Indigenous Health Perspectives

Running Head: Indigenous Health Perspective
1
INDIGENOUS HEALTH PERSPECTIVES
Name
Professor
Institution
Course
Date

Indigenous Health Perspectives 2
INDIGENOUS HEALTH PERSPECTIVES
Indigenous health issues are the cultural physical social and emotional welfare of
Aboriginal persons. Most indigenous Australians are usually faced with poorer health
issues as compared to other Australians and usually have lower life expectancy.
Indigenous Australians are also more prone to respiratory diseases, diabetes, mental
health problems, cardiovascular disease and chronic kidney disease than their other
counterparts. The active use of tobacco, alcohol, and other illicit substances by
Australians is at a very high rate and this in turn is reflected in various life aspects. For
instance, substance abuse is believed to play a critical role in widening the line between
the Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians on issues of health and life expectancy
(Hsu, Caputi & Byrne, 2010).
Carol martin, an indigenous woman, a labor MP in west Australia was addicted to
smoking for 39 years. Being a smoker for such a long time she thought that she fully
aware she would never quit smoking. However, after sometime she managed to stop
and at some point she confessed that she experienced various smoking-related
problems such as sore throat, diabetes and hypertension even after quitting smoking.
She related how smoking had taken a toll on her health. Carol martin said that she
spent a huge part of her income in smoking but after ceasing from the behavior, she
was able to save quite a lot of money within a short time. She also explained how
smoking was time consuming hanging out with fellow smokers but after refraining from
smoking she spent the better part of her time with her family and impacted them
positively.

Indigenous Health Perspectives 3
It is evident that smoking among the indigenous communities is one of the health
issues which have increased at a higher alarming rate from 40 to 80 percent compared
to non-indigenous communities leading to serious health issues (Valery, Coory, Stirling,
& Green, 2006). Native people begin smoking at a tender age and are significantly less
likely to quit unlike non-native populace. Some of the factors that contribute to smoking
among aboriginal people include tobacco payments where the white men paid them
with tobacco after work. Also, lack of knowledge of the health problems associated with
smoking. Additionally, the native people were not exposed to anti-smoking campaigns
due to their economic status (Pedersen, Dudgeon, Watt, & Griffiths, 2006). Another
factor is poor housing which leads to overcrowding thereby leading to passive smoking
even among the children.
Some of the measures that can be put into place are promoting anti-smoking
campaigns which can be done through media, and door to door campaigns to create
awareness. Similarly, employing indigenous health workers and educators will help the
native smokers to quit. Use of traditional and cultural elements to channel health
promoting information why aboriginal should stop smoking can also help control the
problem. What is more, training clinicians on how to help smokers to quit and how to
recommend therapies can also help the prevalence of smoking (Smith, Humphreys, &
Wilson, 2008).
Smoking is one of the key contributors that can lead to health conditions such as
diabetes, hypertension, cardiovascular heart disease and cancer (Johnston & Thomas,
2008). Suffering from such diseases impacts the lives of patients as well as those of
their families and community at large. Some of the key effects of such health conditions