NURS1008 : Indigenous Health And Cultural Safety For Nurses

The health status gap between the Indigenous Australians as well as the non Indigenous Australians is one of the most crucial problems faced by the health department of the Australian government. The life expectancy gap between the Indigenous Australians and that of the non-native is seen to be about ten years. The former is also seen to have higher numbers of respiratory disorders, mental health issues, diabetes, cardiovascular disorders as well as chronic kidney diseases that the latter (Raman et al. 2017).  Over the years, the Department of Health of the nation had been introducing strategies as well as the campaigns and policies with interventions addressing the health disorders of the Indigenous Australians and trying their best to close the gap.  “Closing the gap” had been one of the initiative going on for the last decade but marked changes in the health status had yet not been observed. If one wants to know the factor, it can be stated that improper funding had been one of the main contributor to the failure of campaigns (Munn and Walker 2015). However, there are also many factors which when researched would give out many shocking statements like that made above. The following assignment will thereby show how this question and the one who is asking the question can also be one of the contributors to the poor health status of the Indigenous Australians.

The question that is asked above shows the mentality of the speaker relating the word “interest” with that “health”. It inevitably means that the speaker is trying to implement a notion that the betterment of the health condition of the Indigenous Australians are in their own hands but they are not trying to achieve better health as they are disinterested to do so. However, such negative perceptions about the Indigenous Australians in turn states about their own mentality rather than explaining about the viewpoints if the Indigenous Australians towards their own health. This question and the tone used in the question shows a negative perception about the speakers mainly coming from sources who are not Indigenous Australians. In that regard, one can analyze the source of this statement to be a non- Indigenous Australian who considers the Indigenous Australians to be a different race or individuals completely different from their own selves (Gwyne et al. 2016). In that sense, the deconstruction of the entire situation shows that such people who make the comments are culturally insensitive and culturally biased. Such form of attributes have been quite common in the nation with a certain cohort of the non Indigenous Australians people portraying negative behaviors actions as well as verbally behaviors, racism, discrimination and stigmatizations through their comments and actions.

In the health survey conducted in the year 2012 to 2013, it was seen that about 16% of the Indigenous Australians have reported that they have been treated badly in the last twelve months. Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet  had conducted many surveys where they have stated that discrimination is commonly witnessed with 40% of the individuals seeing others to have been avoiding Indigenous Australians on the public transport and about 38% of the people witnessing verbal abuse of the Indigenous Australians. About 31% of the people had been seen to be witnessing employment discrimination against Indigenous Australians and about 9% of the people state that they themselves discriminate the Indigenous Australians (Gray et al. 2018). One in four people for about 25% of the people  do not agree that discrimination has negative personal impact on the Indigenous Australians. The data also suggested most of the people believed that it is acceptable to discriminate where 21% of the people had been seen to move away from the Indigenous Australians when they try to sit nearby and about 21% of the people admitted that they watch the action of the Indigenous Australians while they are shopping. Therefore, it shows how stigmatization and discrimination had been embedded in the thought processes and behaviors of the non-native people making them insensitive. Therefore, it is very common for the non-native people to ask questions like this as the roots of racism, discrimination as well as stigmatization had made string connections with their view-points, critical thinking power as well as their though process. Therefore, it becomes evident that such people will never try to find out the main cause of their poor health conditions and thereby tend to make such comments (Munns et al. 2016).

Moreover, analyzing the question from another perspective, another viewpoint can be also noted which will give another angle to the discussion. It can be seen that the speaker who is making the question is totally unaware of the condition of the Indigenous Australians in the nation. They might be not aware that the present condition of the Indigenous Australians is such that they do not have the decisive control on their own health. This means that they do not get any opportunities where they would be able to choose between caring and not caring for themselves. They live very poor condition life and have to suffer extensively to meet both ends of the family (Rickwood et al. 2014). The different social determinants of health have been the major contributors to their poor health condition and had made them to suffer from both physical and mental disorders to large extent. They do not get proper scope of completing their education for which they either live their education midway and as a result, they cannot develop their health literacy for disorders.

Poor health literacy makes it difficult for them to practice healthy lifestyle and habits and often expose them to risky behaviors. They also do not have proper employment opportunities mainly because of discrimination at workplaces or due to their poor qualification background. The governments also failed to arrange for effective employment options although they are trying their best. All these result in boredom, depression, anxiety and financial difficulties making them to take up smoking and drinking behaviors (Brown et al. 2015). They are also not aware of the negative outcomes of such behaviors and tend to practices them in their culture as well as. All these lead to very poor health conditions making them to suffer for chronic disorders. Moreover, they are also seen to belong to the low socioeconomic background where they also face improper access to healthcare organizations. Culturally incompetent services and remoteness lay the main role in their inaccessibility to healthcare.   Therefore, again reflecting back to the main question, it can be seen that it is not the “interest” but the “social determinants of health” that play the main factors governing the health of the individuals (Shepherd et al. 2017).

The non-native Indigenous Australians are mainly not aware of the history of colonization that makes them to ask such questions. They are not aware of the fact how the social as well as economic impact of invasion had accumulated over the generations resulting in tremendous impact on the financial and health condition of the Indigenous Australians. After the colonization of the nation by the British, they started taking possession of the land, declaring that is free land without possession and had conducted severe war with the native people with serious impact on their population, their resources as well as with their morale (Durey et al. 2016). They were severely tortured, oppressed and humiliated in their own land by driving them away from their own land. Besides killing them, beating them abusing and sexually harassing the women and many others, they took up many strategies that resulted in further degradation of their condition. They started to poison their food with the intention of mass killing in order to make the land free from them. The invasion of the British people also associated with the introduction of different types of foreign disorders that were previously not present in the nation of Australia. This included smallpox, influenza, measles, common cold, whooping cold and many others. It was also seen that their immune systems were not able to fight with these illnesses off and therefore many people were seen to expire. Starvation took place as aboriginals neither could nor roam the land to find their food resulting in the dying of many tribes (Kowal et al. 2015).

Alcohol was also introduced in the land without making Indigenous Australians know about the negative outcomes. There were also situations where they were included in the flora and Fauna act which were the highest level of humiliation that human beings could have conducted over their same species. Such facts have resulted in dispossession, exploitation, displacement as well as violation that had accumulated over the decades resulting in suffering of the native people even to this generation (Irving et al. 2017). Therefore, it makes it evidence that the speaker of such a question might not have a detailed knowledge about the history of such exploitation faced by the Indigenous Australians. Hence, such question reflects the lack of wisdom and enough knowledge of the history about the nation and it thereby shows their ignorance about commenting negative points about the Indigenous Australians without knowing their history (Sun and Buys 2016).

Deconstruction of the question has shown three important aspects of the health of the Indigenous Australians. It was seen that the non Indigenous Australians are racist in nature and high degree of discrimination and stigmatization against the Indigenous Australians had contributed in making such baseless preconception about the Indigenous Australians. Moreover, the social determinants of health faced by the Indigenous Australians are other fact that had also affected their health making them to lead poor quality lives. Moreover, the question also shows that the speaker is not at all aware of the history of colonization and its impact on the mental and physical health to the Indigenous Australians. Therefore, such question asked by them is insensitive and reflect the cultural biases that remain in the egalitarian nation of Australia.

References:

Brown, S.J., Weetra, D., Glover, K., Buckskin, M., Ah Kit, J., Leane, C., Mitchell, A., Stuart?Butler, D., Turner, M., Gartland, D. and Yelland, J., 2015. Improving Aboriginal women’s experiences of antenatal care: findings from the Aboriginal families study in South Australia. Birth, 42(1), pp.27-37.

Durey, A., McAullay, D., Gibson, B. and Slack-Smith, L., 2016. Aboriginal Health Worker perceptions of oral health: a qualitative study in Perth, Western Australia. International journal for equity in health, 15(1), p.4.

Gray, A. and Tesfaghiorghis, H., 2018. Social indicators of the Aboriginal population of Australia.

Gwynne, K., Irving, M.J., McCowen, D., Rambaldini, B., Skinner, J., Naoum, S. and Blinkhorn, A., 2016. Developing a sustainable model of oral health care for disadvantaged Aboriginal people living in rural and remote communities in NSW, using collective impact methodology. Journal of health care for the poor and underserved, 27(1), pp.46-53.

Irving, M., Gwynne, K., Angell, B., Tennant, M. and Blinkhorn, A., 2017. Client perspectives on an Aboriginal community led oral health service in rural Australia. Australian Journal of Rural Health, 25(3), pp.163-168.

Kowal, E., Gallacher, L., Macciocca, I. and Sahhar, M., 2015. Genetic counseling for indigenous Australians: an exploratory study from the perspective of genetic health professionals. Journal of genetic counseling, 24(4), pp.597-607.

Munns, A. and Walker, R., 2015. The H alls C reek C ommunity F amilies P rogram: Elements of the role of the child health nurse in development of a remote Aboriginal home visiting peer support program for families in the early years. Australian Journal of Rural Health, 23(6), pp.322-326.

Munns, A., Toye, C., Hegney, D., Kickett, M., Marriott, R. and Walker, R., 2016. The emerging role of the urban-based aboriginal peer support worker: A Western Australian study. Collegian, 23(4), pp.355-361.

Raman, S., Ruston, S., Irwin, S., Tran, P., Hotton, P. and 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), pp.899-905.

Rickwood, D.J., Telford, N.R., Parker, A.G., Tanti, C.J. and McGorry, P.D., 2014. Headspace—Australia’s innovation in youth mental health: who are the clients and why are they presenting. Med J Aust, 200(2), pp.108-11.

Shepherd, S.M., Ogloff, J.R., Shea, D., Pfeifer, J.E. and Paradies, Y., 2017. Aboriginal prisoners and cognitive impairment: the impact of dual disadvantage on Social and Emotional Wellbeing. Journal of Intellectual Disability Research, 61(4), pp.385-397.

Sun, J. and Buys, N., 2016. Effects of community singing program on mental health outcomes of Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people: a meditative approach. American Journal of Health Promotion, 30(4), pp.259-263.