Significant Health Inequalities in Australia: Indigenous Population

This report delves into the significant health inequalities experienced by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in Australia. It highlights a substantial disparity in life expectancy and chronic disease prevalence compared to non-Indigenous Australians. The report explores the historical and cultural factors contributing to these inequalities, including the impact of colonization, loss of land, and cultural practices. It examines the social determinants of health, such as poverty, education, housing, and access to healthcare, and their influence on health outcomes. The report further discusses three key strategies implemented by the Australian government over the past fifty years to improve the health status of Indigenous Australians: improving housing, fostering partnerships with Indigenous communities, and enhancing education. It also acknowledges the challenges of language barriers and cultural differences in healthcare delivery. The report concludes by emphasizing the need for a holistic approach that addresses social disadvantages, exclusion, and inequality to improve the health and well-being of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

Running head: SIGNIFICANT INEQUALITIES IN HEALTHCARE 1
Significant Inequalities in Healthcare
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Why do Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders still experience significant inequalities in health?
Inequalities in the healthcare between the indigenous Australian people and their
counterpart non-indigenous individuals is remarked as one of the most massive act by world
health organisation (WHO). It was approximated that in the year 2010 to 2012 the life
expectancy of the Aboriginal and the Torres Islander people was 10.6 years for men and 9.5
years for women compared to that non-Aboriginal (Jongen, McCalman, Bainbridge &
Tsey,2014). The research done showed that non-communicable infections were responsible for
about 70%, the Cardiovascular epidemic was 23%, diabetes 12 %, mental diseases was 12 %,
and the chronic diseases had the least percentage of 9 (Durey & Thompson, 2012). This paper
will address some of the health inequalities experiences faced by the Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander people. Three types of strategies used in the past fifty years in improving the health
status of the Indigenous Australian people will as well be discussed.
The cultural practices of the Aboriginal people of the Australian are intricate and more
diverse. The aboriginal people of Australia are one of the oldest embraced culture dated back
50000 years ago. The leading cause of their existence is the capability to cope with any
environmental conditions. These people have tried to maintain their cultural heritage for a long
time. The continued culture was achieved through the exchange of the knowledge, rituals, arts
from the current generation to the next generation. The essential part that has facilitated the
wellbeing of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait people is their environment, land and the culture
overwhelmed by the spiritual prosperity. The first Australian practised hunting and the gathering
as their primary source of nutrition. The food nutrients were made of wild savages and

SIGNIFICANT INEQUALITIES IN HEALTHCARE 3
uncultivated plants. Such tradition food contains a high level of proteins, carbohydrates and low
level of sugars and fats (Priest, Mackean, Davis, Briggs & Waters,2012).
The world health organisation defined the health determinant as a fundamental form of
social organisation that determine the structure through which people live, grow and work. The
radical way of the organisation for the indigenous Australians is setting them with the
employment, housing, health and the education services. This kind of the organisation will allow
them to live a more fit life. The clinical attention of the health intervention on the people's
behaviour based on the diet, exercises and use of disease preventive measures like use of
condoms to prevent STDS. Despite these structural problems, poverty has not been addressed.
Debt represents the Aboriginal individuals as most lower social economic (Markwick, Ansari,
Sullivan, Parsons & McNeil,2014).
The education is a primary need that can be availed to the Aboriginal, and the Torres
Strait Islander though has not yet met all their requirements. There is still low number of people
that have been enrolled in schools increasing the vulnerability of child labour. Education is very
vital for the Indigenous Australian individuals as it equips them with knowledge and makes the
people valuable. However, the training should incorporate land enactment form of the livelihood
that usually involves their lands. Thus, enabling them to apprehend the competence in their
tradition (Prout,2012).
There is insufficient investment in healthcare within the regions of Aboriginal due to
their remote nature contributes to health inequality among the native communities. The
indigenous people have a number of the cultural practices that prevent them from accessing good
healthcare. The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander have difficult languages which make it a

SIGNIFICANT INEQUALITIES IN HEALTHCARE 4
challenge for the nurses to communicate with them. Therefore, it's vital for all the health
practitioners within the health workforce to know the Aboriginal cultures and language.
During European colonisation of Australia, the indigenous people lost their land,
economic and social structure. Since then, the Aboriginal people have undergone extreme losses,
disempowerment, grief and estrangement of their culture. Thus, indigenous people suffered
trauma due to the assimilation art of governance of the government of Australia resulted in the
psychological modification. The assimilation was a reflection of the attachment theory
framework (Ware,2013).
According to the research done over the years, it's clearly shown that the indigenous
people of Australia do not receive equal health care services. Thus, suggesting a decreased
implication on the health outcome of the indigenous Australians. Access to the fundamental
health care services is the obstacle by their act of presenting health issues at the late age. "I was
astonished by the poor conditions lived by the indigenous people and disadvantages in the
healthcare". These issues are not only crowded within the primary health care but also in the
acute hospitals. Challenges associated with transport, distance, availability, language and the
affordability are the potential obstacles to the healthcare services. A prolonged waiting period,
transportation and the cost are the primary barriers. The Aboriginal people feel demoralised and
are in lower degree not likely to make use of the health services (Shepherd & Zubrick,2012).
It's important to observe that most individuals within the indigenous people have
communication issues live in the remote areas. That means the presence of the indigenous people
within the healthcare workforce can play a crucial role in ensuring the Aboriginal access the
health services. It is therefore vital for most basic health services to be run by the indigenous

SIGNIFICANT INEQUALITIES IN HEALTHCARE 5
people. The primary objective of incorporating the Aboriginal people within the health
workforce is to provide health services to their cultural setting. The workforce will cause the
embark of training and educating the health practitioners. The indigenous people's health is not
all about the individual's physical wellbeing but the emotional, cultural and social welfare of the
whole society. Hence, it's necessary to establish a knowledgeable community for better decision
making (Downing & Kowal,2011).
The Australian government through the federal minister embarked on the following
strategies to improve the health condition of the indigenous people over the past 50 years. The
first strategy was to ensure healthy tenement to all the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander.
Most of the indigenous people experience economic constraints due to low wages and multi-
independent families. Only a small percentage lived in the self-owned homes when compared to
their counterparts' non-indigenous individuals. The most inadequate housing and that needed
more attention was within the remote areas. The isolation and the climatic condition created a
significant challenge in establishing good houses. The government of Australia so soon provided
the funding to the Aboriginal and the Torres Islander. "Within four years, we shall commit a total
of 1.6 million dollars to the remote areas inhabited by the indigenous communities to improve
their condition." At the moment the government has initiated the reform in some communities
through proper house management. The process is enhanced through Northern Territory
government partnership. According to the Remote public housing management framework, the
territory government can manage the housing for about 64 indigenous communities (Browne et
al. 2012).
The second health improvement strategy is based on the partnership principle that
overwhelms working together with the indigenous communities. The policy primarily objective

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is to provide well-structured clinical service and to promote presentable health conditions.
Through the federal minister of health, the Australian government allocated 19million dollars to
reinforce the Aboriginal healthcare workforce. The decision encouraged more indigenous people
to join the health careers as their professionals. "We understand that a huge number of the
Aboriginal and the Torres Strait Islander was critical to achieving the health improvement for the
Indigenous communities." The Australian government in the past years has committed 49.3
million dollars in supporting the treatment and rehabilitation services in the remote regions. The
program has played a crucial role in addressing alcohol and substances abuse that has
dramatically dominated the outlying areas (Carson et al. 2012).
The third strategy is based on improving the state of education within the indigenous
communities. Individual's better and healthy life depends on the numeracy and literacy. The
national report on the school performance indicated that arithmetic, writing and reading results
for the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander societies was insignificantly lower than that of the
indigenous communities. The retention rate for 12 years from 2006 was lower compared to the
native communities' retention. About 98.8 million dollars was set aside by the government to
increase the number of educators (Mitrou et al. 2014)."The funding contributes to the
commitment to building skilled health professionals to counter the difficulties within the
indigenous communities. Strong education leadership is more vital to the improved living
condition of the Aboriginal people." The government is therefore devoted to seeing the resources
being distributed to the regions with high demand. These resources aim to offer extra assistance
to the education sectors. Thus, enabling the expansion of numeracy and literacy approaches
within the healthcare (Aspin, Brown, Jowsey, Yen & Leeder,2012).

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In conclusion, The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander individuals' health issues and
demands should always be considered in a broad extent. For instance, social disadvantages, the
exclusion and the inequality. Different strategies should be embraced to improve their health
status. For example, educating the indigenous people will equip them with knowledge of
inequality health results between the non-indigenous and the Aboriginal. Thus, impacting the
culture and social organisation appropriateness of the clinical services.
References

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