Improving Health Inequities for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People

This article discusses the social determinants of health impacting Luke, his family, and his community. It also explores the reasons for the poor delivery of health services to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and how culturally safe healthcare can be provided. Additionally, it highlights the importance of Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organizations in addressing health inequities and the efforts of the Closing the Gap campaign to improve life expectancy for Indigenous people.

Running head: NURSING ASSIGNMENT
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Name of the student:
Name of the university:
Author note:

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Question 1: List the social determinants of health and discuss those that could have
impacted on Luke, his family and his community?
The social determinants of health of Aboriginals are those conditions of the
surroundings of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander of Australia in which the people of the
community are born, working, learning, living, and the age group which disturb a wide-
ranging array of the health of a person, occupied, and the eminence life assumptions and
threats. The social determinations of health which are applicable in the case study of Luke
are:
 Quality of education
 Family values
 Health condition
 Housing
 Socioeconomic condition
 Racial discrimination
These social determinations have witnessed a major impact on the health conditions and
welfare of the person involved in the provided case study
 Quality of education: the quality of education Luke was receiving a well-supported
and upgraded educational life, he was the one from this whole family who got in to
universities for further education and stepped forward as a role model for his other
siblings. Luke got the quality of education because of his father, who was an educator,
in their Aboriginal custom and he lore for a huge community thus was considered and
respected as an elder in their Aboriginal community.
 Family values: Luke always had his family as well his community support. He was
the only person from the community and the family to reach that level of education.

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The family and the Aboriginal community were proud of Luke and were standing
with him in order to support him in every aspect.
 Health condition: the health condition of Luke’s father was not well for a period of
time and when Luke was at the age of 14, his father passed away. Despite of
attentiveness towards his routine treatment and visit to the local Aboriginal Medical
Service, Luke’s father witnessed death due to right ear deafness and type 2 diabetes.
 Housing: his family was little disturb by his father’s death, but the family and the
community stood together for supporting Luke and motivated him and felt proud of
him in every means. The family separation was never an aspect in his life. He thus
had to face different issues related to housing. His community people witness poor
housing and living style due to lack of education and employment.
 Socioeconomic condition: the socioeconomic condition of Luke was a matter to
effect. As the aboriginal community are treated to be the one different from the others,
in the means of education, economy, health condition and facilities. Luke also
witnessed some of these factors as he went to university. There was a minor quantity
of the aboriginal people in the university which make Luke felt\t alone and left out.
 Racial discrimination: as being a part of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander of
Australia, Luke had to face a major issue of racial discrimination in every aspect of
his life. his family and community people also witnessed the same issues regarding
education, implement, healthcare facilities and other benefits. As the people of the
other communities take them as minorities’ and discriminate them is every manner.

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Question 2: Describe why health service provision to aboriginal and Torres strait
islander people has historically been poorly delivered and utilised. Using knowledge
of past history specify, how culturally safe healthcare can be delivered to Luke,
should he come into your health service.
Cultural safety in the community of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander of Australia
aims towards making a surrounding where these Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander
individual is provided with equal facilities and also treated well and in a racially and socially
respectful means. Cultural awareness is the awareness of diverse cultural groups which
includes identification of individual cultural values, their practices and the identity. Cultural
competence is the attitudes, behaviours and policies which all together create operative cross
cultural working associations. The presentation of culturally reverential practices.
The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people has historically been poorly
delivered and utilised, disparities and avoidance among the health conditions of the
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander remain to be main within Australia. Aboriginal and
Torres Strait Islander of Australia are the people those who have been posterities of groups
who has been existing in Australia far before the British colonisation was present. The health
position of these Australia’s Aboriginal people are mostly deprived in every means in
divergence to the other communities of the Australian population. There is a huge measured
break of almost 17 years within the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and the other
inhabitant’s life anticipation in the Australia. The Aboriginal population of Australia are seen
to be deprived of their provided opportunities in order to stay healthy as the other populations
in the country are legalised with. The financial and the social difficulty that they have been
experiencing had lead them to a greater health related risk, as the educational facilities, the
life style, the values, the connection with the other communities and living condition they
reside in does not help them witness good health. Being a part of Aboriginal community Luke

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and his family has been witnessing discrimination in their health and social. Settings. Luke’s
father despite of attending regular basis of health care visit to their local Aboriginal medical
services, but as these communities witness lack of facilities and deprived allocation, they
offer lack behind in providing better and effective health care facility. This was one of the
reasons why Luke’s father died, he was not treated according to his sever health condition. In
order to provide these communities where Luke belongs must require proper education,
guidance, knowledge and awareness regarding their safe health practices and the facilities
and laws they are facilitated with by the government so that they witness equal amount of
health care facility and proper treatment and other facilities so that these communities do not
face sever health conditions or mortality. As being a part of the county, the Aboriginals needs
to be provided with the facilities like the others. The healthcare settings need to reach to these
communities to generate awareness and health care to them.
Question 3: Describe your understanding of Luke’s cultural and social factor,
analyse the cultural safety principle, you would apply to Luke in order to practices
to culturally sensitive communication and self-determination?
Cultural safety in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander of Australia is about making
an atmosphere where these Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander individual is not only
provided equal facilities but also treated well and in an ethnically and socially respectful
manner. As Luke belongs to the Aboriginal community, he has been seeing discrimination,
scarcity and avoidance in every aspect of their lives. Luke being facing these disparity has
only social factors and cultures which were related to his community and the family of his.
The major cultural and social factors that were important for Luke was the communities
wellbeing and family’s better health. the main focus of Luke was to provide his community
and family with every facility that can be education, healthcare, housing, employment, and
other which are legally provided to them by the government of Australia and also their rights

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as being a part of the country. These communities witness less employment, income,
expensive healthcare services, lack of proper educational support and lifestyle. Luke wanted
to become just like his father and wanted to do better thing for his family and community. He
wanted to enhance the cultural values of his community and bring them forward and remove
discrimination from the society. The social factors that are important for Luke was better
housing, developed educational facilities and opportunities, better health services, job
opportunities and employment equal to those of the other communities. because the
monetarist and the social trouble that his community have been witnessing had central them
towards a greater health and live risk, and also as the educational facilities of the community,
the living style, the ethical and cultural values, the association with the other local and
regional communities and employment condition they face daily does not help their
community to witness good health. in order to maintain culturally sensitive communication,
Luke must not forget his values and culture and the ground on the basis of which he has been
raised with which will help him to understand better his community and their needs. in order
to retain his father’s position, he needs to understand his culture first and the people of his
community and their needs and requirements they are authorised for thus they do not face any
disparity in future.
Question 4: The community that Luke’s comes from has received funding for a
community health service. Describe why aboriginal community control health
organisation(ACCHO) are fundamental in addressing health inequities?
Luke came from aboriginal community, which had a poor health status. There are
multiple of reason behind their poor health status such as, racism and background. They do
not get health care facilities according to their needs which lead to maximum death rate.
Health equality helps in providing same health facilities to all the population, whereas health
equity assist in providing health facilities according to the need of the population. Health

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inequality occurs to theme due to which they were unable to get the same health care
facilities as compared to other people ad suffer from various disease. Due to these inequality,
further deterioration of their health occurs. To provide all the health care facilities to the
aboriginals, there are certain health organization such as National Aboriginal
Community Controlled Health Organizations and Aboriginal Community health organization.
These communities work to provide best health care services the aboriginals, which they
were deprived of. These communities came into actions when the other mainstream health
care services avoids or became unable to provide health care facilities to the aboriginals. It
includes wide range of health care facilities which includes different specialist to the small
health care aids without any general practitioner. It focuses on the prevention of disease that
is common in the case of aboriginals individual. It provides plenty of health care services
and also focuses on the health education in order to reduce the future death rates and to
increase life expectancy rate among the aboriginal individuals. Aboriginal Community health
organization aids to provide primary health care such as, Treatment of severe illness by using
standard t protocols, twenty-four hour emergency healthcare, Provision of necessary drugs,
and Management of various chronic illness. It also helps in providing preventive health care
for the population such as, Immunisation, Antenatal care, Appropriate screening for disease
and intervention (it includes all child and adult health checks and also secondary prevention
method which deals with the complications of chronic disease), Communicable illness
control, medicine supply system, and complete health information system such as, population
registers, and patient information systems for quality assurance. The Aboriginal
Community Controlled Health Organizations aims to enhance cultural safety. It recognizes
the main importance of the individual’s environment and also their resilience. It consider all
the challenges and complication that come across while providing proper treatment to the
aboriginals and focuses on the potential strategies to reduce such illness. It incorporates social

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determinants of ecologic and health theories to enhance the health conditions of the
individual. Apart from all the above mentioned facilities, it focuses on strengthening the
support of the aboriginal population rather than only focusing on the problems.
Question 5: Luke’s father suffered an early and premature death when compared to
life expectancy standard for all Australian. Analyze how the closing gap campaign
seeks to improve the life expectancy for aborigine or Torres strait islander people
Luke’s father is an educator. He was suffering from deafness in his right ear along
with type 2 diabetes. He died at an early age, which made Luke distressed. Instead of visiting
regularly to the aboriginal medical services, his illness was not cured and leads to death. It is
due to the lack of quality HealthCare services. These small healthcare organizations are not
able to provide treatment to the complex medical treatment. According to a survey conducted
by AIHW, life expectancy rate of indigenous population is 67.0 in men and 73.0 in women,
which is less than that of Australians populations (79.5 in men whereas, 84.0 in women),
which forms a huge gap between the life expectancy rate of aboriginal population and that of
the non-indigenous population. They suffer from global inequality which is defined as
unequal distribution of disease, which is due to their economic and living conditions and also
due to lack of health provision. To reduce this gap of life expectancy rate of non-indigenous
population of Australia and aboriginal and Torres strait Islander population, a campaign was
initiated by the different NGO, health organization and human right structures. The aim of
this campaign is to close the gap between the life expectancy rate of indigenous and non-
nonindigenous population. With the help of close the gap campaign, significant improvement
in the health of the indigenous population and aims to improve the health status of the
aboriginal population by 2030. It is done by implementing a human rights approach to the
Aboriginal and Torres Strait and Islander health. Other than closing the gap of life
expectancy, it also targets to provide health equality and also aims to half the mortality rate

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gap within 10 years among children which are under five years old. The close the gap
campaign commits to provide a comprehensive a plan of action (long term), which neds to
target evidence-based and also capable of acknowledging the inequalities among the health
services which are already existing. It also Ensure the complete participation of the
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander individuals and also enhances their representative
bodies, which aims to address all the healthcare needs of the indigenous population. This is
done to achieve health equality and also helps in closing the life expectancy gap among the
aboriginals and Torres and Strait Islander individuals and the non-indigenous population. The
primary approach used to close this gap are public health, prevention advice, promotion,
evaluation, community development. Multisectoral and multidiscipline doctors are
collaborated to provide health care which is require for aboriginals population. It is based on
accessibility, social justice, intersectoral collaboration and emphasis on the health equity and
promotion.
Question 6: Luke believes that aboriginal and Torres strait islander right for self-
determination is important. Describe some initiative or organisation that attempt to
address self-determination in health?
Self-determination is defined as the ability to perform something without asking for
anyone’s opinion. It is the choice of someone’s states or acts without getting effected by any
compulsion. It ensures that the indigenous community gets their social, cultural and economic
needs. The principles of self-determination is freedom, support, knowledge, financial
responsibility and stable policies. Before getting admitted to the university, Luke was
premised that he will be provided with supporting environment whereas, after coming to the
university, he observed that there was nothing like that. He feels isolated and humiliated for
his knowledge by the student and the teachers. Hence, to stop such unethical practice right of
self-determination was formulated. The right to self-determination formulated for aboriginal

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population is contained in the article 1 of International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
(ICCPR) and also contained in article 1 of another covenants such as, the International
Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Right. The article of the covenants explains that,
all individuals of the aboriginal population have the right to self-determination. With the help
of this right, economic, political, cultural and social development are determined. It also
ensures that, all the individuals whether aboriginals or non-indigenous have the right to live
their life on their own terms without anyone’s permission and can use their resources their
natural wealth without thinking about any obligations. It can give rise to mutual benefits. The
article also includes that the states parties of the covenants promotes the actual realization of
the right formulated such as, right to self-determination and also respect the right. The
commitment of the rights should be given respect by each and every individual whether non-
indigenous or indigenous. The right to self-determination focuses on the social and economic
right of 'peoples' instead of focussing on an individuals. This right was established under the
constitution of common-wealth which involves the exercises focussing on the right to self-
determination in the Australia and is expected by whole Australian population. This right
includes, the amendment and adoption of the Constitution which initiates the right to self-
determination from time to time, it also assist in providing provision for fair and free
elections; specific measures that helps in protecting the human rights and the rule of law, the
right to self-determination also assists the continued functions and existence of Australian
States which are under the Constitution and also aids provision for the self-government
included terrorists. As luke feels that, the social and economic factors are violated by the
other individual, right of determination helps the indigenous population to live their life by
self-determination.