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The effects of colonisation on aboriginal health
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Recommended: The effects of colonisation on aboriginal health
This article by Garvey, D. (2008) is presented to reveals the aspects of social and emotional wellbeing on the Indigenous Australians. Showing how heavily the past and the present is impacting the health of Indigenous.
Nevertheless, this article shows that actions need it be put in place now. The indigenous struggle with many social factors and socio-economic disadvantages. These aspects are effected by indicates of low rates of unemployment, less access to education, chronic stress and the access to different health services to maintain a healthy health status. For example, the first study was the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Survey (NATSISHS) for eighteen and older, collected in 2004-05. These surveys showed Australia, that indigenous people are at a greater risk of illness, death and maintaining a job.
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Due to this article, it was very moving because of the importance of health and the reality of risk factors Indigenous people are facing. I was very open to this source and strengthening my understanding of health and wellbeing feels very importance to me. However, people who do not value different cultures may find this difficult.
I feel as though this article will be helpful towards my own knowledge and will cover the importance of Indigenous health and wellbeing. However, this article can also strengthen any individual’s standpoint, knowledge and outlook of indigenous
Indigenous communities suffer the worst health in Australia and are most at risk to many illness’s compared to other Australian’s. “The poor health experienced by Indigenous people reflects the disadvantage they experience, as many Indigenous communities do not have access to quality health care and to clean water.” (Reconciliaction Network, p.1) The specific health concerns for Indigenous Australian’s are the higher rate of diabetes, higher mortality rate with cancers, cardiovascular disease is more common, eye conditions, higher risk of smoking which contributes to other health impacts, ear disease w...
Kirmayer, Sehdev, Whitley, Dandeneau, & Isaac (2009), suggested that a culture-centered approach to resilience is better as a community process, rather than an individual struggle. In this article, the focus is on the Aboriginal people and resilience. The authors warned that resilience should not be used as an all-inclusive term to fix everything, but instead be used as a component of overall wellness in a community. A key strength of the wellness framework is that it is “culturally relative” and each person can define his or her pathway (Newman & Newman, 2012). The road to wellness and resilience is challenging due to the many factors influencing success. External influences can affect how an individual copes with certain situations and it can be detrimental if they have no external support. However, when excellent support is offered, it is more likely that an individual or community can effectively cope. Nevid & Rathus (2010) define acculturative stress as the feelings of tensions and anxiety that comes with trying to adapt to the dominant culture. This can lead to feelings of ambiguity in personal identity and can lead to further
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.
1) First topic chosen was wellness which is “a conscious, self-directed and evolving process of achieving full potential.” (The National Wellness Institute, para 3) What wellness means to me is being with my family, surrounding myself with your loved ones, or even being with the environment. To Indigenous people it is the exact same with their wellness with each other, or the wellness with their environment. Mental wellness in Indigenous is living a journey along the way being fulfilled in good health. This changed my thoughts because sometimes I don’t always see the good or surround myself in happiness which can create bad health for me.
Definition: Mental health has become a pressing issue in Indigenous communities. Often, a combination of trauma, a lack of accessible health resources, substance abuse, violence, and socioeconomic situations lead to high rates of depression, anxiety, and suicidality in Indigenous Peoples. This crisis is especially apparent in Indigenous youth, where there is a growing suicide epidemic but little mental health support and resources are provided. The increase in stigmatized and untreated mental illness has continued as trauma and systemic injustices remain unaddressed. Indigenous groups, governmental parties, and health organizations are involved.
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...
Hampton, R. & Toombs, M. (2013). Indigenous Australians and health. Oxford University Press, South Melbourne.
Advanced knowledge of Aboriginal Health policy and issues at the level and national level including understanding successful measures around Closing the Gap in Aboriginal Health inequality. My desire to work in the aboriginal field begins since I was very young. That is why at 16 years of my age I started to be even more interested in understanding all the issues related to the aborigines of this country. Over time, I looked that all my knowledge be trained at health level basis to help to improve the Aboriginal quality of life standards.
Poor living conditions are a major health determinant throughout the indigenous population. Most Indigenous Australians are known to live in rural parts of Australia which are commonly not close to major cities and services. People living in these areas generally have poorer health than others living in the cities and other parts of Australia. These individuals do not have as much access to health services and good quality housing. In 2006 roughly 14% of indigenous households in Australia were overcrowded unlike 5% of other households (AIHW, 2009a). Overcrowded and poor quality houses are commonly associated with poor physical and mental health between the people living in them. The indigenous are n...
According to Australian indigenous website, healthinfoNet, in 2010-2012 life expectancy of indigenous people were 69 years which is 11 years less than the 80 years expected for the non- indigenous men and women. Moreover, the life expectancy for native women was 73 years, during 2010-2012, which is 9.5 years less than the expectation of 83 years for non-Indigenous women. The reason for decreased health can be due to deficiencies in water supply, sanitation and lack of proper medical services.
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.
To the indigenous community, country and story creates a strong cultural identity and is the starting point to their education. The second outcome; connected with and contribute to their world, is shown through the experience and learning of the indigenous culture and the history of the country and land they live in. Outcome three; strong sense of wellbeing is shown through enhancing indigenous children’s wellbeing socially, culturally, mentally and emotionally through learning about their heritage, country and history through the stories passed down through generations and gaining a sense of belonging and self identity. Both outcome four and five; confident and involved learners and effective communicators are important as they show a unity and understanding between the indigenous culture through learning about the country and stories together about the indigenous
A health education tool that is explicit, practical, positive, non-fear inducing and oppressive, acknowledges cultural and traditional practices, the social determinants of health, and the diversity of cultures within a population will increase the success of the health education intervention. It will also promote autonomy, usability, sustainability, self-determination, empowerment, and motivation for behavior change in the Indigenous
Racism and social disadvantage being the by-products of Australian colonisation have become reality for Aboriginal people from the early beginnings as well as being prevalent to this day. There exists a complex and strong association between racism and Aboriginal poor health, assisting in the undermining of the emotional and social wellbeing of this Indigenous group. Racism has an adverse and insidious effect upon the psychological and physical health of the Aboriginal people, as it gnaws away on the mental state of the individual, having detrimental consequence upon the standard of acceptable health in today 's modern society. The effects of this discrimination become the catalyst towards the undermining of one 's self esteem which leads to detrimental stress levels, self-negativity and having the potential
There are many disparities when looking at the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community in comparison to the Australian population, as Indigenous Australians equal to about 2.5% of Australians population this is viewed as a major gap Disparities are very evident with regards to lower life expectancy and inequalities in health status, these disparities stem from high rates of behavioural risk factors and socio-economic status. These factors can influence their high rates of chronic diseases compared to non- Indigenous Australians.Cardiovascular disease is a major burden among Indigenous Australians and in data from 2002 was classified as one of the top leading causes of mortality among the Indigenous community, making up to 27% of all deaths in Indigenous (Australians Australian Institute of Health and Welfare 2008, p. ix). Age of onset was not clear as it can occur at any age, however it was developed at an earlier age among Indigenous Australians with risk increasing as they got older (see Appendix B) (Australians Australian Institute of Health and Welfare 2008, p.14). The gender distribution shows that in both Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians there was a greater number of Cardiovascular disease in women, this disparity was mainly due to the higher number of rheumatic heart disease and heart failure in females (Australians