Health Outcomes and Challenges: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders

This report delves into the holistic concept of health within Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, highlighting the interconnectedness of physical, emotional, social, and cultural well-being. It identifies key challenges impacting health outcomes, including health literacy, transportation limitations, healthcare access, and existing racism, while also acknowledging the influence of social inequality and stereotypes. The report examines government initiatives and programs aimed at improving health, emphasizing the need for collaboration among healthcare professionals and addressing barriers such as workforce shortages and remote area service limitations. Furthermore, it emphasizes the importance of socio-cultural and educational improvements, including family support and substance use awareness. The analysis then focuses on four specific areas for primary healthcare: fostering collaboration among healthcare teams, improving workforce distribution through incentives, providing culturally appropriate care, and addressing social determinants. Recommendations include involving Indigenous representatives in advisory committees and utilizing outreach programs for early health concern detection. The report concludes by underscoring the importance of cultural understanding and collaborative efforts from the government and healthcare professionals to overcome existing issues and promote equality and well-being within these communities.

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15 Mar 2019
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In Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders, the concept of health is viewed as a holistic
approach, which includes not only physical well-being but also emotional, social, and cultural
well-being (Schultz and Cairney 2017). In my opinion, the health outcome experienced in
this contemporary Australian reason is associated with several challenges. These include
health literacy, lack of transportation, limited availability of health and educational
institutions, and existing racism. However, in literature, there exist several other factors that
have an influence on the health outcomes of this indigenous population. For example, social
inequality and existing stereotype among the urban population, which underestimate these
community members, is a factor that affects the indigenous population.
According to Larkins et al. (2016), Australian government have taken adequate steps and
invested resources via health organizations and medical support services. The objective of
these programs is to facilitate multifunctional services, social support, and fulfilment of basic
requirements including education, nutrition, and knowledge of healthy well-being.
Furthermore, these services requires active collaboration action partnership of medical
practitioners, nurses and pharmacist, allied health practitioners, and social workers. In my
opinion, although these programs have scope to improve the overall health aspects of the
Islanders, however, the existing barriers remain consistent. For instance, lack of an
appropriate number of professionals, unwillingness to work in remote areas, lack of access to
emergency services due to unavailability of transportation is key factors because of which the
situation still remains same from the past decades. In addition to this, at temp should also be
taken to improve the socio-cultural outcomes and educational requirement of these
community members (McNamara et al. 2018). Personally, I believe, educating children,
supporting families with employment, making them aware of the demerits with substance use
and alcohol consumption, can help the members in managing their health. With education
and information, the community can improve their lifestyle, adopt healthy eating habits, and
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potentially focus on family and individual development. In other words, this long-term
objective can fulfil the establishment required to maintain a healthy community life.
Further, in this reflective analysis, the sections will dedicate on the discussion of four specific
areas that can be considered by the primary healthcare sector. The objective of working on
these sections is not only to improve to present health situation but to enable the Islanders to
achieve healthy well-being state.
 Focusing on collaboration - A specific team of healthcare professionals must be
allocated four different regions of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders community.
These team must include interdisciplinary professionals, who shall be posted on a
rotation basis for supporting the community requirement. Note that, the rotational
responsibility assignment can manage the shortage of healthcare professionals and
their service contribution to these community members.
 Workforce distribution - Since, the concern about health workforce is not related to
the distribution of general practitioners. Additional motivational strategies such as
higher pay scale, additional employment benefits, and extended incentives must be
offered to healthcare professionals for working in rural and remote areas (Davy et al.
2017). The object here is to support the health concern of Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islanders appropriate and adequately.
 Culturally appropriate care - Within this provision, it should be ensured that the
services provided must have adequate resources and responsiveness to meet the
requirement of the indigenous population. The health promotion must ensure adequate
planning to support education and lifestyle, promote the embedded cultural safety,
and respect as human beings. Additionally, the national health plans must increase
participation in the planning of health management for Islanders.
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 Social determinants - It must be emphasized that primary healthcare organization
must focus on strategies such as people-centered care and place-based availability of
the facilities. Additionally, adequate leadership to take care of social and economic
factors that can affect the developing state of these community members.
Additional recommendations, which I personally believe can play a crucial role in offering a
holistic approach to improve the health of these community members must include
committed planning and effective strategies. For example, it should be ensured that
appropriate representatives from these Islanders should be included in advisory committees,
health agency, and clinical councils (Canuto et al. 2017). For the established programs must
ensure that outreach programs and communication majors should improve the screening and
early-stage detection of health concern (Wakerman and Shannon 2016). Doing so, the overall
life expectancy and quality of life for these community members can be improved.
As a concluding remark, the health considerations for these community members can only be
improved, by understanding their cultural requirement. Moreover, it is the responsibility of
government and healthcare professionals to overcome the existing contemporary issues and
contribute for the well-being, with equality.
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References
Canuto, K., Aromataris, E., Lockwood, C., Tufanaru, C. and Brown, A., 2017. Aboriginal
and Torres Strait Islander health promotion programs for the prevention and management of
chronic diseases: a scoping review protocol. JBI database of systematic reviews and
implementation reports, 15(1), pp.10-14.
Davy, C., Cass, A., Brady, J., DeVries, J., Fewquandie, B., Ingram, S., Mentha, R., Simon,
P., Rickards, B., Togni, S. and Liu, H., 2016. Facilitating engagement through strong
relationships between primary healthcare and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
peoples. Australian and New Zealand journal of public health, 40(6), pp.535-541.
Larkins, S., Woods, C.E., Matthews, V., Thompson, S.C., Schierhout, G., Mitropoulos, M.,
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islander Primary health-care services to continuous Quality improvement
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McNamara, B., Gubhaju, L., Jorm, L., Preen, D., Jones, J., Joshy, G., Shepherd, C.,
McAullay, D. and Eades, S., 2018. Exploring factors impacting early childhood health among
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families and communities: protocol for a population-
based cohort study using data linkage (the ‘Defying the Odds’ study). BMJ open, 8(3),
p.e021236.
Schultz, R. and Cairney, S., 2017. Caring for country and the health of Aboriginal and Torres
Strait Islander Australians. Medical Journal of Australia, 207(1), pp.8-10.
Wakerman, J. and Shannon, C., 2016. Strengthening primary health care to improve
Indigenous health outcomes. The Medical Journal of Australia, 204(10), pp.363-364.
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