Essay: Determinants of Health for Indigenous Australians and Wellbeing

This essay provides an overview of the health and wellbeing of Indigenous Australians, focusing on the key determinants that impact their lives. It explores the influence of factors such as education, employment, income, housing, racism, community safety, health behaviors, and lifestyles. The essay highlights the disparities faced by Indigenous Australians and the need for improved access to education, employment opportunities, and healthcare services. It examines the role of government initiatives and policies aimed at reducing health inequalities and improving the overall quality of life for Indigenous communities. The essay emphasizes the importance of addressing social determinants of health and promoting culturally appropriate interventions to achieve better health outcomes and wellbeing. It concludes by stressing the need for comprehensive strategies that address the multifaceted challenges faced by Indigenous Australians, especially focusing on the vulnerable women and the impact of early marriages on them.

ESSAY
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Contents
ESSAY.............................................................................................................................................1
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
BODY OF ESSAY..........................................................................................................................3
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................6
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................8
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INTRODUCTION
Maintenance of effective health and well-being is a prime right of every individual. To carry
out a normal life it is important that proper attention is given to the maintenance of good quality
of services. There are different factors which has their direct and indirect impact on people like
the level of education an individual has, rate of employment location transport facilities etc.
Indigenous Australians are the one who are very much prone to bad health and other well-being
issues (HealthInfoNet, 2014). There are non-health related factors which has their direct
influence on health. Some of them will be discussed in detail below which will show how they
impact upon the state of well-being of Non indigenous Australian health. The major areas that
will be discussed in the following report are impact of studies, current state of society, income
employment and daily routine habits. Each one of them has a direct connection on how people
face the physical issues and needs to be improved.
BODY OF ESSAY
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders are the first inhabitants of Australia. In early times,
Aboriginals were defined according to their skin colour or percentage of 'Aboriginal blood'
which have been replaced by Modern definition. Now aboriginal person is the one who have
descended form Aboriginals and is accepted by community in which he or she lives. These
people comprise of diverse Aboriginal nations and have their own language and tradition. They
have lived on their mainland which is Australia, Tasmania and many other continents (Marmot,
2011).
Torres Strait Islanders come from islands of Torres Strait which is located in between the
tip of Cape York in Queensland and Papua New Guinea. They are of mainly Melanesian origin
with their own district, history and cultural traditions. There are some determinants of health
factors which greatly affects Aboriginal people and they are education, employment and income,
housing, racism and racial discrimination, community safety, transport, health behaviours and
lifestyles, etc.
From above factors, education is one of the crucial factor. In earlier times, education
system was not up to mark. Aboriginal people have argued for their rights to get equal access in
education. Right to education was the primary issue for Aboriginal people. Indigenous students
were highly disproportionate as compared to other Australians students. Various factors are their
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which have resulted in poor and failure of Aboriginal education are parental involvement, low
student self-esteem, inappropriate curricula, poor teaching methods, inadequate or inappropriate
teacher training and development, poor attendance patterns and poor health and housing
conditions (Lawrence, Hancock and Kisely, 2013). It shows that how to live a healthy life it is
important that education is provided as it clear the visions of an individual as how it is an
important tool. An educated society lives a better and effective life in comparison to those who
are deprived of education. Condition of indigenous people is worse as compared to non-
indigenous people in terms of studies, opportunities, etc. By watching all situations, government
has taken steps to improve the studies and offer indigenous people with greater opportunities.
The Council of Australian Governments (COAG) has set goals of reducing the gap in reading,
writing and numeracy achievement between indigenous and non – ingenious students in coming
years. They have developed Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders Education Action Plan in
order to improve life outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders. Government is
providing need based recurrent funding to support students, including a dedicated funding
loading which provides additional funding to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders students.
They have made policy which can improve the conditions of education decision, equality of
access to educational services, equity of educational participation and equitable and appropriate
educational outcomes. Purpose of National Ingenious Reform Agreement is to guide national
efforts towards reducing the gaps in educational outcomes for Aboriginal students. This plan
mainly focuses on major six factors which pose great impact and they are readiness for school,
engagement and connections, attendance, literacy and numeracy, leadership, quality teaching and
workforce development and pathways to real posy school options. These factors provide
framework for government to plan accordingly (Campbell and et. al., 2011). Apart from planning
the legal authorities also needs to check its implementation as if same are not done than this may
lead to failure of accomplishing the expected results.
A good quality education lays the foundation for success in life. The Australian
government is working with state and territory government, education authorities, school and
Aboriginal and Torres Islander communities to generate best outputs for students. Students who
are successful in completing Year 12 studies are more likely to get employment after leaving
schools. The status of indigenous people has been stable from some years and the government in
working continuously to ensure better studies and employment to student and individuals.
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Government is reducing the gap of ingenious attendance specially in remote areas and non-
remote areas. After this is the another factor which has its great impact on the health and
wellbeing of an individual. It is the employment and income aspect. There is a direct connection
between level of education and rate of employment. As it is low the indigenous Australians are
highly unemployed (Jorm and et. al., 2012). The present state of health is so much effected as
most of the people are non-employed. It makes it difficult for them to take medical facilities and
therefore find it difficult to live a healthy life. Indigenous Australians are less aware about the
importance of being educated and therefore finds it difficult to earn their livelihood. It shows that
there is a need to develop the literacy rate for such people so that their present condition of well-
being van be improved.
After this another factor which has its direct impact on the physical conditions of non-
indigenous Australians is the health behaviours and lifestyles. As discussed above people
belonging to this group of society are less educated and hence it has a direct impact on how they
live their life. they are more addicted to habits like intake of alcohol, Tabaco no nutrition etc. this
leads to deterioration in their physical health conditions. Excess of Tabaco leads to mouth cancer
and this way their life expectancy also gets so much effected. Alcoholic people become more
prone to liver issues. As they are less financially sound these people consume low budget alcohol
which has a major effect on liver (Cotter and et. al., 2012). It effects their daily routine and hence
end up dying early. Due to non-awareness they do not get involved in any kind of physical
activity which is of so much importance to live a healthy life. It is an effective medium through
which people can maintain good health and can live longer. Yoga, meditation etc. are few
activities which helps in developing strength and also work towards developing the immune
system of an individual. As the society of indigenous people is very backwards they are not
interested in getting involved in these actions. Contradict to these people non – indigenous
people are more health continuous as they are educated and know the value of life. They give
efforts towards maintaining a healthy life for which a healthy life cycle is maintained. They give
weight to physical exercises and maintain healthy diet so that they can live longer. It shows how
important it is to maintain good daily habits as it has a direct influence on the wellbeing of an
individual’s health and well-being. If realisation same is made among the indigenous people than
this may help them to live a healthy life and hence experience change. Government needs to take
interventions in this field like creating programs for them which are focused to generate
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information. This way their present health care situation can be raised which is important so that
equality can be maintained (Shepherd, Li and Zubrick, 2012).
Last but not the least is the present level of lack of community safety which is faced by
the indigenous Australians. It again has an adverse effect on the present level of health
conditions of the people. Women are very much prone to domestic crimes as males are involved
in alcoholic habits and therefore leads to unhealthy practices at home. The safety of females is at
stake and every day they struggle to protect themselves from the violence created by males. It
Detroit’s the health of females on daily basis and gradually they end up losing their fitness.
Sexual violence is also high in these areas which is again a negative sign and has a major impact
on women health. Women’s are treated as slaves by the male dominating society which shows
how the manage to carry out their routine activities also with the violence they face at home.
Marriages were done just for the physical advantage by men so that they can enjoy their life
instead of considering wedding as a blessing. it was easy for males to get their daily work done
by women’s like preparation of food and taking care of child. In return of the same women are
beaten, speared if any infidelity is shown. It shows how the trend of early marriages has effected
on the health of women who after going through the entire physical torture has to carry out their
routine work too. It shows that how indigenous people are deprived from good health and going
through a very tough time which is difficult to manage (Slade, Grove and Burgess, 2011).
Different laws are made but implementation of same are less effective which needs to be
monitored effectively. It is important that the legal authority take responsibility of implementing
the laws made so that better conditions and living conditions can be provided to this society. This
will further help in raising the level of people which can match or to an extent reach to the non-
indigenous people. early marriages are so much common in this society which makes girls a
material to be sold when they reach puberty. It shows that how backward they are and need to be
provided with brighter side of the world. This is very much important and a matter of major
concern for females whose physical condition is not well.
CONCLUSION
From above report this has been summarised that the Indigenous Australian people are not
getting required level of education and employment and other opportunities that are required to
earn a good living conditions. It has its direct impact on health of these people as it remains
effected to a great extent. It is required that actions are taken against uplifting the present state of
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these people so that they can be brought to an equal level. Arrangements should be made on
developing platforms for this society so that their living conditions can be improved in long run.
Government has to take major actions regarding the present state of women’s in the indigenous
society who are going through a rough condition. They need to be given attention and laws need
to be made so that they can be protected against the violence made to them. Thereafter the health
conditions are also becoming worsen due to the low level of daily habits like consumption of
alcohol etc.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
HealthInfoNet, A. I., 2014. Overview of Australian Indigenous health status. Perth: Edith
Cowan University.
Marmot, M., 2011. Social determinants and the health of Indigenous Australians. Med J
Aust, 194(10), pp.512-3.
Lawrence, D., Hancock, K.J. and Kisely, S., 2013. The gap in life expectancy from preventable
physical illness in psychiatric patients in Western Australia: retrospective analysis of
population based registers. Bmj, 346, p.f2539.
Campbell, D. and et.al., 2011. Potential primary health care savings for chronic disease care
associated with Australian Aboriginal involvement in land management. Health
Policy, 99(1), pp.83-89.
Jorm, A.F. And et.al, 2012. Mental health of Indigenous Australians: a review of findings from
community surveys. Medical Journal of Australia, 196(2), p.118.
Cotter, P.R. and et.al., 2012. Do Indigenous Australians age prematurely? The implications of
life expectancy and health conditions of older Indigenous people for health and aged
care policy. Australian Health Review, 36(1), pp.68-74.
Shepherd, C.C., Li, J. and Zubrick, S.R., 2012. Social gradients in the health of Indigenous
Australians. American journal of public health, 102(1), pp.107-117.
Slade, T., Grove, R. and Burgess, P., 2011. Kessler psychological distress scale: normative data
from the 2007 Australian National Survey of Mental Health and Wellbeing. Australian
& New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry, 45(4), pp.308-316.
Ford, J.D., 2012. Indigenous health and climate change. American journal of public
health, 102(7), pp.1260-1266.
Gardner, K. and et.al., 2011. Reorienting primary health care for addressing chronic conditions
in remote Australia and the South Pacific: Review of evidence and lessons from an
innovative quality improvement process. Australian Journal of Rural Health, 19(3),
pp.111-117.
Aspin, C. and et.al., 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), p.143.
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