Contemporary Indigenous Health and Wellbeing

This essay explores the impact of the Close the Gap policy on the health and wellbeing of Indigenous Australians, with a focus on Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus and the case of Judy, a 57-year-old Aboriginal Australian. It discusses the limitations of the policy and the role of Aboriginal Medical Officers and Aboriginal Liaison Officers in providing culturally appropriate healthcare services. The essay concludes that the CTG policy needs to address the economic development of the Aboriginal community to improve health outcomes.

Running head: CONTEMPORARY INDIGENOUS HEALTH AND WELLBEING
CONTEMPORARY INDIGENOUS HEALTH AND WELLBEING
Name of the Student
Name of the Employee
Author’s Note

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Indigenous Australians that includes Australians of Aboriginal origin and Torres Strait
Islander are victims of social discrimination and lack of governmental support which has
imposed negative impact on their economic, academic and health development. This essay is
about the impact of Close the gap policy on the health status and longevity of the indigenous
Australians. This essay also discuss the impact of CTG policy on Judy, a 57 years old Aboriginal
Australian.
Closing The Gap (CTG) policy is a strategy taken by the Council of Australian
Governments (COAG) in March 2008 that includes the leaders of state, federal and territory
along with local governments, which involves closing the gaps in health equality and life
expectancy between Torres Strait Islander, Aboriginal Australians and the non-Indigenous
Australians within 25 years (Ackehurst et al. 2017). The policy is targeted to Torres Strait
Islander and Aboriginal people who comprise more than two and a half percent of the total
population of Australia. According to estimation, 90 percent of the targeted population is of
aboriginal origin while 6 percent are of Torres Strait Islander origin and 4 percent are of both
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Origin (Taylor and Guerin 2010). In order to monitor the
changes, COAG has set certain measureable targets that includes eliminate the differences in life
expectancy within a generation, to decrease the mortality rates by half and ensure early
childhood education access of indigenous children below the age of five, within a decade and
within 5 years respectively (The REM Framework 2016). The policy also targets to half the gap
in academic activities, year 12 attainment and equivalent attainment rates for indigenous students
by 2020 (Bainbridge et al. 2015). It also ensures decrease the gap by half in employment
outcomes within a decade. Aboriginal Australians and Torres Strait islander, through decades,
were subjected to imposition of oppressive legislation. Hence this policy was enacted to prevent

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oppression by enforcing equality between indigenous and non indigenous Australians. According
to the report of COAG Reform Council, good progress has been done on three targets namely,
early childhood education, child mortality rates and year 12 or equivalent attainment whereas, no
significant improvement has been reported in health statics, academic achievement and
employment outcomes of Indigenous Aboriginal Australians (Taylor, Kickett and Jones 2014).
Despite the fact that expectation from the CTG policy was high, according to the latest Prime
minister report 2017, the results CTG is still below expectations on most fields, especially health
(Core Issues and Organisation Lecture 2017). The report stated that Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander people are still the least healthy sub-population of Australia. Several limitations of the
CTG policy can be considered as the reason behind the laxity of the policy. One of the major
limitations of CTG is the lack of regular engagement and communication of the disability service
providers with the aboriginal community due to which unsatisfactory health care services are
experienced by the later (Reeve et al. 2015). Considering the fact that development of health is
directly dependant on economic development, lack of attention of the government on the
economic development of the Aboriginal community can be considered as another reason behind
the partial failure of the policy (Lip and Scheme 2016).
Type 2 diabetes mellitus is a long term metabolic disorder which is identified by high
blood sugar level, insulin resistance and lack of insulin (Sherwood 2013). Common symptoms of
the disease include frequent thrust and urination and often unexplained weight loss. As in the
case of Judy, diabetes can also causes leg ulcer since highly fluctuating blood sugar level can
convert even a mild injury in leg to leg cancer. The physical impact of the leg ulcer caused due to
Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (T2DM) on Judy involves severe pain resulting in sleepless nights
along with swelling, malodor and discharge. Due to T2DM, Judy is also having frequent urge for

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urination. Considering the fact that she has almost lost her mobility due to the leg ulcer, a bed
pan is provided to her. The physical health of Judy has imposes a negative impact on her
emotional and spiritual health. The fact that she has temporarily lost her mobility is making her
fell helpless since she lives by herself. Besides that, severe pain and sleepless night is making her
feel depressed and impotent. A healthy spiritual state of mind helps patients like Judy to be
recovered even from severe diseases by fighting depression and anxiety and improving the
ability to cope with the physical stress (Purdie et al. 2010). Considering the fact that T2D is
highly prevalent among indigenous Australians, it has been included in the CTG policy. T2D in
Aboriginal Australians and Torres Strait Islander is associated with poor blood sugar control and
high morbidity due to poverty, genetics, poor health literacy and remoteness as in case of Judy
who is an Aboriginal 57 year old widow woman. Judy was admitted in a health care under
Aboriginal Medical Service (AMS) where she was diagnosed with T2D along with leg ulcer and
since she has an Aboriginal background, Judy was referred by AMS and ALO to the community
health centre. Some major long-term health consequences of T2DM for Judy are kidney disease,
diabetic retinopathy and neuropathy along with macro vascular issues. Benefits of CTG policy of
Judy involves getting medications that are prescribed to her along with service from the
community health centre at a much lower price.
The terms ‘AMO’ and ‘ALO’ stand for Aboriginal Medical Officers and Aboriginal
Liaison Officers respectively (Taylor, Foster and Fleming 2008). The chief function of an ALO
is to ensure that all the Aboriginal Australians along with Torres Strait Islanders are able to
access mainstream healthcare services. ALOs are trained to acquire culturally appropriate
expertise and skills and they communicate sensitively with the indigenous Australians along with
working closely with Aboriginal medical services and other health care providers. The role of an

4CONTEMPORARY INDIGENOUS HEALTH AND WELLBEING
ALO is to provide training and healthcare education to health service staffs about Medical
Benefit Schedule (MBS) and Indigenous health care plans. Secondly, ALOs increases the
indigenous Australians enrolment in Medicare and ensure the authenticity of the medical benefits
claimed (Couzos and Murray 2008). The role of ALOs also comprises of providing advice and
support about new Medicare initiatives along with promoting Medicare services and programs at
local Indigenous events and forums. The AMOs on the other hand, are Indigenous people
provide Aboriginal Medical Service (AMS) which includes medical, aged care, dental and
alcohol and drug services to about 5,5000 indigenous people each year (Best and Fredericks
2014). Considering the fact that Judy who is a 57 years old Aboriginal woman was suffering
from T2DM along with leg ulcer, she is eligible for accessing AMS. This is the reason why the
AMO has stated in the discharge letter that she is eligible to be registered for CTG and Judy is
referred by both the ALO and AMO to the Community health care center. Since Judy is suffering
from leg ulcer, she needs to have regular dressing in order to be cured. However, she lives alone
in her house and has lost her mobility due to the leg ulcer. For this reason, the ALO has
requested the healthcare community to send community nurses for daily dressing of the leg ulcer
since AMS are not able to attend to this necessity. Thus, both AMO and ALO has played a major
role in acquiring health care services by Judy.
From the essay, it can be concluded that one of the chief purposes of the CTG policy is to
reduce the health issues of the indigenous Australians. Considering the fact that the percentage of
health issues of the indigenous Australians is far more than that of non-indigenous people due to
poverty, lack of education and governmental support, the CTG policy demolish its limitations to
irradiate the gap. In case of Judy, beside treating and providing medication to her for T2DM, she

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is also recommended to access daily dressing facilities at her residence. Thus, both the AMS and
ALO are helping Judy to be recovered from the disease to a great extent.

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Reference list:
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