This assignment analyzes the Koolin Balit policy of the Victorian government for Aboriginal health. It discusses the vision, key priorities, priority area of addressing risk factors, and relevant social determinants of health. It also covers at-risk groups like adolescents and older cohorts.
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Running head: KOOLIN BALIT – POLICY ANALYSIS KOOLIN BALIT – POLICY ANALYSIS Name of the student: Name of the university: Author note:
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1 KOOLIN BALIT – POLICY ANALYSIS Introduction: Koolin Balit: Victorian Government strategic directions for Aboriginal health 2012–2022 would be analyzed in order to understand how effective the strategies are addressing the healthcare needs and requirements of the aboriginals of Victoria. This assignment would have an overall discussion of the vision and key priorities of the plan (Helson et al., 2017). This would be followed by description of the priority area of “addressing risk factors” along with the two at risk population of “adolescents” and “older cohorts”. This would be followed three relevant social determinants of health like “socioeconomic status”, “poor health literacy” and “culturally incompetent care services” which when managed successfully can help in addressing the risk factors successfully. Overall description: Koolin Balit meaning “healthy people” is the name given to the strategic plan developed by the Department of Health of the Victorian government in collaboration with that of the aboriginal communities, other parts of the government as well as with service providers. They have committed to the improvement of aboriginal Health by developing a vision and aiming to make significant as well as measurable impacts on the improvement of the quality and length of lives of Aboriginal people living in Victoria (McKenna et al., 2015). These strategies were developedforthreeimportantobjectiveslikeclosingthegapinlifeexpectancyofthe Aboriginals of Victoria, reduction in the differences in the number of infant mortality rates, low birthweightsaswellasmorbiditybetweenindigenousandnon-indigenouspeopleand improvement in access towards services and outcomes for the indigenous people of this region. As a result, six important facts priority areas had been selected like that healthy start towards life,
2 KOOLIN BALIT – POLICY ANALYSIS developing a healthy childhood, healthier transition to adulthood, effective care for older cohorts, addressing of the risk factors and even managing illness with appropriate services. A wide variety of social determinists of health like socio-economic background and many environmental factors play major roles in determining the quality of lives of people (Jatkar et al., 2017). Moreover, poor healthcare services which are culturally not competent to meet the needs of aboriginal people are avoided by people (Genat et al., 2017). Therefore, developing proper healthcare services that ensure effectiveness, coordination, responsiveness and accessibility to aboriginals’ healthcare needs is one important motive of the Koolin Balit program as well. Description of one priority areas and two at-risk groups: One of the most important priority areas that is covered in the Koolin Balit policy is effectively addressing the risk factors that are resulting in increase in the burden of the health disorders among the aboriginals. Policy makers and researchers have well identified the main risks factors like lifestyle factors such as tobacco smoking, poor unhealthy diets, sedentary lifestyles, alcohol consumptions, illicit drug use, and unsafe sex as some of the main actions that contribute to increased disease burden (Kingsley et al., 2018).This can be explained with the help of an example.Tobacco smoking has acted as a risk factor that had contributed to about 12% of the total disorder burden and 20% of all deaths in the nation. As the data obtained in the year 2013, it has been seen that the smoking rates of aboriginals in Victoria was 33% in comparison to that of 19% to that of the non-indigenous people. Another risk factor is the unhealthy lifestyles of consuming poor unhealthy diet and lack of physical exercises. Obesity is considered to be the risk factor for various kinds of disorders
3 KOOLIN BALIT – POLICY ANALYSIS like type-2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, high blood pressure, osteoarthritis and certain cancers. It was found that obesity had become the risk factors for many chronic disorders accounting for about 11 percent among the Aboriginals in the year 2003. In Victoria in 2008, 50 percent of the Aboriginals adults were obese or overweight (Chamberlain et al., 2016). Two of the most at risk population are the adolescents and the older cohorts of the population. One of the at-risk populations is the young adolescents. They are highly vulnerable to the risk factor of being addicted to smoking as this is the stage of life when smoking habits begin. It has been seen that almost half of the aboriginal adolescents in the nation accounting for about 4%5 of the people aging from 15 to 24 years are current smokers. Smoking disorders like lung cancers, injuries cardio-vascular disorders and similar others as they age have been found to be common (Fredericks et al., 2017).One of them is the older cohorts. Insufficient physical activity, improper diets, sedentary lifestyles and many others throughout their lives exposed them higher rates of chronic ailments like that of diabetes and stroke. Cognitive damage is also found to be common among them with higher rates of dementia. The rate of increase of chronic disorder burden in the native people aged over 55 years is seen to be three times higher than that of the non-native people. Discussion of three relevant social determinants of health: The older cohort of the aboriginals residing in Victoria is seen to live with huge number of co-morbid conditions thereby suffering from more than one complex disorder. Obesity is found to be a common risk factor where many of the older individuals are found to be suffering from diabetes, cardio-vascular disorders, strokes, cancers, fall risks, osteoarthritis.
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4 KOOLIN BALIT – POLICY ANALYSIS Close analysis of the social determinants of health include lowsocio-economic statusof the aboriginals people. Studies have related people belonging to low socioeconomic class with higher risks for diabetes, osteoarthritis, strokes, cardiovascular disorders and similar others. Older aboriginals from poor socio-economic class are not able to afford quality nutritious organic foods, fruits and vegetables that have low calories. Rather, they can only afford cheaper calorie dense fast foods that result in weight gain. Insufficient fruit as well as vegetable consumption have been found to account for about 3.5% of the total disorder burden for older aboriginal people with 18% of the cardiovascular disorders cases and five percent of the health gap (Fredericks et al., 2017). It has been found that food insecurity causes stress, lack of energy as well as hunger. Researchers are of the opinion that in the long run, food insecurity substantially increases the chances of obesity. It has been also found that low socio-economic cohorts of people suffer from excessive alcohol consumption. Older people mainly lose their physical ability and hence they cannot perform intensive work and hence they tend to spend more time in families rearing children and others. They tend to suffer from boredom. They even get frustrated from the sufferings of chronic ailments (Spurling et al., 2018). As a result for this, they tend to get addicted to alcohol consumption. Many of the studies have found older cohorts suggesting that alcohol provides them with “alternate reality” for which they tend to consume them. Hence, they develop many disorders like cancers, cirrhosis, high blood pressure and many others. The second social determinant of health is thelack of education and health literacy among the aboriginals. Strenuous childhood with impacts of colonization and stolen generation had resulted in many of the older cohorts to go through tormenting childhood time. Moreover, at the same time, tendency of Aboriginals dropping out from schools before attending high school
5 KOOLIN BALIT – POLICY ANALYSIS during their adolescent years is another contributing factor for poor health literacy development among the older people. Hence, they do not understand the importance of consuming healthy nutrient rich fruits, vegetables and diet. Moreover, they also do not remain aware of the importance of physical activities throughout their lives to remain fit and burn calories for staying fit (Rowe et al., 2018). Hence, they tend to develop obesity which exposes them to different chronic ailments. Moreover, they also do not participate in any screening sessions or in routine yearly check-ups that help in early identification of the risk factors and prevent the occurrence of any disorders. Hence, lack of education and improper health literacy contribute to risky behaviors among older cohorts.Health literacy mainly helps individuals to undertake proper healthcare decisions that help them to develop quality health. Older people with poor health literacy cannot undertake proper healthcare choices and decisions and hence they are seen to be subjected to more risks of developing the disorders (Farnbach et al., 2015). Another social determinant of health isimproper access to healthcare servicesin the communities. The effect of colonization, torments, discrimination, racism and stolen generations had already affected their childhood. The feelings of non-acceptance and disliking by the western culture people towards the aboriginals are deeply ingrained in their minds. The stress, fear, exploitation and sufferings faced by the aboriginal people during the times of colonization have been rooted in the generations. Such children growing up to be older cohorts of the present generations have not yet able to develop full confidence on the western culture (Askew et al., 2018).Insucharenas,discriminationandculturallyincompetentcarebythehealthcare professionals act as the main reasons for inaccessibility of the older cohorts to attend healthcare services. Providing service to the older cohorts that do not align with that of the cultural traditions, inhibitions as well as preferences of the older aboriginals affect their autonomy and
6 KOOLIN BALIT – POLICY ANALYSIS dignity and hence may prevent them from accessing healthcare services. Hence, Koolit Balit is trying to implement and strengthen service delivery that is not only cultural competent but also aligns with the needs of the older people (Campbell et al., 2018). Conclusion: From the above discussion, it can be seen that Koolin Balit is one of the best strategic framework developed by Victorian government to ensure holistic healthcare to the aboriginal people. They aim in developing strategies that would cover the broad social determinants of health that affect the life of the Aboriginals people in Victoria and thereby try to manage the barriers ensuring quality health. The key priorities that are covered by the policy are healthy start to life, quality teenage hood, and effective transition to adulthood, caring for old people, assessing different risk factors and managing services to provide care to people. One of the at risk population is the older people who are exposed to high risk factors that need to be handles sensitively with care. Developing their financial security, health literacy level and providing culturally competent healthcare services can help in managing the risk factors for older cohorts.
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7 KOOLIN BALIT – POLICY ANALYSIS References: Askew, D. A., Jennings, W. J., Hayman, N. E., Schluter, P. J., & Spurling, G. K. (2018). Knowing our patients: a cross-sectional study of adult patients attending an urban Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander primary healthcare service.Australian journal of primary health. Campbell, M. A., Hunt, J., Scrimgeour, D. J., Davey, M., & Jones, V. (2018). Contribution of Aboriginal Community-Controlled Health Services to improving Aboriginal health: an evidence review.Australian health review,42(2), 218-226. Chamberlain, C. R., MacLean, S., Bawden, G., Kelaher, M., Munro-Harrison, E., Boyle, J., & Freeman, K. (2016). An ‘equity’domain could strengthen the utility of a framework for assessing care coordination for Australian Aboriginal families.International Journal of Care Coordination,19(1-2), 42-46. Farnbach, S., Eades, A. M., & Hackett, M. L. (2015). Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander-focusedprimaryhealthcaresocialandemotionalwellbeingresearch:a systematic review protocol.Systematic reviews,4(1), 189. Fredericks, B. L., Daniels, C., Judd, J., Bainbridge, R., Clapham, K., Longbottom, M., ... & Duthie, D. (2017). Gendered Indigenous health and wellbeing within the Australian health system: A review of the literature.Genderred Indigenous health and wellbeing within the Australian health system: A review of the literature.
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