This assignment delves into the psychological distress experienced by remote mining and construction workers in Australia. It highlights the need for employees to change their attitude towards seeking treatment and suggests providing e-health and telemedicine solutions to improve mental health outcomes in coal mining communities.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS TASK...............................................................................................................................................1 Examining the chosen social need “Mental health” in Australia.....................................................1 Definition of Social Needs and Mental Health:....................................................................1 Group affected by mental health in Australia:.....................................................................1 Social determinants and needs of Coal-miners:.....................................................................1 Analysis of relevant historical community response:.............................................................2 Analysis of Current community response:.............................................................................2 Loopholes in government policies:........................................................................................3 Recommendations:.................................................................................................................3 REFERENCES................................................................................................................................5
TASK Examining the chosen social need “Mental health” in Australia. Definition of Social Needs and Mental Health: Social needs refers to demand of individual person to have relationship with others and establish a network through which they can contact to each other. It constitutes as most important requirement of an individual irrespective of their age/ gender. This includes love, affection, recognition and belongingness with each other. Mental health refers to individual behavioural, cognitive and emotional well-being. It affects the way a person thinks, feel and act further, it shows how we handle stress and other related issues (Bowers and et.al, 2018). The need of social attachment is maximum in mentally challenged and ill person as they are been separated from society. Group affected by mental health in Australia: According to recent survey by government agency in Australia it was analysed that out of every five people one is suffering from issues of mental health and has shown symptoms of psychiatric illness like, anxiety, depression, psychological disorder and social isolation. Current studies shows that highest number of mentally ill people are reported in mining industry. Large number of employees has reported that they have taken leave from work due to mental sickness. Coal-mining contributes crucially to chosen country economy and employs 2% of national workforce and they are characterised in following ways; male workers 85% and female workers are 15%. They all are aged between 25 and 45 years with relatively high income of those who are employed in fly-in-fly-out. There is link between work and mental health better working environment promotes productivity of individual. In Australia, coal mining industry, metal health was reported at risk and study highlighted that self-reported psychological distress of coal-miners is higher in comparison to any other employees (Considine and et.al., 2017). Social determinants and needs of Coal-miners: Social determinants which are affecting on health of miners are workplace factors and attitudes, socio-demographic characteristics, poor organisational justice, low role clarity, high workload situations, etc. Social needs of mining people are love and affection of their family members, proper working hours and work-friendly environment. Different surveys and articles revealed that increasing reason of mental issues in miners are due to remote location of mining industries and no accessibility of mental health treatment in those places (Stanton, Reaburn and 1
Happell,2017).Work-relatedmentalhealthconditionshavebecomemajorconcernin Australian due to negative impact on employees (Mental Health, 2018). Recent survey by ABS it is been estimated that mental health condition cost Australian workplace approximately $10.9 billion per year. Analysis of relevant historical community response: Earlier people in Australia assumed that person with mental illness has no capacity of recovering and they must be separated from society. This was a common practice in entire Australia which continued till year 1950. Attitude of community in Queensland is complex and contradictorytowardsmentalillpeople.Mentallyillpeoplewerepopularlyconsidered dangerous and were confined and separated from broader society and Asylums were located away from populated area. By the end of 18thcentury new ideas was originated in Queensland about organisation of psychiatric care to shift their emphasis to custodial care of mentally ill patient to live in community and continue their treatment. In the modern era outlook of people has changed towards mentally ill person and they are been accepted as part of society. Many organisations and government agencies are working towards betterment of mentally challenged people (Della Bosca and Gillespie, 2018). Analysis of Current community response: Federal government has announced a major alteration in Australia's mental health system. Authorities in Australia has made many changes to support mentally ill workers in coal mines. Recently, quoted country government has made crucial policy and funding commitments to improve their mental health (Townsend and Morgan, 2017).The majority of expenditure is funded by government authorities with equal contribution from insurers, employers, consumers and non-government agencies. Since, early 1990's government is working in the field of treating mentally ill people at workplace. His has shown a positive result and significant growth has occurred like, community psychiatric literacy has improved and integrated approaches and stronger partnership between health care organisation and people have begun to emerge (The Contribution of Individual, Social and Work Characteristics to Employee Mental Health in a Coal Mining Industry Population.2017). Authorities and Department of Health has launched services to address issues with depression, anxiety and related symptoms in Australia and provided with a helpline number for people to access for the services (Mercer-Mapstone and et.al., 2018).Australian government has 2
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decided to provide financial assistance to mentally ill people in Coal-miners through Sickness allowances. This is refers to an income support to individual who cannot work or study due to mental illness, injury or disability. New initiative made by government help mentally ill mining workers because these initiatives made by current authorities provide easy access to medical treatment. The proportion of Australians experiencing high level of mental disorder has remained relatively stable which can be evidenced by National Health surveys. Community provided service is been increased by 92.8% in 2010 as large number of people contact with rehabilitation camp for treatment. Loopholes in government policies: However, federal government is preparing to slowly cut its funding on assumptions that those who are eligible for psychiatric treatment are been combined under one group National Disability Insurance Scheme.Large number of coal-miners report that their employers do not put efforts to review mental illness of their staff members. It is been concluded from various surveys that there is gap between how employees place importance on mental health and how managers treat this situation (Hresc, Riley and Harris, 2018). Recommendations: There are various social needs of mining workers like; proper working conditions,less working hours, clarity of working role, etc. The two main social needs of workers are, better working environment and access to medical treatment. Government and NGO's are placing efforts to reduce issues of mental disorder and stress at workplace in every industry of Australia. Even though, there are many areas where government along with employers needs to work in order to ensure that mental health problems of coal-miners in Australia are been reduced and their social needs must be met effectively. To achieve this following changes can be made:Ensure proper use of funds:Government spends millions of dollars for treatment of people but this funding is not properly used. New initiatives made by authorities should modified so that it can help in addressing current issues in health care system (Joaquim and et.al., 2017). Further, government should make initiatives to open hospitals and clinical treatment in remote areas so that services allocated by authorities can be reached to coal-mining workers.Mentally healthy Environment:Coal-miners report that they have workplace related stress and problems which leads to mental issues (Tran and et.al., 2018). Owner and 3
manger in a coal-mine industry needs to build a healthy working environment for their employees. Working hours should be lessen for them so that they can spend more times with their friends and families.Proper funding by employer:Government is contributing on their behalf but employers shouldalsoactivelyparticipateinprovidingfundsfortreatmentofmentallyill employees. Coal-miners should build a hospital for the treatment of their employees suffering from mental disorder in remote locations. They should be provided with medications and nursing treatment so that employees' health can be improved (Johnston, Shields and Suziedelyte, 2017).Employees must change their attitude:Many reports and surveys conducted by national and international organisation suggest that lack in treatment of coal miners is due to their behaviour. Coal-mining workers lack a help-seeking behaviour and do not ask for treatment at early stage. This may be due to, lack of employee relationship with their seniors. This issue should be resolved and employees must be motivated to report their queries and problems to employer.Provide e-health and telemedicine solutions:It is an advance and more reliable way through which Coal mine owners can give better treatment to their workers. Coal mining companies can give telemedications so that employees get better and quick treatment. 4
REFERENCES Books and Journals Bowers, J., and et.al, 2018. Psychological distress in remote mining and construction workers in Australia.The Medical Journal of Australia.208(9). pp.391-397. Considine, R., and et.al., 2017. The contribution of individual, social and work characteristics to employeementalhealthinacoalminingindustrypopulation.PloSone.12(1). pp.e0168445. Della Bosca, H. and Gillespie, J., 2018. The coal story: Generational coal mining communities and strategies of energy transition in Australia.Energy Policy.120.pp.734-740. Hresc,J.,Riley,E.andHarris,P.,2018.Miningproject'seconomicimpactonlocal communities, as a social determinant of health: A documentary analysis of environmental impact statements.Environmental Impact Assessment Review.72.pp.64-70. Joaquim, A. C., and et.al., 2017. Mental health in underground coal miners.Archives of environmental & occupational health.pp.1-10. Johnston, D. W., Shields, M. A. and Suziedelyte, A., 2017. World Commodity Prices, Job Security and Health: Evidence from the Mining Industry. Mercer-Mapstone, L., and et.al., 2018. Company-community dialogue builds relationships, fairness, and trust leading to social acceptance of Australian mining developments. Journal of Cleaner Production.184.pp.671-677. Stanton, R., Reaburn, P. and Happell, B., 2017. Group exercise at self-selected exercise significantly improves feeling states in inpatient mental health consumers.Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport.20.pp.e93. Townsend, M. C. and Morgan, K. I., 2017.Psychiatric mental health nursing: Concepts of care in evidence-based practice. FA Davis. Tran, T., and et.al., 2018. Mental health trajectories among women in Australia as they age. Aging & mental health.pp.1-10. Online MentalHealth.2018.[Online].Available Through.<https://ama.com.au/position-statement/mental-health-2018.> 5
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The Contribution of Individual, Social and Work Characteristics to Employee Mental Health in a CoalMiningIndustryPopulation.2017.[Online].AvailableThrough. <https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0168445> 6