Caring for the Indigenous People-Free-Samples -Myassignmenthelp.com

Question: Discuss about the Caring for the Indigenous Peple. Answer: Introduction: By the term indigenous health, one can refer to the physical, social, emotional as well as the cultural well being of the Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islander people. Due to the exploitation over many centuries by the Europeans, indigenous people have very poor quality life where they are physically, socially and economically unstable. Lack of education, proper health literacy, inaccessibility with the urban healthcare centers, low financial ability and many others have been affected their health conditions largely. Studies say that indigenous Australians are seen to be affected by respiratory disorders, diabetes, cardiovascular issues, kidney disorders and birth problems in higher percentage in comparison to that of the non-indigenous people in the nation (Freeman et al., 2016). However, over time, governmental health care departments have identified the urgency of the situation and they have proposed and implemented various kinds of healthcare programs that would help in addressi ng their concern and give them better quality life. These assignments will be discussing how the programs had helped in overcoming different barriers and providing them with effective care so that better lives are lived by the indigenous people. National Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organization National Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organization can be described as the national peak body in the nation of Australia that mainly comprises of about 143 Aboriginal Community controlled Health services called the ACCHSs. They are mainly concerned with the health and well-being of the aboriginals trying their best to deliver holistic, culturally appropriate as well as comprehensive care to the community. The community has the power of controlling it through the locally elected Board of Management. This healthcare initiative was important to address the social care needs of the indigenous people (Brigg et al., 2017). The social determinants of health of such people were found to be highly affected because of years of exploitations and torture and the present day situations are worse. Unstable circumstances that were shaped by the distribution of money, power as well as resources of national and local levels needed to be addressed and this program has successfully attended t o the requirements. The program has been highly respectful to the culture of the native people and had accordingly developed initiatives that were culturally sensitive to the people (Shibthorpe et al., 2016). They have made sure to implement strategies by which they have provided accessible health services, flexible approach to care, effective community participation, self determination and empowerment of the native people, continuous quality improvement of the children, providing holistic health care and appointing culturally appropriate and skilled workforce for better service delivery. One of the examples of their initiatives can be stated here. The QUMAX program was established by the effective collaboration between the NACCHO and the Pharmacy Guild of Australia. The Commonwealth Department of Health funded it. This program has sufficiently contributed to the improvement in the quality use of medication. This programs has tried its best to achieve its goal by seven important ini tiatives under the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS). They are cultural education, Dose Administration Aids Agreements and Flexible Funding, Transport, QUM Education, QUM Pharmacy Support, QUM Devices and Home Medicine Reviews (HMR) models of support. Close the Gap campaign for Indigenous health equality: Close the Gap is one of the oldest governmental strategies that mainly aim in reduction of the disadvantages between the different aboriginal as well as Torres Islander people. These are mainly in the fields of poor life expectancy of the native people, child mortality, providing proper access to children for education, proper employment outcomes and many others. This program also tried to attain the Aboriginal and Torres Islanders equality in health within a period of 25 years. Exploitation and severe torture of the Europeans had continued for a huge number of years, which had resulted the native people to develop poor quality life, poor education, deprived opportunities for better living and poor health conditions. The different social determinates of health had been affected in such ways where there was no hope for the native people to overcome their poor living conditions (GGwenye et al., 2016). Therefore, the initiatives of the close the gap campaign were established with differ ent periods like closing life expectancy gap between the native and non-natives within 2031, halving the gap of mortality rates of children under 5 years by 2018, having the gap of employment outcomes within 2018 and many others. Some of the important building blocks of this program had been developing the early childhood of native children in ways by which there remains no gap in the quality of education received by natives and non-native people. Proper parenting programs and supports were also provided so that the children can develop under proper guidance of their parents. These initiatives were also based on providing adequate access to the preventive as well as comprehensive care of the people so that there can reduction in the number of deaths (Angell, Eades Jain, 2017). Closing the gap is also important to meet the economic crisis faced by the native people as it is an important social determinate of health that has great capability to alter the health status of human beings . The campaign also provides importance on the enhancement of the employment opportunities of the indigenous people, business creation opportunities, wealth creation and providing economic independence to the oppressed native people. The plan also referred to various types of social, structural and financial incentives for helping the disadvantaged job seekers and helping them to develop better quality lives. Besides, the initiatives are also taken to develop healthy homes in order to develop their living conditions like water sewage systems, electricity, proper waste collection and many others. Researchers are of the opinion that developing scientifically developed hygienic homes can contribute to development of health of the native people. Besides, safe communities and effective governance and leadership also ensured that the gap found among the native and non-native people in their health conditions and disparities could be met effectively thereby overcoming health disparities. Primary healthcare can be defined as the first line of care in a particular community where the healthcare professionals are considered to be the first level of contact with that of the patients or clients. Such level of care is seen to provide holistic as well as personalized treatment and care for patients of different age groups. They are seen to comprise of different important aspects that include effective public education, proper nutrition to the clients, ensure clean water as well as sanitation, maternal and child healthcare services, immunizations, local diseases control, accessible treatment, drug provision, health screening and many others. Primary healthcare services helps communities in number of ways by helping people to focus on the ways of preventing many communicable as well as non communicable disorders, guidance and improved care to patients, effective early management of health conditions of the community members, reduction in the chances of visiting specialists fo r adverse situations and similar others (Gratzer Goldbloom, 2017). By providing effective primary healthcare, nursing professionals have the capability to address the social determinants of health and counsel and educate clients about the approaches they can take in their life to overcome different barriers. Besides, they can also advocate on behalf of the native people to the higher authorities regarding the necessities of changes of plans required to effectively modify the social determinants of health for betterment (Li et al., 2017). Primary healthcare services remain concerned with the provision of giving the first line of protective and comprehensive care strategies that help patients to modify their lifestyle, habits, diet or social determinants in ways that help them to live better quality life. It is quite different from acute care where treatment is provided after the disorder or diseases have affected individuals. From the strategies taken by the NACCHO, it becomes clear that the initiatives are aimed at providing primary care services to the community members of the natives. The different initiative of NACCHO mainly aims at providing a holistic as well as comprehensive primary health care approach that help in modifying the social determinats in ways by which native people can set the scope of better living (Couzos et al., 2015). Coordinated and integrated activities, strategic partnerships and alliances with different organizations, proactive and responsible actions taken by primary healthcare workers a ll ensure that they can protect the aboriginals from several chronic disorders, help them to learn about different healthy habits, health screening objectives, provision of drugs, medications, and preventive advices that ensure developed health of native people. Initiatives were also taken to maintain the equity and quality of the healthcare services ensuring that no health disparities occur in the community. QUMAX, AUSTRALIAN TRACHOMA ALLIANCE SAFE EYES PROGRAM, Ochre day and many others are all iniatives that are based on primary healthcare services (www.naccho.org.au, 2018). Similarly, the initiatives taken for the close the gap initiatives also aimed at overcoming and successful handling of the structural and social determinants of the health like the unequal distribution of the power, unequal income among the different communities and many others. They also incorporate initiative like aiming the poor conditions of daily life like inappropriate access to healthcare, schools and educations, their homes, conditions at work, opportunities of job and many others. The initiatives of close the gap campaign mainly is focused on educating the native people, developing their health literacy, advocating and ranging for importance of proper living conditions, education for children from early years, diet management programs and any others. All the initiatives follow the principles of primary care addressing the social determinants of health of the native people and therefore both the programs are said to be based on the morals of primary healthcare. Conclusion: From the entire discussion above, it is seen that the government has tried its best to address the health inequalities faced by the native people of Australia. For them, they had proposed different programs like close the gap as well as National Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organization in order to address the different social determinants of health of the native people. These initiatives are based on the principles of primary health care and mainly aim at educating people to live better lives. Not only that, several initiatives had been taken by the organizations to provide opportunities to native people by which they can develop the quality of lives and live in better health conditions. Several other initiatives to make them self-sufficient are also done so that the bridge between the quality of lives of native and non naives can be bridged. References: Angell, B., Eades, S., Jan, S. (2017). To Close the Gap we need to identify the best (and worst) buys in Indigenous health.Australian and New Zealand journal of public health, Vol 41(3), pp 224-226. https://doi.org/10.1111/1753-6405.12612 Brigg, M., Curth-Bibb, J. (2017). Recalibrating intercultural governance in Australian Indigenous organisations: the case of Aboriginal community controlled health.Australian Journal of Political Science, vol 52(2), pp 199-217. https://doi.org/10.1080/10361146.2017.1281379 Couzos, S., Nicholson, A. K., Hunt, J. M., Davey, M. E., May, J. K., Bennet, P. T., ... Thomas, D. P. (2015). Talking About The Smokes: a large-scale, community-based participatory research project.The Medical Journal of Australia, vol 202(10), pp13-19. doi: 10.5694/mja14.00875 Freeman, T., Baum, F., Lawless, A., Labont, R., Sanders, D., Boffa, J., ... Javanparast, S. (2016). Case Study of an Aboriginal Community-Controlled Health Service in Australia: Universal, Rights-Based, Publicly Funded Comprehensive Primary Health Care in Action.Health and human rights,Vol 18(2), pp93. Reterived from : https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5394990/ Gratzer, D., Goldbloom, D. (2017). New government, new opportunity, and an old problem with access to mental health care. https://doi.org/10.1177/0706743716669084 Gwynne, K., Irving, M. J., McCowen, D., Rambaldini, B., Skinner, J., Naoum, S., 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, Vol27(1), 46-pp 53. Retrieved from :https://muse.jhu.edu/article/608838/ Li, J. L. (2017). Cultural barriers lead to inequitable healthcare access for aboriginal Australians and Torres Strait Islanders.Chinese Nursing Research, vol4(4), pp 207-210. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cnre.2017.10.009 Sibthorpe, B., Gardner, K., McAullay, D. (2016). Furthering the quality agenda in Aboriginal community controlled health services: understanding the relationship between accreditation, continuous quality improvement and national key performance indicator reporting.Australian journal of primary health, vol 22(4), pp 270-275. https://doi.org/10.1071/PY1513 www.naccho.org.au. (2018).National Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation ANNUAL REPORT. [online] Available at: https://www.naccho.org.au [Accessed 4 Apr. 2018]