Promoting Mental Health among Indigenous Groups: A Campaign Plan

This report consists of a campaign plan to promote mental health among indigenous groups, specifically Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders, who are more prone to acquire illnesses related to mental health. The campaign aims to spread awareness about mental health issues and the rights of indigenous people to equal treatment and access to quality care.

Assessment 3 Review of the
literature

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
Draft plan for a campaign ......................................................................................................3
Structured strategy for the campaign......................................................................................3
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................5
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................6

INTRODUCTION
An individual is said to be mentally healthy if he is emotionally and psychologically well.
Disturbances in the mental well being can become the cause of other illnesses as well. The
Aboriginal groups are subjected to major discrimination incidences which are having a great
impact on their mental health. This report consist of a campaign plan which will help in
promoting mental health among indigenous groups (Kairuz and et.al., 2020)
MAIN BODY
Draft plan for a campaign
The above research done on the chosen topic of mental health in the Aboriginal and
Torres strait islanders suggests that the people belonging to these groups are more prone to
acquire illnesses related to mental health. The aboriginals are 5 times more likely to acquire
dementia and comparatively have higher number of patients of depression and anxiety than the
non indigenous people. These facts emphasizes on the importance for considering this issue and
to take relevant measures to enhance the mental health levels of the Aboriginals. As these people
are the ones who to face discrimination at various spots in their life. Neither they are treated
equally by the people nor are they provided with equal access to health care as provided to the
other groups. Therefore, a strategy for imparting knowledge and enhancing awareness among the
Aboriginals regarding the rights to equality that they have been provided to them by the
government (Temple, Kelaher, and Paradies, 2020).
This campaign will also aim at spreading awareness amongst the indigenous groups
regarding the increasing number of mental illness cases in their community. Also it will be
imparting knowledge about the importance of maintaining a healthy mind and what are the rights
that can be practised by such groups regarding being mentally and physically healthy.
Structured strategy for the campaign
As per the statistics obtained by the research, more than 50 % of the population of the
indigenous groups are suffering from mental health issues like depression and anxiety. This
makes it important to lay emphasis on promoting mental health in such groups. These elevated
numbers also depict the lack of awareness about mental health services in these groups.
The group in focus for this awareness campaign will be specifically the people belonging
to Aboriginal and Torres strait islanders who are because these people are the major subjects of

discrimination in most nations like Australia because of their culture, traditional practices and
beliefs (Molloy and et.al., 2018). Also the other indigenous groups can be incorporated in the
campaign subjects so that they can also be made aware about their rights.
The campaign will be comprising of various programmes that will aim at imparting
knowledge regarding mental and issues relate to it to the indigenous people. The campaign will
also spread awareness about the laws that are made by the government in order to ensure equal
health service provisions to Aboriginal people. Imparting them knowledge about the laws and
policies would allow them to know about their rights to equality so that they can practice those
rights and can enhance their quality of life. The Aboriginals are not only discriminated at work
places but also experience discrimination at the health care centres like nursing homes where
they are not provided with quality health care services at thus affecting their quality of life
negatively. These discriminations based on social, economical and health care access have a
direct impact on their mental health which can be minimised if the people belonging to such
groups are empowered by the government by introducing strict rules against those who
discriminate these people. So the campaign will also propose such measures to be
taken(Donovan and et.al., 2018).
The campaign will also aim at targeting the people who are living in nursing homes and
belong to indigenous group. The people residing in nursing homes face a lot of issues while
receiving care, which include unwelcoming behaviour of the hospital staff, a sense of being
discriminated, feeling of mistrust. Therefore, the people residing in nursing homes also require
attention regarding their mental health. The campaign will also include conduction of awareness
spreading programs in nursing homes so that the care professionals as well as the people of
indigenous groups can be made aware of the rights of indigenous people defined by the
government laws.
A person from the Aboriginals groups can be made part of the campaign with whom
other people of the group can easily relate to. The person should have good communication and
oratory skills so that the people can be convinced by him to practice the rights provided to them.
This campaign plan will be beneficial to the people belonging to indigenous groups by
allowing them to have their rights to equality (McGough, Wynaden, and Wright, 2018). The
campaign will not only aware the Aboriginal groups but will also aware the rest of the
communities so that they no longer discriminate or treat indigenous people badly just because of

their cultural believes and practices. Also this campaign will promote culturally safe practices by
clinicians at health care settings. As this campaign will aim at reducing the discrimination that
the Aboriginals have to face, that means that it will increase acceptance of the culture of
Aboriginal community. The campaign will be beneficial in spreading awareness regarding right
to health care access by the aboriginal community. This will lead to positivity in the minds of
indigenous people that the government is taking measures for their upliftment. This will
encourage them to take responsibility of their physical as well as mental health and also
encourage them to take advantage of the provisions provided to them by the government.
CONCLUSION
The above report suggests a campaign that includes programmes for spreading awareness
about the rights of Aboriginal groups to equal treatment and right to practice their own culture.
Also the campaign will spread awareness about their rights to have access to quality care. These
all will decrease the level of discrimination they have to face thus contributing to better mental
health.

REFERENCES
Donovan, R.J., Murray, L., Hicks, J., Nicholas, A. and Anwar‐McHenry, J., 2018. Developing a
culturally appropriate branding for a social and emotional wellbeing intervention in an
Aboriginal community. Health Promotion Journal of Australia, 29(3), pp.314-320.
Kairuz, C.A., Casanelia, L.M., Bennett-Brook, K., Coombes, J. and Yadav, U.N., 2020. Impact
of racism and discrimination on the physical and mental health among Aboriginal and
Torres Strait Islander peoples living in Australia: a protocol for a scoping
review. Systematic reviews, 9(1), pp.1-6.
McGough, S., Wynaden, D. and Wright, M., 2018. Experience of providing cultural safety in
mental health to Aboriginal patients: A grounded theory study. International Journal of
Mental Health Nursing, 27(1), pp.204-213.
Molloy, L., Lakeman, R., Walker, K. and Lees, D., 2018. Lip service: Public mental health
services and the care of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. International
journal of mental health nursing, 27(3), pp.1118-1126.
Temple, J.B., Kelaher, M. and Paradies, Y., 2020. Experiences of racism among older Aboriginal
and Torres Strait Islander people: Prevalence, sources, and association with mental
health. Canadian Journal on Aging/La Revue canadienne du vieillissement, 39(2),
pp.178-189.