Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Issues faced by aboriginal Australians
Challenges for Indigenous people in Australia
Challenges for Indigenous people in Australia
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: Issues faced by aboriginal Australians
Cultural Safety
Can effective nursing practice of an individual or family who hails from a different culture like the aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders be determined by such individual or family?
As one who takes care of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander individuals specifically if such a person is not an indigenous person, it is important that he/she has the ability of maintaining and creating cultural safety for the child placed in his/her care.(Williams, 2008).
The first step in having a better comprehension of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander matters in order that one could be more culturally aware is for such an individual to be culturally observant. On the contrary, cultural safety occurs when one, as a career, makes provision
…show more content…
Aboriginal’s and Torres Strait Islanders’ cultural practice is of great importance as it has some relations to the way they display their attitude when it comes to death in their families.
It takes days, weeks, and even months to conduct ceremonies and mourning depending on the beliefs of the language group, as well as the social status of the individual that is deceased. It is also possible to have burials delayed as a result of family disputes regarding the origin of the person (linked to where the burial should take place), or the inheritance with regards to their land and property.
It is important to note that it is not culturally appropriate for an individual who is not an Aboriginal to establish contact and pass information to the next of kin regarding the death of a relative as this breach of cultural protocol may result in significant anguish for families of the Aboriginal connected to the individual who passed away (Korff, 2017).
…show more content…
The difficulties met in any cross-cultural health service delivery setting seem to be magnified by the disparity existing between Aboriginal culture and mainstream Western culture.
There has been adaptation of the Aboriginal people’s ‘traditional’ beliefs to the changing situations in which they live (Maher,1999, pp 229–236). While over the time, there have been changes made in Aboriginal viewpoints of treatment, only little change has taken place in terms of their beliefs regarding what causes illness. This may be the result of health beliefs in continuously playing a role in bringing in meaning to events that take place in their lives, thereby assisting people in handling serious illness and death.(Maher,
...fficient training for health workers, communication barriers, a general mistrust in the health care system and culture shock has contributed to issues in delivering services to many Indigenous communities. The reason to why these issues have emerged is a result of two main factors, the lack of health services that are needed to address the issue and the silence of Indigenous communities which leads to misunderstanding between the government and Indigenous communities. Indigenous Australian’s experience this major disadvantage and neglect in the Australian society due to the poor healthcare system and policies that haven’t had a positive effect on the issue. For the issue of Indigenous health to be resolved, the Government and social policies need to address and meet the need of Indigenous people to overcome the poor health conditions that these communities suffer.
The aim of healing was to reconnect social and emotional harmony to the unwell, identifying the importance of interconnectedness amongst all people, animals, and plants Living in harmony with their environment, family and community is a central concept of health and healing for Indigenous Australians. Ill health is recognized as a manifestation of many factors including, spiritual and emotional alienation from the land, family, and community. The Dreamtime expressed by song, rituals, and art communicate the purpose of life, the spiritual connection of all humans, places, animals and plants and the necessity of balance Wholeness of body, mind, spirit and the living in harmony with nature were key concepts behind the Native Northern American healing philosophy.
Aboriginal health is majorly determined by several social factors that are related to their cultural beliefs. Health professionals regularly find it difficult to provide health care to aboriginal people due to the cultural disparity that exists between the conventional and aboriginal cultures, predominantly with regard to systems of health belief (Carson, Dunbar, & Chenhall, 2007). The discrepancy between the aboriginal culture and typical Western customs seems to amplify the difficulties experienced in every cross-cultural setting of health service delivery (Selin & Shapiro, 2003). Most of the social determinants of the aboriginal health are due to their strict belief in superstition and divine intervention.
There are significant health disparities that exist between Indigenous and Non-Indigenous Australians. Being an Indigenous Australian means the person is and identifies as an Indigenous Australian, acknowledges their Indigenous heritage and is accepted as such in the community they live in (Daly, Speedy, & Jackson, 2010). Compared with Non-Indigenous Australians, Aboriginal people die at much younger ages, have more disability and experience a reduced quality of life because of ill health. This difference in health status is why Indigenous Australians health is often described as “Third World health in a First World nation” (Carson, Dunbar, Chenhall, & Bailie, 2007, p.xxi). Aboriginal health care in the present and future should encompass a holistic approach which includes social, emotional, spiritual and cultural wellbeing in order to be culturally suitable to improve Indigenous Health. There are three dimensions of health- physical, social and mental- that all interrelate to determine an individual’s overall health. If one of these dimensions is compromised, it affects how the other two dimensions function, and overall affects an individual’s health status. The social determinants of health are conditions in which people are born, grow, live, work and age which includes education, economics, social gradient, stress, early life, social inclusion, employment, transport, food, and social supports (Gruis, 2014). The social determinants that are specifically negatively impacting on Indigenous Australians health include poverty, social class, racism, education, employment, country/land and housing (Isaacs, 2014). If these social determinants inequalities are remedied, Indigenous Australians will have the same opportunities as Non-Ind...
0.8% of the overall Federal health expenditure in 2009 which was spent on Aboriginal health. The overall wellbeing of an individual is more than just being free from disease. It is about their social, emotional, spiritual, physiological as well as the physical prosperity. Indigenous health issues are all around us, but we don’t recognise because it doesn’t affect us, but this issue is a concern to Indigenous Australia and also to modern day Catholics in Australia The statistics relating to Indigenous health is inexcusable, life expectancy is at an all time low, higher hospilatisation for avoidable diseases, alerting rates of deaths from diabetes and kidney disease. This issue is bigger than we all think, for example 13% of Indigenous homes
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders have some of the worst health outcomes in comparison to any other indigenous community in the world (AIHW, 2011). According to United Nations official Anand Grover, Aboriginal health conditions are even worse than some Third World countries (Arup & Sharp, 2009), which is astonishing, considering Australia is one of the worlds wealthiest countries. Thoroughly identifying the causes and analysing every aspect behind poor health of indigenous Australians, and Australian health in general, is near impossible due to the complexity and abundant layers of this issue. Even within the category of social determinants, it is hard to distinguish just one factor, due to so many which interrelate and correspond with each other. The aim of this essay is to firstly identify and analyse components of the social determinants of health that impact the wellbeing of Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islanders, and demonstrate how they overlap with each other. By analysing the inequalities in health of Aboriginal and non-indigenous Australians, positive health interventions will then be addressed. Racism and the consequences it has on Indigenous health and wellbeing will be discussed, followed by an analysis of how and why social class and status is considered a determining factor when studying the health of the Aboriginal population. The issue relating ...
... To provide Indigenous people with adequate health care, emphasis needs to be placed on understanding indigenous beliefs and the social detriments Indigenous communities are faced with. Applying a suitable model of health to each individual situation will provide the best outcome. This was evident in the case study discussed in the essay. Rodney’s experiences within the medical world ended with a positive and desirable result, but if the appropriate transcultural care was not given, that positive result would have created a negative outcome, which could have been detrimental to Rodney’s future health.
http://www.humanrights.gov.au/racial_discrimination/consultations/consultations.html. Martin, B (1981) A sociology of contemporary cultural change, Basil Blackwell Publishers, Oxford, England. McGuire T, Houston S, Rohwedder E, Montague G. (1998) Identifying Aboriginal person care in hospitals and Medicare documentation, Health Department of Western Australia, Perth.
This essay will focus on outlining the fundamental principles of cultural diversity and how effective nursing interventions are used when providing an adequate amount of care for an individual from a culturally diverse background and how this may collide with the nursing therapeutic engagement. This essay will give the reader an insight upon culture whilst giving a significant explanation of cultural differences within a health setting. The patient’s real name will not be used and will be referred to as Mr. X. This is in line with the Nursing and midwifery Council 2008 (NMC, 2008) requirements to maintain confidentiality at all times.
The authors describe Indigenous perspectives on health and well-being based on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people’s historical and cultural backgrounds. In the Indigenous culture, health comprises not just physical and mental health, but emotional well-being, social and environmental factors as well. Moreover, this holistic approach to health is most associated with their cultural and spiritual dimension. For instance, it is important to maintain their physical and cultural connection to traditional lands as well
Minore, B., Boone, M., Katt, M., Kinch, P., & Birch, S. (2004). Addressing the realties of health care in northern aboriginal communities through participatory action research. Journal Of Interprofessional Care, 18(4), 360-368. doi:10.1080/13561820400011784
In order to understand the impact of colonisation on Aboriginal health; it is important to recognize their worldview or set of beliefs on health (Tilburt, 2010). They practice a “holistic” approach unlike the Western Biomedical model where health is centred on biological functioning (Lock, 2007). According to this model the essence of being healthy relies on the mental, spiritual and social well-being rather than the absence of an illness (Hampton & Toombs, 2013). It is closely linked to spiritual and environmental factors; the heart of which is country, tradition and kinship. Land is a source of identity and spirituality for indigenous people (Hampton & Toombs, 2013). Kinship manages connection to land as well as ceremonial obligations and interpersonal relationships (Hampton & Toombs, 2013). For Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders a healthy person consists of physical and spiritual elements. It’s evident that colonisation eroded the structures upon which Indige...
Thank you for taking time to read my letter. As a nursing student of University of Technology Sydney, I studied contemporary indigenous subject this semester. In this letter I want to illustrate 3 main social determinants of health that impact indigenous Australian health which I found and analysed during my recently study. And also offer some suggestion that could help the government improve aboriginal Australian mental health conditions in the future.
Providing culturally competent care is a vital responsibility of a nurse’s role in healthcare. “Culturally competent care means conveying acceptance of the patient’s health beliefs while sharing information, encouraging self-efficiency, and strengthening the patients coping resources” (Giddens, 2013). Competence is achieved through and ongoing process of understanding another culture and learning to accept and respect the differences.
The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples have been the first nations, which represented the whole Australian population, for centuries. However, the continuous European colonization has severely affected these peoples and, over the decades, their unique values and cultures, which enriched the life of Australian nation and communities, were not respected and discriminated by numerous restrictive policies. As a result, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples have turned into the voiceless minority of the Australian population. Fortunately, in recent years, these issues became the concern of the Australian government, promoting a slight improvement in the well being of native Australians. Nowadays, there are numerous social work