WEL102A - Evaluating Current Health Challenges in Australia

This essay critically evaluates current healthcare challenges in Australia, focusing on issues such as the aging population, health inequalities, mental health, and drug and alcohol misuse. It highlights disparities between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians, emphasizing social determinants like education, employment, and access to healthcare services. The essay also discusses the role of health promotion campaigns and policies in addressing these inequalities, referencing the Public Health Association of Australia's efforts to promote health equity. It concludes by underscoring the importance of addressing socio-economic factors and improving access to healthcare to enhance the well-being of all Australians. Desklib provides access to this and other solved assignments for students.

Health and Well-being.

Table of Content.
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................1
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................1
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................2

INTRODUCTION
The concept of health and well-being can specifically involve that well-being is a
complete state of mental, physical as well as social well-being and not only the absence of any
specific illness or infirmity. Its concept of well-being can involve a balance among an individual
or an environment, the unity of body and soul as well as well as the natural origin of an illness
was specifically a backbone of the perception of a well-being in past times. In context with
Australia, the healthcare organization within Australia is generally considered as one of the best
and can provide high quality care as well as an affordable care services to the patients and their
families. In this, the Medicare as well as the public healthcare systems can furnish the free as
well as low-cost care assess for every public to most of these effective well-being care services.
In this, the public generally faces various major policy difficulties which are required to address
over the next years such as an enhancing ageing population, an enhanced medical technology
costing, the private as well as public well-being expenditure and many more. In this, there is a
discussion about the health disparities among the Australian people that make a negative
influence over the health of the public. In addition to this, there is also a discussion about the
theories or essential concepts that are needed to overcome the well-being disparities among the
Australian public to improve their well-being and a healthy lifestyle as well (Pulker et. al., 2018).
MAIN BODY
The concept of well-being is not generally a lack of illness but it is specifically a complex
collection of an individual’s emotional, mental as well as the social well-being components. The
concept of health is greatly associated with the happiness as well as the life satisfaction. In this,
there are various elements that make influence over the health and well-being such as:
 Lack of access to the primary well-being care services.
 Reduced standards of the well-being infrastructure within the indigenous communities
such as sanitation, housing, healthy housing and food as well.
In this, there are differences among the Non-Indigenous and Indigenous Australian people within
three key regions that can aid to illustrate a well-documented well-being gap such as:
Social Determinants: In this, the people living in Australia generally involve reduced
levels of education, employment, reduced housing quality as well as poverty as compared with
the Non-Indigenous Australian (Sugiyama et. al., 2018).
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Well-being risk factors: In this, the people living in Australia generally have elevated
rates of smoking as well as the excessive consumption of alcohol, lack of adequate exercise as
well as have a high risk of the blood pressure levels as compared with Non-Indigenous
Australians (Australia's health 2018, 2018).
Access to suitable well-being care services: The people living in Australia are more
likely to report the issues while accessing the affordable care services which are located nearby
than the non-Indigenous people.
In this, the structural disparities are being produced on the basis of social identity such as
gender, race as well as the sexual orientation and the social determinants of the well-being are
the piece of land on which the particular effects are laid out. In this, an understanding about the
social determinants of well-being generally needs a shift towards the more upstream perspectives
such as the conditions which can give the contrast among which the behaviour of the people is
being shaped (Social determinants and the health of Indigenous peoples in Australia – a human
rights based approach, 2007). In this, it is essential to note that the specific factors that are
involved within the social determinant factors of well-being are indeed modifiable as well as that
they can be impacted by the economic, social, policies as well as the political procedures. It is
identified that there are the communities throughout the Australian people which have been
prioritized addressing the social determinants of the well-being and are exhibiting how the
significant upstream strategies specifically lead to enhanced the conditions of the community as
well as the well-being results.
Education: In this contrast, it generally pertains to well-being, can be abstract as a procedure as
well as a result. In this, the process of an educational accomplishment generally take place in
various sectors as well as levels such as school, home, and across community as well. In addition
to this, the results can be illustrated as a sum of the understanding, effective skills as well as the
capacities which can effectively make impact over the various other social determinants of the
well-being. In this, there is an extensive body of the study which consistently exhibit that a
positive correlation among the educational attainments as well as the well-being status signals
like the life expectancy, morbidity from an acute as well as chronic illness, increased rates of
obesity, the well-being behaviours like excessive smoking and consumption of drinking, reduced
physical activities and many more (Hajizadeh et. al., 2018). The accomplishment of education
generally also involves an intergenerational influence in which the parent's education, more
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commonly the maternal education is directly associated with their children's well-being and
health as well. In this, the rates of the death are quite decreasing among the educated Australian
people as compared with the least educated people. In context with Indigenous Australians, in
some of the regions, there were lack of access to education as they live in most deprived areas.
These people are specifically more prone towards the health issues such as increased prevalence
of cardiovascular illness, diabetes, increasing rates of obesity and many more. These all-health
issues can only occur among such type of people as they did not have enough knowledge about
healthy eating. The Indigenous people also lack asses to some of the essential care services
which lead to having greater impacts of illness among them and in most severe cases, it leads to
death also.
In order to overcome the specific issues or health inequalities among Indigenous people,
there were some essential steps taken by the government such as conducting health promoting
programs or campaign, established effective well-being policies, provide assess to healthcare
services and many more. In addition to this, the higher authorities within the area have conducted
various effective health promotion campaigns which can help the people to gain knowledge as
well as understanding about the healthy eating and healthy lifestyle. The well-being promotion
campaigns are generally the programs that are aim to engage as well as empower the vulnerable
people as well as across the communities in order to select the healthy behaviours. These health
promotion programs specifically make alterations which can effectively decrease the risk of
improving significant acute as well as chronic illnesses and other morbidities as well.
Furthermore, the well-being promotion campaigns generally allow the vulnerable people to
enhance the control over their own well-being and health as well. In context with Public Well-
being Association of Australia, the well-being equity policy can furnish an effective framework
in order to guide an advocacy effort in order to promote the well-being equity. The very first aim
of the Public Well-being Association of Australia is to advocate for the decrease of the well-
being disparities in the Australia as well as its associated international communities. It is one of
the fundamental policies as well as it can impact over various public well-being problems. In
this, the policy can specifically give a precise background on the well-being disparities, can
outlines the specific principles which the Public Well-being Association of Australia can
consider are essential in order to attain a well-being equity, can give effective actions which the
Public Well-being Association of Australia will significantly advocate for the higher
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administration as well as the various other healthcare organizations to undertake to decrease the
well-being disparities as well as can express an action plan for the Public Well-being Association
of Australia as well (PHAA's Health Equity Policy, 2018).
CONCLUSION
From the above discussion, it is concluded that the health is quite essential for an individual
to live a healthy live. Nowadays, there are various public health issues that are arising within the
Australian population that can have a great influence over the well-being. It is specifically
identified that the people those who are living in most deprived areas or living in poor economic
conditions are generally more prone towards the health issues such as increased cardiovascular
illness, diabetes, obesity and many more. The factors that can enhances the rates of well-being
illness among people are mainly socio-economic conditions, poverty, lack of appropriate
education, lack of access to healthcare services as well as inadequate physical exercise. All these
factors can significantly lead to enhance the prevalence of health disparities among people. To
reduce all the issues bout health, the government has taken some important steps such as
conducting health promotion campaigns, implementing effective policies within organizations or
within community, increased or free assess towards the healthcare services to the public so that
they can live their life healthier.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals:
Pulker, C.E., Trapp, G.S.A., Scott, J.A. and Pollard, C.M., 2018. What are the position and
power of supermarkets in the Australian food system, and the implications for public
health? A systematic scoping review. Obesity Reviews, 19(2), pp.198-218.
Sugiyama, T., Carver, A., Koohsari, M.J. and Veitch, J., 2018. Advantages of public green
spaces in enhancing population health. Landscape and urban planning, 178, pp.12-17.
Lowe, M., Whitzman, C. and Giles-Corti, B., 2018. Health-promoting spatial planning:
Approaches for strengthening urban policy integration. Planning theory &
practice, 19(2), pp.180-197.
Hajizadeh, M., Hu, M., Bombay, A. and Asada, Y., 2018. Socioeconomic inequalities in health
among Indigenous peoples living off-reserve in Canada: trends and
determinants. Health Policy, 122(8), pp.854-865.
Baker, E., Pham, N.T.A., Daniel, L. and Bentley, R., 2020. New evidence on mental health and
housing affordability in cities: A quantile regression approach. Cities, 96, p.102455.
Harris, P., Riley, E., Dawson, A., Friel, S. and Lawson, K., 2020. “Stop talking around projects
and talk about solutions”: positioning health within infrastructure policy to achieve the
sustainable development goals. Health Policy, 124(6), pp.591-598.
Greenhill, J., Richards, J.N., Mahoney, S., Campbell, N. and Walters, L., 2018. Transformative
learning in medical education: Context matters, a South Australian longitudinal
study. Journal of Transformative Education, 16(1), pp.58-75.
Borg, K., Boulet, M., Smith, L. and Bragge, P., 2019. Digital inclusion & health communication:
a rapid review of literature. Health Communication, 34(11), pp.1320-1328.
Lansbury Hall, N. and Crosby, L., 2022. Climate change impacts on health in remote indigenous
communities in Australia. International Journal of Environmental Health
Research, 32(3), pp.487-502.
Bezzina, A., Ashton, L., Watson, T. and James, C.L., 2022. Workplace wellness programs
targeting weight outcomes in men: A scoping review. Obesity Reviews, 23(4), p.e13410.
Polonsky, M.J., Ferdous, A.S., Renzaho, A.M., Waters, N. and McQuilten, Z., 2018. Factors
leading to health care exclusion among African refugees in Australia: the case of blood
donation. Journal of Public Policy & Marketing, 37(2), pp.306-326.
Online:
Australia's health 2018, 2018 [Online] Available through:
<https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/australias-health/australias-health-2018-in-brief/contents/all-
is-not-equal>
Social determinants and the health of Indigenous peoples in Australia – a human rights based
approach, 2007 [Online] Available through:
<https://humanrights.gov.au/about/news/speeches/social-determinants-and-health-indigenous-
peoples-australia-human-rights-based#:~:text=Important%20determinants%20of%20Indigenous
%20health,etc)%20compared%20to%20other%20Australians.>
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PHAA's Health Equity Policy, 2018 [Online] Available through:
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/1753-6405.12831
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