Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Well-being: A Detailed Report

This report delves into the critical issues surrounding the health and well-being of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. It begins by highlighting the challenges healthcare providers face, particularly in communication, and emphasizes the importance of culturally safe practices. The report examines the 'Closing the Gap' strategy, comparing it to the 'Close the Gap' campaign, and analyzes the government's approach, including the criticisms and the role of funding myths. The report further explores challenges such as patient escort errors, including communication issues, and the role of the Aboriginal/Indigenous Hospital Liaison Officer in supporting patients, families, and healthcare staff. It concludes by emphasizing the inequalities in health outcomes and the importance of initiatives aimed at bridging this gap, such as the Close the Gap campaign and closing the gap strategies.

Running head: ABORIGINAL AND TORRES STRAIT ISLANDERS WELL-BEING 1
ABORIGINAL AND TORRES STRAIT ISLANDERS PEOPLE WELL-BEING
Name of Student
Institution Affiliation

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THE HEALTH FOR ABORIGINAL PEOPLE AND TORRES STRAIT ISLANDERS
Successful delivery of care to persons from the Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islanders is
a dominant challenge to healthcare providers. Communication is one of the most common
problems that registered nurses have to deal with when delivering care to indigenous Australians.
To effectively deal with common challenges faced when caring for patients from the two groups
nurses are required to practice respectful and culturally safe practice. This requires them to have
knowledge on how their own beliefs, assumptions, attitudes, values and culture affects their
interactions with patients, their families, the community and colleagues. Talking in a good way
is, therefore, a key requirement in culturally safe care. Matt, a 24 years old man from the
Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islanders is faced with various challenges during his admission.
However, due to the culturally safe practice, informed patient advocacy and confidence of the
nurse the patient was empowered to complete his care. Apart from these, approaches the closing
the Gap strategy also aims at improving the wellbeing of the Torres Strait Islanders people. For
example, through closing the gap funding, travel and accommodation expenses for Matt during
his admission. The current approach by the government towards closing the gap has however
been criticized by various players including the Australian human rights commission. This report
documents answers to questions related to Closing the Gap.
i.
Closing the gap and Close the gap are two different programs but with similar intentions.
The main goal of the two programs is to reduced inequalities between non-indigenous Australian
and Indigenous Australians (Nicol, 2017). However, despite the similarity of the goals of the two
programs, there are noticeable differences between the two.

ABORIGINAL AND TORRES STRAIT ISLANDERS PEOPLE WELL-BEING 3
To start with, close the gap is a public awareness campaign spearheaded by the
Australian Human Rights Commission, Human rights organizations, indigenous health bodies
and multiple non-governmental organizations. The launch of the campaign, which took place in
2007, was necessitated by the release of the Social justice report, which identified the
improvement of the health status of the Indigenous Australians as a time-honoured government
challenge in Australia (Davidson, 2014). However, the campaign was supported by the federal
and State governments after the setting up of Council of Australia Government’s six targets
which included the health aims of minimizing the gap in mortality rates among children under
five years and achievement of health equality within a decade (Davidson, 2014).
On the other hand, closing the Gap is a national government strategy launched in 2008 to
deal with indigenous inequality. It included the Indigenous Reform Agreement, a commitment
by the Government to close the gap between non-indigenous and indigenous Australians within a
specified duration (Nicol, 2017). In addition, closing the gap had six main targets. The first target
was to close the life expectancy gap within in a generation. Secondly, it aimed at reducing the
death rates gap for indigenous peoples’ children under 5 years by half in a decade (Davidson,
2014). Thirdly, it was also focused on reducing by half the numeracy, writing and reading
achievements gap for children in a decade. Fourthly, it also focused on bridging by half the year
12 achievement for Indigenous Australiana by 2020. In addition, it had a target of halving the
employment outcomes gap between non-indigenous Australians and Indigenous Australians in
not more than a decade. Finally, part of its targets was also facilitation of access to education for
remote communities’ children aged five (Davidson, 2014).
ii.

ABORIGINAL AND TORRES STRAIT ISLANDERS PEOPLE WELL-BEING 4
Several years after the launch of closing the Gap, no meaningful changes have been
achieved. In particular, the life expectancy gap between the indigenous and non-indigenous
Australians is has been widening at a worrying phase. Partly, this has been blamed on the
existing money myths (Ring, 2018). Although this is not the only contributing factor, money
myths have been the main contributing factor to the widening gap. Recent findings by the
productivity commission report indicated that the government spending on the Aboriginal
services to be twice as high as for the rest of the Australian population. Therefore, with such
statistics and the widening gap in life expectancy between the Indigenous and non-indigenous
Australians, many people have arrived at a conclusion that money is not the answer to the
worsening inequalities for the Torres Strait Islanders and the Aboriginals. Therefore, many
people believe that a different focus should be the way forward. The Money myths, therefore,
refer to the various beliefs that money is not the solution to the Aboriginals and Torres Strait
Islanders health problems (Ring, 2018). Surprisingly, the per capita spending on the elderly is
higher compared to the young due to higher levels of illnesses among the elderly. The
Indigenous populations also have higher welfare spending. However, this is not surprising
because the population significantly lags behind in income, education and employment
In addition, it also refers to the expression of half-truths on the actual amount of money
spent in funding the Torres Strait Islanders and Aboriginals health for political expediency
(HumanRights, 2018). The myth is also founded on the belief that having a dedicated health
expenditure is wastage of taxpayer’s money. These observations are however not true because
the Indigenous Australians on average have a 2.3 times disease burden as non-indigenous
Australians. This fact was however, this fact seems to have been ignored with the government’s
$0.38 difference in spending on the Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians. Within the

ABORIGINAL AND TORRES STRAIT ISLANDERS PEOPLE WELL-BEING 5
duration of the closing, the gap strategy the spending on the Indigenous Australians was not
proportional to the complex health needs of the group (Australian Human Rights Commission,
2019). Funding myths have therefore led to a major funding shortfall to the Indigenous
Australians
Patient escort and Challenges
Patient escort refers to the special services provided by volunteers in helping patients
move from one place to another. In addition, it involves the accompaniment of patients from
within the health facilities. Patient escort also involves assisting patients with their travels from
and to nursing units. The patient is part of a patient’s care and the person or persons involved in
the provision of patient escort services are perceived as part of a patient’s care team.
One of the common challenges is errors during the patient transportation process. Such
errors can arise in the transportation process at any time, either before the patient is moved, after
they are moved or during the escort services. Research shows that adverse events may occur
during patient’s transfers potentially leading to death, or harm of patients. In the event of any
harm to patients being transferred, the persons offering escort services are mostly blamed for
negligence. Communication errors are the most common causes of errors in patient escort
services. Potential harm to patients may arise in a situation where poor communication strategies
are used (Hains, 2019).
Activities involved in patient escort such as lifting and transferring patients account for a
significant percentage of the neck, shoulder and back injuries of healthcare providers. The
seriousness of such injuries has attracted the attention of American nurses association, which has
become much involved in caregiver injury prevention. Such injuries arise due to age, awkward
postures when lifting and transferring patients and heavy lifting (Camden, 2009).

ABORIGINAL AND TORRES STRAIT ISLANDERS PEOPLE WELL-BEING 6
Suicides are also common challenges faced by patient escorts. Several cases have been
reported of patients especially those suffering from mental health problems jumping from
moving ambulances during escort services. For example, in 2007, a mental health patient being
moved by a Denver ambulance jumped from the moving ambulance to her death. These cases are
increasingly becoming common and proving to be a major challenge for patient’s escort (Dunn,
2009).
Aboriginal/Indigenous Hospital Liaison Officer
Aboriginal/Indigenous hospital liaison officer plays a major role in supporting hospitals
staff, community members, families and aboriginal patients to enhance the delivery of culturally
safe healthcare. In particular, the officer is responsible for working closely with healthcare
providers to ensure that Torres Strait Islanders and Aboriginal patients have a voice in their care.
Secondly, the officer plays a role in linking patients from the Aboriginals and Torres Strait
Islander with external services when there is need. Thirdly, they are responsible for providing
cultural, emotional and social support to the Indigenous Australians patients. The officer also
attends patient appointments when requested and offers a culturally safe place where patients
together with their patients can wait for their appointments. On the same note, the Aboriginal
Liaison officer educates hospital staff to enhance their respect and understanding of the Torres
Strait Islander and Aboriginal people. This ensures that hospital staff has sufficient culturally
safe experience within the hospitals in which they work. In addition, they play the role of acting
as a link between patient’s families and the medical personnel during admission. They also offer
assistance to patients and their families upon discharge from hospitals to enhance their
understanding of future medical care and offer the necessary support. Finally, they are

ABORIGINAL AND TORRES STRAIT ISLANDERS PEOPLE WELL-BEING 7
responsible for ensuring that positive relations are maintained and improving healthcare services
for the Aboriginal community (Hersh, Armstrong, Panak & Coombes, 2015).
Through this role, the officer may help in solving the language barrier between Matt and
the healthcare provider. In addition, the officer may also play a role in educating the nurse
responsible for attending to on the do’s and don’ts in the provision of healthcare services to
Aboriginal patients. Likewise, the officer may play a role in offering social, cultural and
emotional support to both Matt and her mother. Finally, the officer can support delivering the
cultural safe care through acting as an effective link between the care provider and Matt's
mother, as well as ensuring that the needs of Matt and his mother are met during Matt’s stay in
hospital.
Conclusion
In conclusion, there are multiple inequalities in health outcomes between the indigenous
and the non-indigenous Australians. In an effort to bridge this gap, two initiatives, the Close the
gap campaign and closing the gap strategies were established in 2007 and 2008 respectively. The
two strategies are centered on improving outcomes by reducing the inequalities between the
Indigenous and non-indigenous Australians. While one is a government initiative, the other was
an initiative of the Human rights commission of Australia and other non-governmental agencies.
Indigenous hospital liaison officer has a most important role of enhancing quality of care for the
Aboriginals.

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References
Australian Human Rights Commission. (2019). Close The Gap - 10 Year Review (2018) | Australian
Human Rights Commission. Retrieved from
https://www.humanrights.gov.au/our-work/aboriginal-and-torres-strait-islander-social-justice/
publications/close-gap-10-year-review
Camden, S. (2009). Patient Transferring Challenges: Bariatric Times. Retrieved from
http://bariatrictimes.com/patient-transferring-challenges/
Davidson, H. (2014). Close the Gap and Closing the Gap – what’s the difference?. Retrieved from
https://www.theguardian.com/world/blog/2014/feb/12/close-the-gap-and-closing-the-gap-whats-
the-difference
Dunn, T. M. (2009). Handle with care: the challenges of transporting suicidal patients. JEMS: a journal
of emergency medical services, 33(10), 86-92.

ABORIGINAL AND TORRES STRAIT ISLANDERS PEOPLE WELL-BEING 9
Hains, I. (2019). Transfer Troubles | AHRQ Patient Safety Network. Retrieved from
https://psnet.ahrq.gov/webmm/case/269
Hersh, D., Armstrong, E., Panak, V., & Coombes, J. (2015). Speech-language pathology practices with
Indigenous Australians with acquired communication disorders. International journal of speech-
language pathology, 17(1), 74-85.
Humanrights. (2018). Close the Gap 2018 Report launch | Australian Human Rights Commission.
Retrieved from https://www.humanrights.gov.au/about/news/speeches/close-gap-2018-report-
launch
Nicol, E. (2017). What's the difference between Close the Gap and Closing the Gap?. Retrieved from
https://www.sbs.com.au/nitv/article/2017/03/16/whats-difference-between-close-gap-and-
closing-gap
Ring, I. (2018). Closing the Gap, money myths and widening mortality gaps. Retrieved from
https://www.naccho.org.au/closing-the-gap-money-myths-and-widening-mortality-gaps/