The Indigenous Peoples of Australia

The United Nations has Permanent Forum on indigenous issues estimates that there are around 370 million indigenous people in the world. These people are spread across 70 countries of the world. They are unique from the dominant world population for because they have maintained their traditional culture and way of doing things till the 21^st century. Two of such groups are found in Australia. These are aboriginal and Torrey Strait Islander people. These two people groups have maintained most of their traditional beliefs and practices. It is common knowledge that people who have held on to their traditions and not embraced modernism are likely to be lagging when it comes to development. Development here means political, social and economic advancement. Holding on to traditional culture means that there is little adoption of modern technology which has revolutionized the way of doing things (Price, 2015). It also means lagging in health-related matters. Closing the gap is a strategy that was developed by the government with the aim of reducing the disadvantage of the aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples (Closing the Gap, 2018). This assignment focuses on the minister’s report on closing the gap strategy, national overview of the health of Aboriginal and the Torres Strait Islander people and the social determinants of health.

 Closing the gap strategy focuses on various issues such as education, health and employment outcomes. The strategy was developed after release of the social justice report of 2005 and the close the gap social justice campaign. The two illustrated how disadvantaged the two communities are and the need for appropriate intervention. The government responded by developing a 25-year strategy that would help reduce the disadvantages in 2008. A set of measurable outcomes were identified to help monitor progress. Every year, the prime minister provides a closing the gap report to the parliament. The intention of this is to monitor the progress of the strategy.

In his 2018 report, the prime minister noted that although there were improvements, there is a lot to be done to achieve the strategy. He noted that the achieving the strategy would be more effective if a multi-sectoral approach was employed in implementing the strategy. He further noted that it is critical to involve the aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in implementation of the strategy if any meaningful progress is to be made. He also noted that there have been several achievements in the last 10 years. One of the achievements is that the child mortality rate of the indigenous people had reduced by 35 percent. The goal was to reduce the rate by half by 2018. Although the goal was not achieved, there was a significant progress and the future seems promising. Another remarkable achievement is a high rate of enrolling to early childhood centres by the indigenous people. The prime minister noted that 95% of all children aged four years had enrolled to early childhood education. This is a great move and it shows that the future of the indigenous people is not only bright but in safe hands. Closing the gap on school attendance is not going as planned. There are also other areas that are not making significant improvement. The government is planning to adopt newer and better strategies to address the challenges. 

Closing the Gap Strategy

It is important to consider holistic wellbeing when offering healthcare. It is worth noting that these indigenous people groups still value their culture and traditions. It would therefore be unwise to disregard such important factors if any meaningful strides are to be made in improving their health. It is estimated that as at June 2014, the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people was about 713 600. It is further estimated that more than 75% of this population was living in urban areas where most of the primary health care facilities are situated (Biddle, Taylor and Yap, 2018). This means that the facilities are easily reachable. Despite this, access to health care was significantly low among the indigenous people. It is worth noting that the health outcome of the indigenous people has been continually poor when compared to other people groups in Australia. Extensive evidence suggests that the burden of disease is 2.5 times more among the indigenous groups (Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people) when compared to other people groups in Australia (McNiven, 2017). The chronic diseases are the main concern when it comes to the unacceptable disease burden. These diseases include cancer, cardiovascular diseases and diabetes mellitus. They have greatly contributed to the huge gap in life expectancy between the indigenous people and other Australians. To change the situation for the better, it is vital that more indigenous people have access to universal primary health care. There are several strategies that the government has employed to ensure that the health outcomes of the indigenous people keep on improving. One such strategies is the empowered community initiative. The initiative is going to be discussed next.

It has long been known that a strategy is very important if one is to achieve their set goals. If the strategy is formulated well, then there are high chances of success. A strategy also requires time and commitment to achieve the goals laid out. It is also necessary that all the appropriate stakeholders be involved in formulating and implementing the strategy. The government of Australia has adopted a new initiative towards bridging the health gap that exist between the indigenous people and other people of Australia. The new initiative has focused on indigenous ownership. This simply refers to the act of involving the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in making decisions concerning their own health. If the initiative is owned by the community, there are higher chances that it will succeed (Siewert, 2017). The government appreciates the diversity that exists among the indigenous people of Australia. Due to this, the government has ensured that it works with the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to help improve their health outcomes.

Achievements and Challenges

The empowered community initiative is a strategy in which the government aims at involving the community in prioritising their issues, improve services and apply funding appropriately at the regional level (Empowered Communities, 2013). The initiative involves a collaboration between the government and the indigenous people. The main aim of the initiative is ensuring that the indigenous people own the process and have a greater say in the decision-making process (Taylor, 2018). In other words, the initiative is all about the government backing up indigenous leader’s wo are willing to bring positive changes in their communities and regions. The initiative puts the indigenous people at the centre of the government decision making. This is a very good strategy as it leaves the indigenous people to be the change drivers. There is a high likelihood that the strategy will succeed since it is owned by the community.

Implementation of the initiative at the regional levels has been ongoing. The support has largely been from the Australian government and some of the state governments (Sanders, 2018). The government has shown great commitment towards ensuring that the initiative is up and running optimally. For instance, the government has provided 14.4 million dollars over a period of three years (up to June 2019) to fund seven regional organizations that are implementing the initiative. This provides great capabilities to the local leaders to identify their problems and prioritise them. Work is also underway to establish priorities and formulate longer term agendas towards ensuring that the problems are appropriately addressed. The prime minister has been very supportive and has shown great interest in the initiative since it started. The prime minister regularly meets with the leaders of the regional initiatives to discuss progress and to affirm his support. The initiative has been designed to be long term. The milestones made are reviewed every year while an evaluation is to be done after every three years.

The social determinants of health simply refer to the relationship that exist between the social environment condition and the health status of an individual. The social environmental factors such as income and living conditions play a huge role in shaping the health of an individual. Extensive research reveals that there is a positive relationship between higher incomes and improved health outcomes (Stoneham, Goodman and Daube, 2014). The indigenous people are disadvantaged because of their low incomes (Jones, 2018). Higher education level is also associated with improved health outcomes. When it comes to the indigenous people, they have lower education which increases their probability of being ill (Mahoney, 2014). There is a very strong connection between socioeconomic factors and health. The social economic factors include income and employment. The higher the social economic of an individual or community, the higher the likelihood that they will enjoy good health. The indigenous people are disadvantaged due to their low socioeconomic position.

Conclusion

The Aboriginal and Torres Islander people have held on to their traditional culture even in the modern times. This has resulted to little development among the communities. To ensure that the health gap between the indigenous communities and other Australians is bridged, the government has adopted two strategies. These are close the gap strategy and empowered community initiative. Although more need be done, the two strategies have had tremendous achievements.

References

Biddle, N., Taylor, J., & Yap, M. (2018). Indigenous participation in regional labour markets. The Australian National University.

Brusse, C., Gardner, K., McAullay, D., & Dowden, M. (2014). Social media and mobile apps for health promotion in Australian Indigenous populations: scoping review. Routledge.

Closing the Gap – Health System – Australian Indigenous HealthInfoNet. (2018). Retrieved from https://healthinfonet.ecu.edu.au/learn/health-system/closing-the-gap/

Empowered Communities | Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet. (2018). Retrieved from https://www.pmc.gov.au/indigenous-affairs/empowered-communities

Jones, R. (2018). The housing need of Indigenous Australians. The Australian National University.

Mahoney, R. (2014). Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health: Introduction to public health. Routledge.

McNiven, I. J. (2017). Torres Strait Islanders and the maritime frontier in early colonial Australia: Colonial frontiers. Manchester University Press.

Price, K. (2015). Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander education: An introduction for the teaching profession. Cambridge University Press.

Sanders, W. (2018). Unemployment payments, the activity test and Indigenous Australians: Understanding breach rates. The Australian National University.

Siewert, R. (2017). Ten years of intervention. Arena Magazine (Fitzroy, Vic), (148), 5.

Stoneham, M., Goodman, J., & Daube, M. (2014). The portrayal of Indigenous health in selected Australian media. Routledge.

Taylor, J. (2018). The relative economic status of indigenous Australians. The Australian National University.