(PDF) Racism and Indigenous Health

Literature review

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................................1
Critical analyses how racism impacts Indigenous health outcomes ..........................................1
Impact on health on Indigenous people.....................................................................................2
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................3
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................5

INTRODUCTION
Racism is referred as a key determinant of health of indigenous Australian which help in
explaining the unremitting gap within the health as well as socio-economic outcomes between
non-indigenous and indigenous Australians. Racial discrimination have negative impact on the
health, racism has got both traces contemporary and historical racist community attitudes.
Racism is considered as social determinant of the health which are contributing towards the
disparities in health in various racial and ethnic population. Racism has continuously prevailed in
existing institutions and social systems which have a strong impact on the well-being and health
of indigenous people across the world including Australia. Indigenous people are facing problem
in various ways which has negatively effected their health as racism involves hatred, fear,
violence etc and this has created barriers between indigenous and other people.
Critical analyses how racism impacts Indigenous health outcomes
As according to the Bailey and et.al., (2017) Disparity between the health of Indigenous
and non Indigenous populations continue to be prevalent within the Australia. In order to critique
indigenous people are more often work than their non indigenous participate people in health. It
has been always seen that how indigenous people suffered from the discrimination in terms of
race, religion, culture. Due to such discrimination process vulnerable people has always get
influenced by such discrimination. Such kind of situations makes the process more inefficient for
the people who belongs to low cast. Apart from this, the overall impact of all such situation
impact on the health of the people. In many areas it has been observed that how such inefficiency
makes people more poor due to which they cannot afford the fund for their health. Such all
factors indirectly impact the overall system of people in which covered health. In order to
critique, this as per the stated author freedom is very necessary from racial discrimination which
is a fundamental right of the human which has to be implemented by the organisation. From the
above study and concluded racial discrimination are determined to the physical and mental
health of Indigenous children in Australia. Besides, that it certainly impact the overall
performance of target which makes the study more complicated and effectively managed the
task. Racism is a key reason due to which health of Indigenous Australian that may explain the
unremitting gap in health and socio-economic outcomes between adults. Difference between
indigenous people and non indigenous people makes the difference on the society. As compare
to non indigenous people indigenous people get more hurt and get less resources from the
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society. Somehow, which makes the things more energetic and inefficient for the people who
suffered from the situation makes the different. However, the racism between the indigenous
people is the significant impact on the people which has to be reduced by applying the systematic
approach.
Impact on health on Indigenous people.
As per the view of Bond, (2017) There is close relationship between racism and health
condition of individuals. There are many factors that impact on health of person such as
substance abuse. There are many people those who belong to lower cast or other people
discriminate them due to their race. Due to such kind of substance abusing things people face
psychological distress which impact badly on their mental status. Sometimes such kind of
abusing things harm to their immune as well because they fail to get proper services which affect
their physical condition as well. In such condition people with different race do not get medical
services which affect their body mass and their immune system get weaker.
There are many people in Australia those who come from different nations to work here,
they are working in big organization but after putting so much efforts they are not getting such
promotion opportunities in workplace that affect their mental and physical things badly. From
the survey of Aboriginal and Torres Strait islander patients it is found that there are 32.4%
people those who are suffering from racial discrimination and even not getting proper medical
facilities.
Came and Griffith, (2018) report show that there are around 60% Torres an aboriginal
islander doctors and medical professionals those who are experiencing racism, that means they
are being bullying at workplace due to their race. This case stress among them and they fail to
concentrate on their work. Stress level of such different race people are higher than other people
those who are not belong from Aboriginal group (Aboriginal and Torres strait Islander
Health,2019).
Huria and et.al., (2017) argued that people are getting equal services as normal people are
getting in Australia. Government has made many policies to protect rights of such aboriginal
people. These policies make them able to get equal chance and that has minimized the risk of
discrimination. People are suffering from health illness due to having poor employment
opportunities.
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As per the view of Mitchell and Porter, (2016) Racism is the key determinant of the
health of indigenous Australians and even the racism in Australia also traces both historically
and contemporary racist community attitudes. From the secondary data and as per the Victorian
Survey that obtain the sample size of around 33,833 are the adults and it also includes around
380 indigenous adults. Even racism creates direct impact upon indigenous people's health whose
age is in between the 5-10 because, they mostly discriminated by others. Moreover, it is critically
analysed by Shepherd and et.al., (2017) that racism affect the health in negative and as a result, it
leads them towards the stress and even they are not treated properly by the doctors because of
their caste. From the secondary research, it is also analysed that younger people whose age is in
between 4-11 are suffered the most among the indigenous people.
On the other side, it is further evaluated by Zambas and Wright, (2016) that there are
many cases in Australia which clearly state that people did not treat indigenous people properly
and as a result, it affect their health and gain negative outcomes as well. Even, they are also far
from the government rights as well such that they did not get proper education and proper human
rights are also not provided by the government. Therefore, the Mitchell and Porter, (2016) also
state that Aboriginal and other ethnic groups are under represented in all over activities.
Therefore, as a result, it directly affects their health such that they leads to creates some metal
illness and even there are other problems which also impact on the social and emotional well-
being of the indigenous groups such that grief and loss, trauma etc. therefore, it is clearly
analysed that these sudden changes in the mental health decrease the indigenous population.
Moreover, in order to overcome from such problem, it is quite necessary to implement the
strategies by government so that it will help to decrease the problem related to health among
indigenous people.
CONCLUSION
It can be concluded that racism have strong impact on the health of indigenous people as
it has lead them suffer for psychological and physical tortures which have negatively effected
their health. Also, indigenous people does not does not emotional support and are facing various
difficulties and have resulted in the hyperactive behaviour within the people. It can also be
concluded that some people torture, humiliate and pass racist comments just to show their
superiority over them and even for just fun. There are some improvement made in order to
minimize racism in the country but there are certain areas where racism is still high and
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indigenous people are still suffering a lot. There are also various factors which are provoking
people to get involved or promote racism which is a thing to worry and needs to be stopped
abruptly.
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REFERENCES
Books & Journals
Bailey, Z. D. and et.al., 2017. Structural racism and health inequities in the USA: evidence and
interventions. The Lancet. 389(10077). pp.1453-1463.
Bond, C., 2017. Race and racism: Keynote presentation: Race is real and so is racism-making the
case for teaching race in indigenous health curriculum. LIME Good Practice Case Studies
Volume 4, p.5.
Came, H. and Griffith, D., 2018. Tackling racism as a “wicked” public health problem: enabling
allies in anti-racism praxis. Social Science & Medicine. 199. pp.181-188.
Huria, T. and et.al., 2017. Race and racism: Keynote presentation: Externalising a complicated
situation-Teaching racism in an indigenous curriculum: A case study. LIME Good Practice
Case Studies Volume 4. p.12.
Lawrence, H. P. and et.al., 2016. Racism and oral health outcomes among pregnant Canadian
Aboriginal women. Journal of health care for the poor and underserved. 27(1). pp.178-
206.
Mitchell, H. and Porter, J., 2016. The cost‐effectiveness of identifying and treating malnutrition
in hospitals: a systematic review. Journal of human nutrition and dietetics. 29(2),. pp.156-
164.
Shepherd, C. C. and et.al., 2017. The impact of racial discrimination on the health of Australian
Indigenous children aged 5–10 years: analysis of national longitudinal data. International
journal for equity in health, 16(1), p.116.
Zambas, S. I. and Wright, J., 2016. Impact of colonialism on Māori and Aboriginal healthcare
access: a discussion paper. Contemporary nurse. 52(4). pp.398-409.
ONLINE
Aboriginal and Torres strait Islander Health.2019. [Online]. Available through <
https://www.racgp.org.au/FSDEDEV/media/documents/RACGP/Position%20statements/
Racism-in-the-healthcare-sector.pdf>.
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