HSC203 Indigenous Health: South Coast Medical Service Report

This report provides an overview of the South Coast Medical Service Aboriginal Corporation, established in 1980 to address the cultural insensitivity prevalent in mainstream healthcare services for Aboriginal communities. The report details the organization's history, vision, objectives, and functions, including its collaborative work across various sectors such as employment, child and family services, and disability support. It highlights the organization's commitment to providing holistic health services, encompassing physical, mental, emotional, and cultural well-being, through programs like SMART recovery and community health initiatives. The report also discusses the challenges faced by the organization, such as funding limitations and geographical constraints, and concludes by emphasizing its vital role in empowering and supporting the health and well-being of the Aboriginal community on the South Coast of Australia. Desklib provides a platform to access this and similar solved assignments.

Running head: INDIGENOUS HEALTH PERSPECTIVES
INDIGENOUS HEALTH PERSPECTIVES
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1INDIGENOUS HEALTH PERSPECTIVES
Executive summary:
This report discusses about the South Coast Medical Service Aboriginal Corporation. The
report mainly aims for the functional and cultural evaluation of the chosen organisation.
Many services and programmes are formed to serve the community. This organisation
primarily works for the social and mental wellbeing of the aboriginals of the South Coast of
the Australia. They provide different programs and services that can build up the confidence
of the local indigenous community.

2INDIGENOUS HEALTH PERSPECTIVES
Table of Contents
Introduction:...............................................................................................................................3
Discussion:.................................................................................................................................3
Brief history:..........................................................................................................................3
Vision and objectives:............................................................................................................4
What is the function of the organization?..............................................................................4
Membership (who makes up the community or target population):......................................6
Contacts and location:............................................................................................................7
Issues and challenges:............................................................................................................7
Comments and personal reflection:........................................................................................8
Issues and challenges:............................................................................................................8
Conclusion:................................................................................................................................9
Reference:................................................................................................................................10

3INDIGENOUS HEALTH PERSPECTIVES
Introduction:
This article mainly aims to explain the facts about the chosen South Coast medical
service aboriginal corporation. The organization had been established in the year 1980. The
organization supports the local employment in order to support the cultural values of the local
aboriginals (Lohoar, Butera & Kennedy, 2014). The services provided by the organization are
education for children, and provision for mental and physical support to children as well as
the adults. The organization chose community wellbeing as its primary work guide. The
following paragraphs will explain the brief history, vision and objectives of the organisation.
It will also include the health services, membership (who makes up the community or target
population), contacts and location, issues and challenges of the chosen organisation.
Discussion:
Brief history:
The South Coast Medical Service Aboriginal Corporation is mainly built in the year
of 1980 by the local aboriginal communities. The community members were really concerned
about the cultural understanding of the health service providers. The medical services
provided earlier focused on stereotype approaches for the treatment of the aboriginal people.
The organisation was mainly came into action in 1982 in Nowra (Shah & Reeves, 2015). At
that time the Redfern aboriginals’medical service was doing innovative treatments for these
aboriginal people, so they provide the foundation of the work of the South coast medical
services. The department of Aboriginal Affairs, in the year of 1986, funded the organisation.
The NSW department of health, due to the service provision concern in the year of 1990, also
funded the organisation. The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission (ATSIC)
ceased all the funding in the year of 1991 as they thought the number of the general physician
is much more than the requirements of the local indigenous people.However, the staffs of the

4INDIGENOUS HEALTH PERSPECTIVES
South coast medical service aboriginal corporation continued their working without wages
with the assistance of the local volunteers (South Coast Medical Service Aboriginal
Corporation, 2018).
Vision and objectives:
The vision of the South coast aboriginal corporation is to provide the health services
without making any profit. This organization is highly regarded as the non-governmental
aboriginal controlled health organization that provides health and health related services.
The main objectives of the South coast health organization is to provide health
services for the aboriginal people that can help in the betterment of the wellbeing of these
indigenous people. Their aim is to avail the services for the indigenous people without
making any kind of profit (Castellano, 2014).
What is the function of the organization?
The organization works in collaboration with different sectors for the wellbeing of the
Aboriginal people. The sectors, which are covered by the organization, are the employment
of the aboriginal, services for the child and the family and disabilities of the aboriginal
population. The organization also provide health benefits for the indigenous people that also
involves social health. The organization helps in the employment of the aboriginal people by
providing volunteers and community support officers. Accordingly, to the Racial
Discrimination Act 1975, aboriginal people needed to be placed in the offices and proof of
the aboriginality is necessary while interviewing (Whiteside et al., 2017).
The organization also help in the services of the physically disabled aboriginal people
of the age group of nine to sixty four. The staffs from the South coast health organization
helps to set goals and in the planning of the future. The organization develops support
networks in order to build the confidence of the local aboriginals. This action helps in the

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decision making of how the participants should contribute in his or her community. The
volunteers also help in the developmental delay of an aboriginal child. The staffs provides
assistance in recognizing the individual and family strength in order to develop support
network.
The health services provided by the organization includes different type of Medicare
cards offered to the aboriginal people in order to provide better services. There are Medicare
enrolment card and other concession cards (Hunt et al., 2015). The primary services provided
by the organization are:
 Emergency services of accident, pain
 Preventative care, interceptive and restorative care
 Prosthetic services
The organization provide assistance in the betterment of
 Community safety
 Psychologist, mental health
 Social and emotional wellbeing
 Tracking indigenous smoking
Social health services provided by the organization mainly aims for the reduction of the
causes by the use of tobacco and drugs. This overall affects the improvement of the
community safety and emotional wellbeing of every individual. The cultural programs that
are sensitive towards the cultural values of the indigenous people helps in achieving this
target ( Vallesi, Wood, Dimer & Zada, 2018). The organization also provide a holistic
approach to fulfill the requirement of emotional, cultural and psychological needs of the
aboriginal people. They organize counseling and therapeutic group healing to achieve mental
wellbeing of the aboriginal people.The organization introduces the SMART recovery system,

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whicheducates the aboriginals for self-management (Cairney et al., 2017). The assisting
group helps any person with problematic behavior that can include alcohol and cigarette
addiction. They provide the choice of healthy lifestyle (Silburn, Reich& Anderson, 2016).
The organization also supports the community health services for the betterment of the
aboriginal community. That can include the social and emotional wellbeing of an individual
and a family. The staffs teaches the women group activities that can increase their self-
confidenceand,self-esteem, health and wellbeing. They hold weekly program on Tuesday
from 10:30 a.m. to 14:30 p.m. at the south coast beach. The aboriginal women participates in
the
 Art and craft
 Smoking concerns
 Education
 Healthy cooking
 Healing sessions
 Cultural yarning
The men group are also taught some moral issues. They are taught to provide
wellbeing and safety to the aboriginal community. The men are educated against the
addictions and the changes due to the addictions. Then organization educate the men group to
provide better health and better wellbeing to self and his family. The services help the men
who suffers with loneliness and domestic violence. The program aims to improve the
community relationship, health and wellbeing of the total aboriginal community(South Coast
Medical Service Aboriginal Corporation, 2018).

7INDIGENOUS HEALTH PERSPECTIVES
Membership (who makes up the community or target population):
In early 1980, Jane Ardler and the local community members aimed to start an
organization to support the local aboriginal people. They were concerned that the health
service providers were not culturally knowledgeable to value their thoughts. The
organizations is a non-profit organization not regulated by the government. Most of the staffs
are local volunteers. The members are mainly above 18 year old. The prospective members
have to give written application. The members have right to speak and vote. They can suggest
a resolution to make the services better (Raman et al., 2017).
Contacts and location:
All the contact informations are clearly mentioned in their website. Their office
address of the Nowra is Jane Ardler Centre, 51-53 Berry Street Nowra NSW 2541. Their
office phone number is 02 4448 0200. The executive and financial supports are done in the
73 North Street, Nowra 2541. Education services are given in the Boori Preschool, Lot 424
Albatross Road, Nowra 251 and the health services are done in the Jane Ardler center, 51-53
berry Street, Nowra (Contact | South Coast Medical Service Aboriginal Corporation, 2018)
.
Issues and challenges:
The main issue and challenges faced by this organization is that they don’t have the
governmental support and adding to this problem the organization do not have any funding
from the government for the betterment of the aboriginal people. These factors creates
problems in the recruitment of the new staffs. Often there is a lack of funding for the new
programs and other facilities that can promote the services to the new level. The location of
the centeris also a problem
that need to be addressed as
they the location only targets

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the Nowray region for the services. It is not well spread due the government
acknowledgement.
Comments and personal reflection:
The south coast organization is a selfless non-profit organization. This organization
mainly aims for the quality service for the aboriginal community. While researching I found
that the organization approaches holistic ways to treat all the mental and physical health
issues of the aboriginal. They targeted to educate the adults as well as the children to ensure
and better physical and mental health. It provides directions for the better community and
family relationship strength for the men and women who requires help.
I was attracted by the fact that the organization is building the confidence and self-
esteem of the local aboriginal women as well as the men. It educates against the alcohol, drug
addiction and the domestic violence that can ruin the total community wellbeing. Throughout
the research, I found that the organization is really trying to focus on its strength, weaknesses,
opportunities and threats to ensure a quality service for the aboriginal community.
Issues and challenges:
There are issues and challenges that are faced by the organization on daily basis.
These issues needed acknowledgement soon. These issues are:
 Funding issues.
 Locality issues.
 The resources
 Number of healthcare staffs
 Less reliance on healthcare clinics

9INDIGENOUS HEALTH PERSPECTIVES
Conclusion:
It can be concluded that the south coast aboriginal service is an independent and non-
profit organization that provide services for the aboriginal people. The founder of the
organization was mainly worried that the service providers from the outside were not aware
of the cultural values of the aboriginal (McGough, Wynaden&Wright, 2018). Therefore, it
was considered appropriate if the organization can include the local volunteers for the
betterment of the community. This can lead to the solution of the unemployment of the
aboriginals and the new staff can relate to the cultural values. The patients can be more
comfortable if they find their own community people in the organization. The organization
focused on the mental health as well as the physical health of the aboriginals. They educate
the people with better solutions to be confident and to maintain their self-esteem.

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Reference:
Cairney, S., Abbott, T., Quinn, S., Yamaguchi, J., Wilson, B., & Wakerman, J. (2017).
Interplay wellbeing framework: a collaborative methodology ‘bringing together
stories and numbers’ to quantify Aboriginal cultural values in remote
Australia. International journal for equity in health, 16(1), 68.
https://doi.org/10.1186/s12939-017-0563-5
Castellano, M. B. (2014). Ethics of Aboriginal Research1. Global bioethics and human rights:
Contemporary issues, 273.
Contact | South Coast Medical Service Aboriginal Corporation. (2018). Retrieved from
https://www.southcoastams.org.au/contact/
Hunt, L., Ramjan, L., McDonald, G., Koch, J., Baird, D., & Salamonson, Y. (2015). Nursing
students' perspectives of the health and healthcare issues of Australian indigenous
people. Nurse education today, 35(3), 461-467.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nedt.2014.11.019
Lohoar, S., Butera, N., & Kennedy, E. (2014). Strengths of Australian Aboriginal cultural
practices in family life and child rearing. Retrieved from Australian Institute of
Family Studies. https://aifs.gov.au/cfca/sites/default/files/publication-documents/
cfca25.pdf
McGough, S., Wynaden, D., & Wright, M. (2018). Experience of providing cultural safety in
mental health to Aboriginal patients: A grounded theory study. International journal
of mental health nursing, 27(1), 204-213. https://doi.org/10.1111/inm.12310
Raman, S., Ruston, S., Irwin, S., Tran, P., Hotton, P., & Thorne, S. (2017). Taking culture
seriously: Can we improve the developmental health and well‐being of Australian
Aboriginal children in out‐of‐home care?. Child: care, health and development, 43(6),
899-905. https://doi.org/10.1111/cch.12488

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Shah, C. P., & Reeves, A. (2015). The Aboriginal Cultural Safety Initiative: An innovative
health sciences curriculum in Ontario colleges and universities. International Journal
of Indigenous Health, 10(2), 117-131. Retrieved from
https://journals.uvic.ca/index.php/ijih/article/view/14388
Silburn, K., Reich, H., & Anderson, I. (2016). A Global Snapshot of Indigenous and Tribal
Peoples' Health: The Lancet-Lowitja Institute Collaboration. A Global Snapshot of
Indigenous and Tribal Peoples' Health: The Lancet-Lowitja Institute Collaboration, vi.
Retrieved from
https://search.informit.com.au/documentSummary;dn=546572336923501;res=IELIN
D
South Coast Medical Service Aboriginal Corporation. (2018). About. [online] Available at:
https://www.southcoastams.org.au/about/
Vallesi, S., Wood, L., Dimer, L., & Zada, M. (2018). “In Their Own Voice”—Incorporating
Underlying Social Determinants into Aboriginal Health Promotion
Programs. International journal of environmental research and public health, 15(7).
Retrieve from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6068821/
Whiteside, M., MacLean, S., Callinan, S., Marshall, P., Nolan, S., & Tsey, K. (2018).
Acceptability of an Aboriginal Wellbeing Intervention for Supporters of People Using
Methamphetamines. Australian Social Work, 1-9.
https://doi.org/10.1080/0312407X.2018.1473455