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Indigenous Health Essay

471 Words2 Pages

The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community do not have an equal opportunity to be healthy in comparison to non-Indigenous people. The Indigenous construct of health is not just about the physical wellbeing of the individual, as the idea of being healthy includes much more than that. It is the social, emotional and cultural wellbeing of the entire community, a concept that is usually ignored by mainstream health services. The healthcare services therefore face additional challenges to cater for the ever changing needs of the Indigenous community (Marwick, A., Anasari, Z., Sullivan, M., Parsons, L., McNeil, J. 2014). The distribution of morbidity across Australia is unequal, as the Indigenous people suffer higher rates of illness and …show more content…

This low health status is significantly interrelated with three major social determinants; sociocultural, socioeconomic and environmental. A correlation is easily detected between the three determinants and the relative positive of Indigenous people in Australia’s society. Culturally, this community have struggled with the loss of land, identity and culture as a result of the first settlement and the consequent colonization of Australia. This ultimately lead to feelings of isolation, trauma, grief, low levels of self-esteem and self-worth. This often results in discrimination and/or racism towards the community, hence why in 2008, 31% of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people (aged over 15 years) reported high to very high levels of psychological distress and in 2003, mental health conditions contributed to 16% of the total disease burden experienced by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare 2003). Indigenous people have an overall low socioeconomic status, with the unemployment rate more than three times higher (11.7 percentage points) than the non-Indigenous rate (17.2% compared with 5.5%) (ABS 2013). These low levels of employment and education can directly interrelate with their environmental determinants, in the sense that these lower

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(2016). 4704.0 - The Health and Welfare of Australia's Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples, Oct 2010. [online] Available at: http://www.abs.gov.au/AUSSTATS/abs@.nsf/lookup/4704.0Chapter470Oct+2010 [Accessed 4 May 2016]. Digital, C. (2016).

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