trail-Mahan et al., 2013). Since most of them are equipped with only the
biomedical skills while lacking familiarity with the system among nurses hence they may not
address all the needs of patients. Such a scenario may lead to ignoring of severe problems among
the sick persons as they are only considered to be biological structures neglecting emotional,
spiritual and their social demands. The application of medicines alone exposes the patient to a
higher risk of death, taking longer to heal and the cost of treatments increases (Fletcher, Fletcher
& Fletcher, 2012)