Public Health in Practice: Aboriginal Healthcare Disparities

This assignment outlines a report focusing on the healthcare disparities experienced by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander populations in Australia. It examines the gaps in healthcare access, health literacy, and the impact of social, economic, and political factors. The report emphasizes a human rights-based approach, highlighting the importance of equal access to quality healthcare. It includes a literature review using databases like Google Scholar, PubMed, Cochrane, and CINAHL to identify existing research, policies, and service gaps. The assignment proposes a health campaign to address these disparities and improve healthcare outcomes. It also reflects on the student's personal skills and areas for development in the context of public health advocacy, including the importance of analytical, interpersonal, and technical skills to promote equality and positive social change. The report aims to identify the extent of healthcare deprivation, understand the role of government policies, and propose strategies to bridge the healthcare gap within the Australian society. This assignment serves as a foundation for a future detailed report, providing a framework for analyzing the issues, reviewing the existing research, and designing a health promotion campaign to improve the healthcare outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities.

Running head: PUBLIC HEALTH IN PRACTICE
PUBLIC HEALTH IN PRACTICE
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author note

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According to human rights, each individual on this earth deserves the right to attain
quality healthcare related to mental and physical health with proper access to healthcare services,
food, shelter, sanitation healthy work related environment and clean atmosphere (Donnelly,
2013). However, due to political, social and economic factors, several gaps arises that prevent a
section of the society to receive such rights. Despite governmental attempts to connect these
people to the mainstream society, instances occur that detach them from the entire community
hence, information, and policy oriented program cannot reach out to them (Hathaway, 2017).
This section will be creating an outline of a forthcoming assignment in which, the gaps related to
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders and their healthcare needs will be discussed. Further a
process through which the information and the service can be provided to these people in overall
community will be discussed and aims and objectives will be outlined.
The prime aims/objective of the assignment will be
 To report the gap present in the services for aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander’s
from a health perspective using a human right based approach.
 Further, the assignment will provide an outline the process of arranging a health
campaign to fill the gap present in the healthcare needs of Aboriginal and Torres
Strait Islanders.
 This assignment will develop a long term comprehensive plan so that the needs,
present inequalities and other existing disparities will be identified. Further it will
help in understanding the health expectancy and healthcare related equalities
between non-indigenous Australians and aboriginals within the society.

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 Finally it will ensure collecting data from the previous researches to understand
the extent to which these aboriginals and Torres strait islanders have been
deprived of their healthcare needs.
For this purpose a literature review will be conducted to understand the previous research
work conducted to understand to what extent the gap is present within the society and what are
the governmental moves to mend the gaps between aboriginal people and quality healthcare. The
databases that will be used for this purpose are google scholar, PubMed, Cochrane and CINAHL.
The searcher terms, that will be used are ‘aboriginals healthcare rights’, ‘healthcare unmet needs
of aboriginals in Australia’, ‘Australian aboriginals unmet healthcare needs’, ‘unmet healthcare
rights of Torres strait islanders’. Further, the search will be narrowed so that more and more
literatures can be found. Diabetes and obesity related healthcare needs of aboriginal and Torres
Strait islanders will be searched. The assignment will be presented in a reporting format, where
an introductionof the issue related to the gap present in the healthcare process for aboriginal will
be presented. Further, the literature review will be incorporated, through which, different policy
and service related gaps will be identified and process to deal with those gaps will be presented.
Finally, a recommendation and conclusion will be included in the assignment.
The reason behind choosing this topic in the assignment was to create an equal and
quality healthcare facility for each countrymen of Australia. Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islanders are facing poor health condition in Australia compared to non-aboriginal’s heath status.
However, there are several healthcare policies, services and facilities are already implemented by
the government of Australia so that they can also have to chance to achieve quality healthcare
(Treloar et al., 2013). Despite of this, the rates are not in the favor of aboriginals and the primary

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reason behind this is lack of information, awareness and facilities among the aboriginals and
Torres Strait islanders regarding their rights that the government provide them (Jongen et al.,
2014). Therefore, the assignment raised this issue as the society nowadays demands equality and
services free from discrimination so that everyone can live freely within it (Artuso et al., 2013).
The assignment will outline a process through which the policies and services for aboriginal and
Torres Strait islanders will be delivered to them and the gap between the healthcare service and
this community will be closed. Further incorporation of literature review within the assignment
will provide it authentication through evidences from past research history so that significant
improvements in their healthcare status can be observed within a shorter time frame.
The assignment talks about the presence of gaps in the healthcare related knowledge or
health literacy of the aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders to the extent that they are not aware
of their own rights and facilities that the government provide them. Several researchers also
agreed to the fact that there are very limited efficacy and sustainability incase of aboriginals.
Demaio, Drysdale& De Courten(2012), determined that in the year 2008, the World Health
Organization developed a framework for Culturally Appropriate Health promotional Campaign
after that several countries having culturally discriminated community started thinking about
their fundamental needs. The Australian government also took several steps so that this
community can be connected to the mainstream Australian society. The government applied
eight principles to mend the gap present between this community and their human rights,
however the gap is still present. Further, another group of researchers identified and interviewed
several aboriginal people to understand their knowledge about their rights related to health and
illness and found that they are not aware of their basic fundamental needs provided by the
Australian government (Aspin et al., 2012). Further they are not even aware of cultural safety

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while receiving healthcare that impact their mindset and they do not seek medical assistance in
severe health condition. Therefore, this assignment has focused this issue to be discussed in
detail in forthcoming assignments so that the gap can be mended and equality with respect to
healthcare can be established. The literature review conducted in this assignment will be helpful
to understand the past research work and future implication of it with respect to the study and
will provide a frame work or outline to shape a health promotional campaign. Through which the
policy, rights and service related information will be reinforced in the aboriginal and Torres
Strait Islanders society. Further, the literature review will incorporate systematic analysis of the
entire matter using databases such as CINAHL, Cochrane, PubMed, and google scholar and
using these from a pool of research articles, relevant papers will be collected (Aspin et al., 2012).
Further, a reporting format will be chosen that will align with the purpose of the assignment, and
will be able to point out the gaps and strategies to mend those easily. Finally, in the reporting
format a recommendation section will be incorporated so that a healthcare promotional campaign
driven for the benefit of the aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders can be developed (Hunt,
2012).
In a democratic society, positive law, which has the capability to make a positive change
in the society should be promoted, distributed and communicated to the end point of the society,
so that a maximum amount of people can take the advantage of it. It is natural to have gaps
within a society as it is made up of people who are imperfect. However, it is the role of the
leadership to spread the positive law within the society so that all those people who face
discrimination, can take advantage of it. In this assignment, the outline related to a forthcoming
assignment has been provided that will address the issue of healthcare related gaps present in

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between aboriginal people and the society. This assignment discussed the methodology and
process of the literature review that will be included in the next assignment.
Reflection section
While going through the Master of Public Health Program, I become aware of another
attribute of my personality, which thinks about the social discriminations, prejudices that
detaches people from their fundamental rights. There are several skills or attributes required to
fulfill the requirements of this profession as it needs determination, patience and strong mental
condition, as the people we fight for might disown us as they do not trust us. Therefore, being
selfless and ability to take initiative are another skills that would be required while conducting
any project that is beneficial for any community or section of the society. While conducting this
assignment, I became aware of few of my personal attributes that I will be discussing in this
section. These skills are ability to work within a team, ability to take initiatives, interpersonal
communication skills, analytical skills and problem solving skills. As the assignment was related
to find out the gaps resent between aboriginals rights and their literacy regarding that, it was a
day to day assessment and I was able to maintain it through my analytical skills. Further, using
my interpersonal communication skills, I was able to talk to the aboriginal and Torres Strait
islanders so that their barriers to attain quality healthcare like non-aboriginals can be understood.
Therefore, these skills were my strength while conducting the literature review related searches.
However, the attributes that I lacked and want to acquire for my further social responsibilities are
technical and computer related skills, adaptability in any environment and flexibility with my
personal needs. As without technical and computer related skills, I will be unable to conduct any
research or develop a new care program within the society. This assignment helped me to

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understand my flaws and my strengths as we gone through several ups and downs that developed
my personality and that will help me in future to fulfill my path of social work advocacy.

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References
Artuso, S., Cargo, M., Brown, A., & Daniel, M. (2013). Factors influencing health care
utilisation among Aboriginal cardiac patients in central Australia: a qualitative
study. BMC Health Services Research, 13(1), 83.
Aspin, C., Brown, N., Jowsey, T., Yen, L., &Leeder, S. (2012). Strategic approaches to enhanced
health service delivery for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people with chronic
illness: a qualitative study. BMC health services research, 12(1), 143.
Demaio, A., Drysdale, M., & de Courten, M. (2012). Appropriate health promotion for
Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities: crucial for closing the
gap. Global Health Promotion, 19(2), 58-62.
Donnelly, J. (2013). Universal human rights in theory and practice, 3rd Edn, pp. 123-156,
Cornell University Press.
Hathaway, O. A. (2017). Do human rights treaties make a difference?. In International Law and
Society (pp. 3-110). Routledge.
Hunt, J. (2013). Engaging with Indigenous Australia-exploring the conditions for effective
relationships with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. Retrieved from:
https://openresearch-repository.anu.edu.au/bitstream/1885/59567/2/01_Hunt_Engaging_
with_Indigenous_2013.pdf
Jongen, C., McCalman, J., Bainbridge, R., &Tsey, K. (2014). Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander maternal and child health and wellbeing: a systematic search of programs and

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services in Australian primary health care settings. BMC pregnancy and childbirth, 14(1),
251.
Treloar, C., Gray, R., Brener, L., Jackson, C., Saunders, V., Johnson, P., ...& Newman, C.
(2013). Health literacy in relation to cancer: addressing the silence about and absence of
cancer discussion among Aboriginal people, communities and health services. Health &
social care in the community, 21(6), 655-664.