Primary Healthcare in Action

Running Head: PRIMARY HEALTHCARE IN ACTION
Primary Healthcare in Action
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PRIMARY HEALTHCARE IN ACTION
Primary Healthcare in Action
Question 1: Two social health determinants that assisted in determining the need of
the project are education and social interactions. As pointed out by (Rural Health Channel,
2014), issues of child exploitation and negligence had doubled in Australia over the last ten
years. That was the case because many families that had difficulty providing a safe
environment for their children experienced isolation and lack of strong social interactions.
Therefore, based on the video, a program was designed for the purpose of providing support
to the communities. An example provided in the video is the creation of a place where
disadvantaged groups could meet and share their experiences. The video displays a group
created by a youth worker and a maternal and childcare nurse for providing support to
teenage mothers in Mildura. They had realized that young teenage mothers needed support
because they had difficulty interacting with older mothers. Additionally, in as much as the
young mothers were accessing child care health services, they felt intimidated attending
support groups comprising of older mothers. The program for young mothers was designed
for the purpose of building confidence and skills among the young mothers. This indicates
that education and social interaction networks were missing among the young mothers. The
program therefore equips young mothers with important life skills because they are accorded
support and taught about topics such as drug and alcohol as well as counselling. The other
example shown in the video in relation to education and social interactions as health
determinants is the involvement of fathers in parenting. According to the video, it is not
always easy to get fathers interacting in a group set up in matters relating to parenting. As
such, a program was designed that was known as ‘fathers fishing and parenting workshop’.
The program brought together a number of fathers who took part in fishing and they were
taught about parenting and they also shared their views on parenting. The program assisted
fathers in creating social networks and they gained education regarding better parenting.

PRIMARY HEALTHCARE IN ACTION
Based on (Department of Health, 2013), the key social determinants of health include
education, employment opportunities, housing and the development cross-sectoral programs
that that are collaborative in nature at local levels. (WHO, 2017) support the same. According
to (WHO, 2017), social elements of health are the circumstances in which individuals live,
grow and the greater set of forces that influence their daily life such as job opportunities.
Question 2: Local indigenous community engagement and collaborative approach are
the two main health care principles that steered the program in the video. As shared by
(Department of Health, 2008),local community engagement involves putting into
consideration the existing community structures as a way of maximizing participation.
Collaborative approaches involves working with other bodies in the community as a way of
bettering the wellbeing of individuals in a given community. This is evident in the video
because one of the programs geared towards supporting teenage mothers, a health worker and
a maternal and child care nurse who had started a young mothers program collaborated with
youth services under the connections program. The collaboration was intended to assist the
young mothers in acquiring other life skills because they found it difficult to attend parenting
groups that comprised of older mothers. The collaboration was put in place as a way of
ensuring that young mothers accessed maternal health care services as well as other support
services such as counselling. Regarding local indigenous community engagement, the video
showcases a scenario where an indigenous community in western Australia known as
Kalumburu was in a state of devastation because a great number of its youthful men had been
taken to prison on charges of sexual assault among children. Therefore, as a way of assisting
the community recover from the trauma, the members of the community contacted a
professor called Judy Atkinson of Ginbi College. The professor responded by taking her team
to the community where they are carrying out a series of workshops. The workshops are
designed with the cooperation of elders and other older women and men of the community.