Indigenous Communities: Position and Influence in Australian Healthcare

Running Head: INDIGENOUS COMMUNITY
INDIGENOUS COMMUNITY
Name of the student
Name of the University
Author Note

1INDIGENOUS COMMUNITIES
The respective paper is a review of a case study related to the Australian aboriginal
community and their influence as well as position in the health care department of Australia. The
paper analyses the position and status of the aborigines and the natives of Australia in terms of
the facilities including healthcare and accommodation, analyses the different acts and schemes
which the Australian government has implemented in order to look after the well-being of the
aborigines as well as secure them from any kind of discrimination, prejudice, bigotry as well as
racism. The paper seeks to provide with a deeper insight of the factors that affect the aborigines
of Australia while amalgamating with the mainstream population of the nation, the advantages as
well as the disadvantages they face in the hands of the nation and advocates their fundamental
rights and privileges.
The case study which has been given in the question revolves around a twenty four year
old young adult who is an aboriginal Torres Strait Islander man from Palm Island who is an
inpatient in a nursing home in Australia who is waiting for discharge. However, Matt was
unfortunate enough to face certain difficulties while getting admitted to the hospital however
with the help of apt patient advocacy and culturally safe care, he was able to be restored safe,
sound and secure by the caregivers and social care workers of the nursing home. The problem
which Matt had supposedly faced could have been one of the most customary issues which most
of the aborigines face, which is discrimination (Beckett, 1990). Matt might have been
discriminated among the other patients on the grounds of him being physically, ethnically and
culturally different from the other “mainstream” inpatient population in the hospital. Researches
depict that most of the Torres Strait Islanders who are aged fifteen or above had been diagnosed
with poor physical and mental health and they have been subject to deep psychological distress
and anxiety (DiGiacomo et al., 2013). It is assumed that the aboriginals of Australia, especially

2INDIGENOUS COMMUNITIES
the Torres Strait Islanders have been subjected to harsh treatment from the colonizers such as
they have been forced to leave their natural family. The cultural shock which they encountered
throughout the colonization of Australia has compelled them to be remaining in psychological
distress, anxiety and depression throughout the generation (Gee et al., 2014). Such implications
can also be felt in the case of Matt. Since Matt is heralding from the indigenous community of
Torres Strait Islanders, it can be assumed that he might be suffering from deep psychological
distress and was unable to cope with the surroundings and the environment of the nursing home,
which is why he had opted for special services which are exclusively offered to the indigenous
communities of Australia.
The most updated and important service provided to the aborigines is Aboriginal
Community Controlled Health Service in Australia which has been exclusively built to improve
the standards of health in Aboriginal communities all over Australia (McCalman et al., 2014). It
provides medical, dental, aged care, drug and alcohol services to the aborigines. Most of the
indigenous people of Australia have been diagnosed with poor health and chronic diseases such
as respiratory diseases, mental health problems, cardiovascular diseases, diabetes as well as
chronic kidney problems. The Australian government has formulated certain health plans for the
Australian aborigines such as primary healthcare, maternal healthcare and pediatric healthcare to
meet their requirements (Aspin et al., 2012). The Aboriginal Community Controlled Health
Service in Australia has local as well as national headquarters and centers that are working as a
multi-sector approach and initiating as well as formulating strategies to overcome a large
magnitude of drawback between the statistics of indigenous health outcome with that of the
European health outcome (Bennett, 2015). The “closing the gap” initiatives and commitments
among the Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Service is mainly dependent upon the