HSC203: Analyzing Media's Impact on Indigenous Mental Health

This essay analyzes three media articles to reflect on the authors' approaches to Indigenous mental health issues in Australia. It highlights the importance of cultural competence and positive representation in media portrayals, contrasting articles with positive tones that promote dignity and self-respect against those with negative or neutral tones. The analysis emphasizes the impact of historical dispossession, social determinants of health, and intergenerational trauma on Indigenous mental health. The essay concludes that a positive approach in media enhances the morale of Indigenous people, making them feel respected and understood, and stresses the need for culturally sensitive reporting to address health disparities and promote well-being. Desklib offers a platform to explore similar essays and study resources for students.

Running head: MENTAL HEALTH ISSUE IN INDEGENOUS PEOPLE
MENTAL HEALTH ISSUE IN INDEGENOUS PEOPLE
Name of the student:
Name of the university:
Author note:
Introduction:

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MENTAL HEALTH ISSUE IN INDEGENOUS PEOPLE
Mental health disorders are found to be quite high among the
Indigenous people in comparison to that of the non-Indigenous people in the
nation of Australia. It had been found that there has been a dramatic
increase in the rate of the suicides, depression and anxiety as well as
cognitive abilities among the Indigenous people (Armstrong et al., 2017).
Statistical analysis had shown that above 305 of the Indigenous people are
suffering from certain forms of psychological disorders and the same figure
for the non-Indigenous people is 20%. All over the years, different authors
have represented this issue in their media articles but often different authors
had taken different approaches and tones for discussing the issues. While
some authors have been negative in their tones blaming the Indigenous
people to be responsible for their ill health, some have been inspiring and
motivational for the Indigenous people to develop their mental health (Ridani
et al., 2015). Again, many of the authors had selected a neural approach to
discuss various information that develops knowledge of the issue to the
readers without any ideas or criticism. This has direct impact on the dignity
and self-respect of the Indigenous people. The assignment would be
selecting three media articles and the content would be analyzed to reflect
on the approach of the authors on the issue.
Article 1:
A very interesting article had been published by The Conversation in
the month of December in the year 2018 by Rob McPhee. He is the Deputy
CEO of the Kimberley Aboriginal Medical Service as well as the co-chair of
the Commonwealth-funded Kimberley Aboriginal Suicide Prevention Working
Group. The article had mainly undertaken a positive tone of discussing the
paper and had been found to be very cautious of discussing the issues in
ways so that the morale of the native communities is not affected. The
author had been found to harbor high levels of cultural competence and this
can very well reflect of his effort to recheck and review his article by a
second author the native origin so as to ensure that none of his content

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MENTAL HEALTH ISSUE IN INDEGENOUS PEOPLE
harms the emotions and dignity of the Indigenous people (Armstrong et al.,
2017). The author had correctly identified the importance of one important
aspect. Non- Indigenous contributors dedicated in developing solutions
should forgo their own cherished notions of the solution and thereby learn
from the wisdom of the Indigenous people and their leaders. It is true that for
the non- Indigenous people to bring out meaningful change, the non-
Indigenous people should follow far more than lead. The authors had been
highly supportive f this and hence, the content ns it approach had been
found to carry a positive tone. Initiating the discussion with some statistics
about the health gap existing between the suicide rates among the native
and the non-native people, he had acknowledged a very important
misconceptions harbored by the western healthcare system and ensured the
Indigenous people that their sufferings had been attended to. Following the
Senate inquiry report into rural mental health, he had stated that increased
suicide rates are not because of mental health issues but because of despair
that is caused by the history of dispossession along with social and economic
conditions in which the Indigenous people live (McHugh et al., 2016). He had
criticized the western healthcare approach stating that medicalisation of
suicide had caused distraction of the act that suicide is indeed a social
complex phenomenon that are deeply embedded in culture and history.
The article had indeed taken a positive approach by helping the voice
of the Indigenous people to reach out to the nation. Often non-natives are of
the opinion that native people are careless about their lives and suffer from
many mental and physical disorders because of this attributes (Isaacs et al.,
2017). The author had helped the nation by revealing many important facts
about the Indigenous people that apart from historical impact of the trans-
generational trauma and grief, a number of other social determinants of
health are also responsible for poor mental health condition as well as
increased suicidal risks (Rouen et al., 2019). Social isolation, poverty, family
conflict, childhood abuse, incarceration, hopelessness and homelessness are

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MENTAL HEALTH ISSUE IN INDEGENOUS PEOPLE
some of the factors that act as contributing factors for the disorders (Shen et
al., 2018). Hence, the author had tried to represent the issues faced by
indigenous people making indigenous people feel that their issues are
identified and acknowledged, this make them feel that indeed non-natives
are able to understand their concerns and feel accepted and cared for in the
nation. This increases their morale.
Article 2:
SBS News had put forward an article stating people the ways a new
campaign called the “Stronger Together” would help in encouraging
indigenous Australians for overcoming the suicidal ideations by talking about
their mental health issues openly. It is a very recent article that had been
published in the year 2019 in the month of March by Naveen Razik. The
author had given a detailed description of the program it is stated that Dr
Vanessa Lee chairs RU OK’s Indigenous advisory group had been contributor
to the development of this mental health initiative (Balaratnasingam et al.,
2017). The author had been found to have undertaken a positive stance
where he supports the views of many experts stating that being able to talk
about the mental health issues as well as any form of suffering reduces the
chance of feeling depressed and withdrawn. He had put forward statistical
data showing that within the three months of 2019, already 35 people had
taken their own lives.
The tones that had been used in the articles are so positive and
encouraging in the nature that it would easily make the Indigenous people
feel that the non-native people as well as the governments are trying to
make their best to help them overcome mental health issues and live a
steady life. One of an inspiring statement that would help the native people
gain trust over the government though this article is “Indigenous suicides
isn’t an Indigenous problem, it’s an Australian problem”. The author had also
represented the importance of developing a national suicide strategy in the

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MENTAL HEALTH ISSUE IN INDEGENOUS PEOPLE
nation for the young people as the nation lacks one (Kolves et al., 2015). This
article indeed makes the Indigenous people think that they are cared and
thought for by the national and one such positive and encouraging vibe can
be available from the sentence like “We as a country are letting down young
people. We have that responsibility. We don’t have a national Aboriginal and
Torres Strait suicide prevention strategy and we need one in this country”.
The author in this article can be stated to have set up an example that can
be followed by authors to show how cultural competency and cultural safety
can be ensured in the contents of the articles.
Article 3:
The article published in The Conversation on May 23 in the year 2019
had been written by Julia Hurst. This article had a high level of emotional
content in the beginning lines and had been rightly used by the author to
connect with the Indigenous readers all at once. The author had been a
witness of an Indigenous suicide that had shaken her from the core. The
author had been of the opinion that although various suicide prevention
program and mental health promotion program had been introduced but
they have not been able to meet the set goals (Azzopardi et al., 2018). Even
the huge campaigning of “Close the Gap” had not been able to meet the
targets that had been set other than that of the only goal of early childhood
education and the year 12 attainment. The author had also talked about the
importance of the acknowledgement of the intergenerational trauma which
had been proved to be one the largest contributor to the development of
various mental health issues. Jones (2018) had found that the violence of
dispossession had been spilling across the different generations and that it
had become a disorder which is destroying the mental and emotional
stabilities of the families and the communities.
The author had been found to have a positive vibe in her writing and
is also found to express high levels of empathy and compassion towards the

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Indigenous people in the nation. One of the statement that he she has used
in her content is “It is not safe to be an Indigenous person in Australia.
Where can we have a frank and brave conversation about this?”. With this
form of approach, she had put forward the voice of the Indigenous people
(Hatcher et al., 2017). This form of content makes the native communities
feel that their pain and sufferings that lead to mental health and emotional
instability in the nation had been recognized by the nation and those
initiatives would be taken for them. The author had shown high level of
cultural competence which is indeed praiseworthy.
Conclusion:
In the above discussion, it can be found that suicide prevalence is
higher among the indigenous people in the nation because of increased
number of mental disorders among them. The three papers that were taken
were found to have taken a very positive approach. This positive approach
shows high level of cultural competency as well as cultural safety that not
only enhances the morale of the native people but also make them feel
respected and dignified.
References:
Armstrong, G., Ironfield, N., Kelly, C. M., Dart, K., Arabena, K., Bond, K., &
Jorm, A. F. (2017). Re-development of mental health first aid guidelines
for supporting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders who are engaging
in non-suicidal self-injury. BMC psychiatry, 17(1), 300.
https://doi.org/10.1186/s12888-017-1465-1

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MENTAL HEALTH ISSUE IN INDEGENOUS PEOPLE
Armstrong, G., Pirkis, J., Arabena, K., Currier, D., Spittal, M. J., & Jorm, A. F.
(2017). Suicidal behaviour in indigenous compared to non-indigenous
males in urban and regional Australia: prevalence data suggest
disparities increase across age groups. Australian & New Zealand
Journal of Psychiatry, 51(12), 1240-1248.
https://doi.org/10.1177/0004867417704059
Azzopardi, P. S., Sawyer, S. M., Carlin, J. B., Degenhardt, L., Brown, N., Brown,
A. D., & Patton, G. C. (2018). Health and wellbeing of Indigenous
adolescents in Australia: a systematic synthesis of population
data. The Lancet, 391(10122), 766-782.
https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(17)32141-4
Balaratnasingam, S., & Janca, A. (2017). Culture and personality disorder: a
focus on Indigenous Australians. Current opinion in psychiatry, 30(1),
31-35. doi: 10.1097/YCO.0000000000000293
Hatcher, S., Crawford, A., & Coupe, N. (2017). Preventing suicide in
indigenous communities. Current opinion in psychiatry, 30(1), 21-25.
doi: 10.1097/YCO.0000000000000295
Isaacs, A. N., Sutton, K., Hearn, S., Wanganeen, G., & Dudgeon, P. (2017).
Health workers’ views of help seeking and suicide among Aboriginal
people in rural Victoria. Australian journal of rural health, 25(3), 169-
174. https://doi.org/10.1111/ajr.12303
Jones, M., Ferguson, M., Walsh, S., Martinez, L., Marsh, M., Cronin, K., &
Procter, N. (2018). Perspectives of rural health and human service
practitioners following suicide prevention training programme in
Australia: A thematic analysis. Health & social care in the
community, 26(3), 356-363. https://doi.org/10.1111/hsc.12532
Kolves, K., Potts, B., & De Leo, D. (2015). Ten years of suicide mortality in
Australia: Socio-economic and psychiatric factors in

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Queensland. Journal of forensic and legal medicine, 36, 136-143.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jflm.2015.09.012
McHugh, C., Campbell, A., Chapman, M., & Balaratnasingam, S. (2016).
Increasing Indigenous self-harm and suicide in the Kimberley: an audit
of the 2005–2014 data. The Medical Journal of Australia, 205(1), 33. doi:
10.5694/mja15.01368
Ridani, R., Shand, F. L., Christensen, H., McKay, K., Tighe, J., Burns, J., &
Hunter, E. (2015). Suicide prevention in Australian Aboriginal
communities: a review of past and present programs. Suicide and Life
‐
Threatening Behavior, 45(1), 111-140.
https://doi.org/10.1111/sltb.12121
Rouen, C., Clough, A. R., & West, C. (2019). Non-fatal deliberate self-harm in
three remote indigenous communities in far north Queensland,
Australia. Crisis. https://doi.org/10.1027/0227-5910/a000589
Shen, Y. T., Radford, K., Daylight, G., Cumming, R., Broe, T., & Draper, B.
(2018). Depression, suicidal behaviour, and mental disorders in older
Aboriginal Australians. International journal of environmental research
and public health, 15(3), 447. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph15030447

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Appendix:
Article 1:https://theconversation.com/its-despair-not-depression-thats-
responsible-for-indigenous-suicide-108497
Article 2:https://www.sbs.com.au/news/new-campaign-urges-indigenous-
australians-to-talk-about-mental-health
Article 3: https://theconversation.com/australia-has-been-silent-on-
indigenous-suicide-for-too-long-and-it-must-change-117261