Improving Healthcare Services for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People

IMPROVING
HEALTHCARE SERVICES
FOR ABORIGINAL AND
TORRES STRAIT
ISLANDER PEOPLE

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY..................................................................................................................................3
Health issue experienced by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people................................3
Contemporary healthcare strategy to improve respiratory health of Aboriginal and Torres
Strait Islander people................................................................................................................5
Impact of demographic and socio-cultural factors on respiratory health issues.........................7
Effective program model of practices from healthcare perspective acceptable to Aboriginal
and Torres Strait Islander people.............................................................................................9
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................11
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................12

INTRODUCTION
According to Master and et.al., (2018) aboriginal and Torres Strait Island peoples are
Australian people who have achieved nationality of Australia. These are two type people such as
aboriginal people who are known as indigenous people while Torres Strait Islander people who
lives in North Australia. But both type peoples have poor living condition as compared other
Australian people. These type people have high infant mortality rate and poor life expectancy
instead of other Australian population. Authors have highlighted in their published books that
aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders have minimum literacy ratio while drug and alcohol
consumption are too high which is the major reason less life expectancy rate. Due to weak
educational level, such people unable to get good job that brings poverty which often bring
domestic violence as compared non-indigenous. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders lives in
rural areas of Australia associated with poor nutrition, malnutrition, type of diabetes, tooth decay
and various type of cancers. Due to wide distance between rural and urban area of Australia it
has very limited transportation of suppliers and high cost as well. Such difference leads wide cost
difference around 150 to 180% of items that is not possible for the aboriginal to pay. Such people
consume high level of Tobacco that is another leading risk factor for illness. So around 50 to
60% aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are hospitalized as compared non-aboriginal
people.
In this essay will discuss over health issue experiences of aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander people. Then it will further be evaluated contemporary healthcare strategy to increase
health issue experience of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander. Demographical and socio-
cultural factors impact over health issue of aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander will discuss in
this report.
MAIN BODY
Health issue experienced by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people
A major health issue prevalent in the community of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
people in Australia is respiratory disease. The respiratory system consists of those parts of the
human body which are involved in breathing, such as throat, nose, trachea, larynx and lungs.
Respiratory disease happens when any of these body parts get damaged and impact breathing
process. Common diseases include pneumonia, asthma and COPD (chronic obstructive
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pulmonary disease). About one-third of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people face one or
more respiratory conditions, most common of which is Asthma. The diseases are twice as likely
to impact the indigenous community than non-indigenous people of Australia (O'Grady and et.al
2018).
Figure 1: Cause of death due to respiratory diseases
Source: AIHW, 2017
Higher rates of pneumonia are linked to factors like smoking and alcohol, poor living
conditions, untreated respiratory diseases, malnutrition etc. Indigenous children in the Northern
Territory have the highest rates of radiologically confirmed pneumonia in the world. Asthma can
impact on bodily functions and attendance at work or school. It generally coexists with various
chronic conditions and lower socio-economic status. The risk of death from asthma tends to
increase with age. COPD, a serious lung disease primarily affects aged people and is linked to
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