Improving Healthcare Services for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders

Running head: NURSING
NURSING
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Introduction
The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island is a small part of Australia. Just as
countries like America, Europe and Africa, Australia is also composed of variety
of cultures. Hence, The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island have a different
culture. They have a traditional method of collecting foods which also includes
fish traps, subsistence agriculture and variety of natural fruits and vegetables.
The residents of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island also possess several cultural
and spiritual values such as totemism. Such values are important for the
management of resources in such Islands. According to Paradies (2016), there
were numerous battles between the residents of Aboriginal and Torres Strait
people and the other non-indigenous people. The indigenous people suffer from
a lot of health issues as unlike the non-indigenous people, the health care
services in the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island are low. They mostly suffer
from cardiovascular, respiratory, chronic kidney disease and mental problems
(Valeggia and Snodgrass, 2015). Out of all these, it is found that mental
disorders are the most common health issue amongst the individuals residing in
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island. The health care services should be improved
in the Aboriginal and Torres Island. The Australian Government had started
taking various measures regarding this improvement. Teams like Aboriginal
Health Team and Health
InfoNet were introduced in order to improve the
healthcare services and also make the residents aware of their health conditions.
In addition to this they also proved to be helpful for the residents in order to
decide about their problems on their own.
One contemporary healthcare strategy
A Health
InfoNet was introduces in the determination of the health status
of the Aboriginal and Torres island. The main motive of this health
Infonet is to
improve the health status of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander by making
required changes and making relevant high quality knowledge accessible to the
policy makers as well as the health care providers (HealthInfoNet, 2013). This
Health
Infonet also provides an easy-to-read and detailed brochure for the
students as well as the community in general. According to the reports, there are
155 declines in the mortality rate for the Indigenous Australians. 64% of the total
population mainly suffers from chronic diseases and the gap of 39% between the
Indigenous and non- Indigenous Australians health status can thus be
summarised by social determinants. It is also recorded that there is 11%

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decrease in the Indigenous smoking rate from 51% in the year 2002 to 425 in
the year of 2014-15. And half of the population also suffers from mental
problems. Hence, the chronic disease and mental issues are found to be
occurred disease in the healthcare industry. Durey et al. (2016) opined various
strategies regarding improvement of the healthcare system in the Aboriginal and
Torres Island. Aboriginal citizens faced many issues regarding their provided
healthcare services. Such issues include unwelcoming hospital settings, lack of
transport, and sense of alienation as well as inflexible treatment methods. All
these hence results to deterioration of health and lack of proper treatment to the
Aboriginal and Torres Island residents. Hence, in order to improve their
healthcare system, the Council of Australian Governments’ collected funds and
agreed for the National Partnership Agreements in the year 2008. It will ensure
closing the gaps in the Indigenous Health Outcomes as well as development of
indigenous Early Childhood. The strategy that might be used in order to improve
the healthcare system in Aboriginal and Torres Island is by making effective
engagement with the local Aboriginal residents. Some teams like the Aboriginal
Health Team tried to build up strong relationships with the local Aboriginal
residents over the years. The Aboriginal health Team primarily consists of
Aboriginal staff members who have local connections with the adjacent Noogar
Aboriginal Community. The main role of the Aboriginal Health Team is to avoid
tokenism, identification of the local solutions which relates to the Aboriginal
residents’ priorities and also to rake many actions regarding the delivery of the
best healthcare services to the people of Aboriginal and Torres Island. The
ethical approval of the Aboriginal Health Team was granted by the Western
Australian Aboriginal Health Ethics Committee (Freeman et al., 2014). Hence,
with the help of this team the Aboriginal residents were able to make their
decisions regarding their health issues and there were progress in the healthcare
services as well. According to the studies of the Australian Institute of Health and
Welfare, it is opined that
One health issue experienced
The most common health issue suffered from the Aboriginal and Torres
community was mental health problems, unlike the general Australian
population. Many evidences proved that mental health and abuse is one of the
main diseases suffered by the people of Aboriginal and Torres. Across a range of
adjustments, results for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander residents with