Aboriginal Mental and Physical Well Being-Free-Samples for Students

Question: Discuss about the Aboriginal Mental and Physical Well Being. Answer: Introduction This essay aims to address the statement given in The Constitution for theNational Aboriginal Community Controlled HealthOrganization(NACCHO, 2011, p. 55). The essay will center round the different strategies to ensure culturally safe and spiritual wellbeing in the patient. In support of this statement I have provide with strategies that can cover the gap between the indigenous and the westernized health care. I have also made sure that my strategies do not hamper the cultural safety of the aboriginals. The later part of the discussion addresses the importance of the collaborative care approach for the aboriginals. In order to analyze the statement in The Constitution for theNational Aboriginal Community Controlled HealthOrganization(NACCHO, 2011, p. 55), it is important to understand social barriers that prevent the indigenous people to get a proper health care. The aboriginal people have a varied range of cultural beliefs that does not align with the Westernized concept of the non indigenous Australian population. The Indigenous people have a belief that health is related to maintenance of the life balances (Taylor Guerin, 2010, p.123). They are deeply connected to their tradition and culture and believe in the traditional methods of treatment. Different researches say that the aboriginals and the Torres Strait Islanders experience a very low standard of health compared to that of the non aboriginals. The reason behind this is multifactorial. The factors contributing to this inequality of health services are the racism, socio economic status, poverty, disempowerment, discrimination and dispossession (Wepa 2015, p.22). The health care services provided by the government often do not meet the health care requirements of the aboriginals. The aboriginal community health services have developed in order to reach out to the aboriginals. This organization is managed by the local indigenous community, by an elected board of directors. As state governments have refused to provide any financial support, arguing that the aboriginals have access to the mainstream care, The ACCH has been thriving entirely upon the donations. ACCHS (Aboriginal community controlled health service) is a health care service provided to the aboriginal Australians. The ACCHS aimed at providing primary care to the aboriginals. Currently over a hundred community exists in Australia providing physical as well as spiritual support to the aboriginal people (Swan Raphael, 2006). In order to address spiritual well being in the aboriginals The Prime minister has taken Close the gap policy framework. This framework had 6 specific goals whic h include the life expectancy gap in a generation, accessing education to all the aboriginal children, reducing the gap in reading, writing and numeracy accomplishment for children and reducing the gap for Indigenous students in Year 12 attainment or equivalent attainment rates by 2020; and lessen the gap in service outcomes between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians in a decade. The National aboriginal Torres Strait islanders plan has been established by the Australian government in order to fill the gaps in the health outcome with the aboriginal people. This plan has been established in 2008, for tackling the health parities faced by the indigenous people (Best, 2009 p.25). The visions of this plan are to make the Australian system free of racism and inequality and such that all the Torres strait Islanders get high quality, effective and affordable services. The different principles of this plan are 1. The health inequality and the human rights. 2. Partnership 3. Accountability 4. Control of diseases in the Aboriginal and the Torres Strait Islander community (Swan Raphael, 2006. p.24). The Priorities of the plan is to continuously strive to improve the appropriateness, accessibility and impact. The strategy of this plan is to provide a robust, strong and vibrant effective community controlled health sector. Evidence based care has to be practiced in order to provide a physical and emotional support to the aboriginals (Nielson et al. 2014.p.190-196). Care should be given such that the aboriginal mothers and the babies get appropriate amount of care. The organization should be able to look after the rate of the growth and the development of the aboriginal children, such that they grow into young healthy adults. It should be mentioned that most of the aboriginals do not rely on the non aboriginal way of treatment, due the trauma of the pas t experiences. The sense of racism, loss of values prevents the aboriginals from approaching the westernized healthcare. The health care policy is continuously to build the environment of trust with the aboriginal people (Taylor Guerin, 2010, p.123). The aboriginal health care plan played a major role in a responsive and strong healthcare system in Australia. The aboriginal healthcare pan had mainly focused on the detection and the management of the chronic diseases in the aboriginals. The challenges for the South Australian health involve engagement of the aboriginal community in their own care. The innovation of the The Health in All Policies, is one specific high level approach which helps to form an innovative multi-level and innovative policy development (King, Smith Gracey, 2009). This initiative is being incorporated to improve health outcomes in the young Aboriginal population All these strategies can not only bring about better outcomes in their physical well being but will also help in their overall improvement over the years. It has already been mentioned that in most of the cases the aboriginals do not like getting westernized health care facilities out of the incidents that have happened to them in the past (Durey 2010, p.44). Therefore it is necessary to build a conducing environment for them so they get access to the health facilities. In most of the cases improved health care settings are not available in remote places. As a nurse it is necessary for us to reach out our hands to them, so they get access to proper life saving medications and other treatments. It is reported that aboriginal students and teenagers often suffer from racist statements in schools and colleges, it should be noted that these shameful incident can leave emotional scars on the brain of those teenagers, which might ultimately hamper their progression in personal and professional life (Baker 2012, p.144). One important aspect of a nurse is the acceptance of diverse cultures in a non biased way. According to Best (2009), cultural safety comes from the understanding of a culture. Often indigenous people are faced with institutional racism (Best 2009.p.256). As a nurse in my institution I should understand their ritual, cultural beliefs and should slowly make them understand the importance of the westernized treatments. It should be kept in mind that health is dependent on the culture of any society. It is the culture that maintains and defines health (Baba et al. 2014, p.56). I have often come across aboriginal patients with mental health illness. It is quite challenging for me to deal with the patients family with different cultural beliefs. A proper client- therapist relationship can increase their reliability on us and help in adherence to the therapeutics. I have disseminated and encouraged my peer nurse to set up programs involving the indigenous patient and their families, where indigenous health care professionals will also be present to represent the aboriginal culture. A collaboration of different m embers of a health care setting is required to achieve the goals. The healthcare service provided by my organisation should not only be restricted to giving medications, but should also be able to impart knowledge regarding the importance of maintenance of health. Mobile dispensaries can be set up or clinical camps can be organized for the people who cannot reach out to us. A team work from my organization would be able to accomplish this. My treatment should entirely focus on providing safe care to the children and the teenagers, holistic care to the elderly persons and mothers. Although the Australian government is continuously trying to provide an equable care to the aboriginals, they still face with racism and negligence. The aboriginals do not get suitable Medicare facilities and their socio-economic status does not permit them to access the expensive westernized healthcare. Therefore the potential health strategy should also focus on the cost effectiveness; otherwise it wont be reachable to all the strata of the society. Furthermore maintenance of the cultural safety can close the gap between the indigenous and the non indigenous health care (King et al. 2009, p.76-85). For having a good health, it is important for the aboriginals to shape up the society. It is our duty to identify the different social determinants of aboriginal health. Addressing this social determinants would bring about improve health in the aboriginals (Carson et al.2007). As I have already mentioned about the equable Medicare system which would help in stopping the discrimination, further more maintenance of cultural safety would increase their dependence on our treatment. It can be concluded from the above essay that the constitution of The Constitution for theNACCHO rightly says that to promote health to particular community, it is necessary to identify the social determinants and cater to the physical as well as spiritual well being of the patient. The National aboriginal Torres Strait islanders plan has been established by the Australian government in order to fill the gaps in the health outcome with the aboriginal people. A proper collaborative plan like setting up mobile dispensaries and programs can bring about better outcomes in health. References Baba, J.T., Brolan, C.E. Hill, P.S., 2014. Aboriginal medical services cure more than illness: a qualitative study of how Indigenous services address the health impacts of discrimination in Brisbane communities.International journal for equity in health,13(1), p.56. Baker, J., 2012.Theorising Survival: Indigenous Women and Social and Emotional Wellbeing. Post Pressed.pp.144 Best, O., 2009. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Nursing and Midwifery Strategy 2010-2012.p.245 Carson, B., Dunbar, T., Chenhall, R.D. Bailie, R., 2007.Social determinants of Indigenous health. Allen Unwin. Durey, A., 2010. Reducing racism in Aboriginal health care in Australia: where does cultural education fit?.Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health,34(s1). King, M., Smith, A. Gracey, M., 2009. Indigenous health part 2: the underlying causes of the health gap.The Lancet,374(9683), pp.76-85. Nielsen, A.M., Alice Stuart, L. Gorman, D., 2014. Confronting the cultural challenge of the whiteness of nursing: Aboriginal registered nurses perspectives.Contemporary nurse,48(2), pp.190-196. Rigby, W., Duffy, E., Manners, J., Latham, H., Lyons, L., Crawford, L. and Eldridge, R., 2011. Closing the gap: Cultural safety in Indigenous health education.Contemporary Nurse,37(1), pp.21-30. Swan, P. Raphael, B., 2006. Ways forward: national Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander mental health policy.pp. 24 Taylor, K. Guerin, P., 2010.Health care and Indigenous Australians: cultural safety in practice. Macmillan Education AU. pp. 123 Wepa, D. ed., 2015.Cultural safety in Aotearoa New Zealand. Cambridge University Press.pp.22 WHO Commission on Social Determinants of Health and World Health Organization, 2008.Closing the gap in a generation: health equity through action on the social determinants of health: Commission on Social Determinants of Health final report. World Health Organization.