Healthy child development - Assignment PDF

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1) Identify and discuss two social determinants of health that helped to
determine the need for the project. Provide examples from the video and
include at least one scholarly reference for each social determinant.
Healthy child development is one of the globally recognised crucial determinant
of the future health. Healthy child development is a moral responsibility of the
nation and community. Hence families must discuss and undertake the
initiatives to abandon the risk factors that adversely affects the childhood
development such as substance use, domestic violence, child abuse etc.
According to Brettig (2015), the influence of the home environment on social,
emotional and spiritual development is probably even more significant. Parents
may not be the best educators in some other domains but they have a huge
influence on the wellbeing of their children. Likewise, from the video, developed
by the Rural Health Channel (RHC,2014) it was evident that to shape healthy
children healthy community is required which determined the need for Gnibi
project. Creating supportive and caring environments and implementation of the
activities and learning skills in the community ensuring optimum growth of
children which give them equal chance to shape themselves into a responsible
citizen in the community is the need of an hour. The video also indicates the
problem of social isolation which is a key factor in development of children as
there is no access to childcare and other early childhood learning centres where
children can find their strongest representative teachers as role models, learn,
explore, play and cherish multicultural people which builds the foundation stone
of successful and heathy life. The vital message conveyed in the video is the
importance of nurture and nature which means nurturing children’s skills and
abilities and teaching children to respect the natural land in which they live and

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educate holistically. Education and health literacy is also considered as a
fundamental human right and a path to the promising future but indigenous
communities do not have the opportunity to complete or enter school. The video
highlights one of the significant and serious problem of poverty in the
community which stops them from going to school and leaves them without
numeracy and literacy skills. A ladder to come out of poverty is education.
Education enables people to develop personally, eradicate poverty by achieving
highly paid jobs, high standard of living and boost socio-economic development
in the community. Educating the aboriginal children based on their cultural
values, their relationships, language and connection to the aboriginal land is
required to develop more interest in education and schools. “Indigenous
peoples continue to face challenges in accessing education that fully recognises
the diversity of Indigenous languages and cultures,” said The Australian Human
Rights Commission President, Gillian Triggs. Lack of health literacy and
education is determined in the video which indicates the need for this project as
it increases mortality rates, morbidity and diseases in aboriginal communities.
Health literacy improves the ability of individual to live a healthy life by making
appropriate health decisions. Health literacy enhances the knowledge of the
food security, reduces malnutrition, maintain health and wellness, improves self-
awareness of the diseases and chronic conditions and plays a key role in
accessing additional health resources resulting in greater efficiency to health
system. Hence promotion of the health literacy and education reduces suicides
and deaths, promote gender equality and peace and it is one of the fine
investment people can make in one’s community.

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2) Identify and explain how two primary health care principles guided the
project in the video. Provide examples from the video and include at
least one scholarly reference for each principle.
Health Promotion is one of the significant primary health care principle which
directed this project. Aboriginal community presented in the video have been
through anger, trauma, sexual abuse, grief and pain and have come together to
make their community a better place to rejoice. Professor Judy in the project is
trying to support people by holistically bringing together a shattered community
where they themselves make decisions, discuss the issues and find solutions to
promote health and wellness. McPhail-Bell, Bond, Brough and Fredericks
(2015) defined health promotion as a process of enabling people to increase
control over, and to improve, their health. Health promotion is both a practice
and normative ideal regarding a particular vision of a good society. Addressing
the issues such as smoking, alcohol consumption, substance use and
discussing the risk to exposure, listening to others, creating awareness and
finding solutions to these problems by engaging seniors, youth, mums and kids.
Some of the information sighted in the video motivate youth to indulge
themselves in various self-development activities like Ian from the community
did to develop his learning skills and likewise also creating new activities for
children which is a good example of establishing a healthy individual
environment. Health promotion that is culturally responsive, facilitates
empowerment of the community, boost confidence to control the issues and
strengthen individual capabilities. Furthermore, access and equity was another
major primary healthcare principle that guided the project. Lack of access and
equity in the services and resources is the major longstanding issue in remote

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communities. The video shows that Inadequate use of the human resources
due to the barriers such as distance, affordability, lack of knowledge leads to ill
health in communities. Access to education, social support groups, hospitals,
women’s groups, Community centres is vital for women to gain significant
support and prenatal, postnatal information to foster the children and support
throughout their pregnancy resulting into reduction of mortality rates and
improvement of maternal health. Employment opportunities in the remote areas
is zero due to low level of education. Hence they have a very low standard of
living, lack of housing and sanitisation, poor nutrition and increase in the
number of crimes and offence. It is suggested that the goal of equity is to create
conditions that allow all to participate and prosper. In short, equity creates a
path from hope to change (Heymann and Barrera, 2014). Equity provides a
chance to bring a change in the history of aboriginal children to access the
educational and other recreational facilities and transform into a strong
individual and provide a culturally responsive education to nourish the future
generations which can be best done by their community members itself. Hence
to keep the education sustainable to future children it is necessary to build a
healthy and smart community. It will also reduce the child abuse, domestic
violence, sexual assault suicidal rates and gambling which in turn will transform
into a caring and supportive community. Despite of these complex issues, some
of the social environmental factors such as community participation, level of
trust and anxiety, unorganised setting, control over the social factors, efficiency
and low empowerment breaks the cycle of delivery of resources to the
indigenous communities.

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3) Identify and discuss one strategy from the Ottawa Charter for Health
Promotion that relates to the project in the video. Provide at least one
example from the video and include at least one scholarly reference.
Strengthen Community action is the strategy from Ottawa Charter to support the
project in the video. The key role of this strategy is to empower the community
and achieve self-control, decision making power and learn to stabilise actions.
The engagement of the community by sharing their feelings and thoughts on
issues and past experiences, finding solutions, addressing current issues and
be open and develop a trustworthy relationship is a good example from the
project in the video. This demonstrates the potential of building community
capacity and involving participation of the people to take actions to reach their
target. At some point, in this process the transformation takes place resulting
into empowerment of the community and strengthening their bond. A men’s
group is also mentioned in the video which is essential to identify issues from
their point of view, encouraging involvement of men’s group in sports and other
activities to achieve greater sustainability and motivate them to work together to
implement actions. Minister Bishop (2006) stated that, Schools and
communities in remote and regional areas will have the opportunity to
participate in the community-based music, dance, art and career activities
designed for both the Indigenous and non-Indigenous young people. “Positive
events such as these provide an important mechanism for increasing
community involvement in building the resilience of young people”. There is a
need to increase the culture focused learning activities to boost social capital
and receive optimum health outcomes. Support networks and groups can help

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to provide a safe and healthy environment for the children and also help the
parents to love, care and support their children to build a strong community.
4) Define cultural competence and discuss why it is important
in determining the success of the project. Provide at least one example
from the video where this concept is demonstrated and at least one
scholarly reference.
Cultural competence is the core component to enhance the ability of service
providers and to ethically participate in ongoing integral process of making a
reasonable and respectful choices and being aware of the cultural knowledge,
values and skills to communicate and collaborate effectively in cross-cultural
circumstances. Cultural competency is defined as "creating a health care
environment that is free of racism and stereotypes, where Aboriginal people are
treated with empathy, dignity and respect," and culturally safe care includes
building trust, recognizing the role of socioeconomic conditions, communicating
respect for patient beliefs and ensuring patients are partners in decisions about
their health.( O'Sullivan, 2013).Cultural competency is important as it reduces
inequalities and increases the access to health care facilities by eliminating the
barriers such as trust, language barrier, patient misunderstanding, poor
knowledge of treatment and also improves health disparities. The activities or
initiatives practised considering cultural competency lead to more effective
outcomes, openness, increased knowledge and awareness. Hence there is a
need for Aboriginal cultural values and beliefs to be an important part of
professional education and training of health professionals to deliver the best
results. The healing circle of Gnibi drawn with the holy water, solving problems

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by promoting aboriginal culture in the form of dance, art, music and painting in
the project is the best example of cultural competency, to start the community
gathering holistically which represents the purity of culture, develop trust and
confidence, increase openness and the circle stands for education, sharing
ideas, development and learning. The video and Research proves that Cultural
competency can yield best outcomes through a healthy partnership and
respectful relationships leading to stable, healthy and happy life of aboriginal
people.

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References
Rural Health Channel. (2014, January 15). It takes a village [video
file].Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XcXGuq_k2K8
McPhail‐Bell, K., Bond, C., Brough, M., & Fredericks, B. (2015). ‘We don't tell
people what to do’: Ethical practice and Indigenous health promotion.
Health Promotion Journal of Australia, 26(3), 195-196. doi:
10.1071/HE15048
Heymann, J., & Barrera, Magda. (2014). Ensuring a sustainable future: Making
progress on environment and equity. USA: Oxford University Press.
Brettig, K., & Children Communities Connections Learning Network, editor.
(2015). Building stronger communities with children and families.
Newcastle upon Tyne, England: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
Australian Human Rights Commission (2016, August 9). Education focus for
worlds indigenous peoples. Retrieved from
https://www.humanrights.gov.au/about/news/education-focus-worlds-indigenous-
peoples

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Strengthening Indigenous communities: Community festivals for drug
prevention, Education.(2006).US Fed News Service, Including Us State
News. Retrieved from
https://west-sydney-primo.hosted.exlibrisgroup.com/primo-explore/fulldisplay?
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e&tab=default_tab&query=any,contains,imporatnce%20of%20education%20in
%20indigenous%20community&facet=rtype,include,newspaper_articles&offset=0
O'Sullivan, Bonnie. (2013). Considering culture in aboriginal care. CMAJ:
Canadian Medical Association Journal, 185(1), E27-8.doi:
10.1503/cmaj.109-4376