Reflection On Significant Health Issues In Culturally Diverse Group Of Australia

Using the sociological imagination template

Write a Reflection on significant health issues in culturally diverse group of Australia.

Reflection on feelings and behavior related to the topic

The sociological imagination is a term given by C. Wright Mills which is the process of analysing the link between an experience or issue and the wider society. Reflection on any social or health issues on the basis of this template helps to establish connection between social realities and public health issues (Giddens et al., 2016). In this report, the focus is on using the sociological imagination template to determine the factors that contribute to significant health issues in culturally diverse population group of Australia. This topic is the focus of attention because Australia has been regarded as a country with multicultural diversity. With the large influx of different minority groups in the country, it is necessary to evaluate how the Australian health care system has evolved to address the health issues of culturally diverse group. The report evaluates this by focusing on the element of historical, cultural, structural and critical factors of the sociological template.

Historical factors

As a registered nurse, I have gained expertise in handling different types of patients such as children, adults, and old age individuals. I had the ambition of working abroad and use my professionals skills to provide quality nursing care to patient. I came from Nepal and since I had lived in Nepal, my perspective about the reasons for inequality in different social group was that that it occurred due to poor social class of patient. I was not aware about the different other causes of health inequality because I had never interacted with culturally diverse group before. However, when I came to Australia and worked closely with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, I realized the reasons of significant gap in health outcome between indigenous and non-indigenous population of Australia. Currently the population of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people is about 2.8% of the total Australian population and several factors like floods, famines and oppressive political regimen has been the reason for them to migrate to other countries (Census: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander population, 2017).

Working  in Australia also help me develop knowledge about the origin of Australian cultural diversity and how the Australian health care system meets the needs of such a diverse population base. In response to the rise in multiculturalism in Australia, several policies and strategies helped to evolve the Australian health care system and embrace people from different cultural groups. The Assimilation policy was one such policy that focused on providing necessary training to new arrivals to adapt and learn Australian cultural practices (Jones et al, 2014). This helped me too as cultural sensitive care training helped to understand the history of the population groups and the reasons for different experiences of illness. Different in health indicators of indigenous population was found to have links with their negative experience in hoe countries too. Majority of people were found to have mental illness because of cultural shock and separation from home and experiences of atrocities and poor lifestyles (Parker & Milroy, 2014).

Historical factors

Cultural factors

Culture or the patterns of belief developed in a individual while living in a society greatly influences their health beliefs, perceptions  and reasoning about the cause of illness and seeking cure. The influence of culture on health is huge and difference between cultures in health professionals and patients lead to culture bias and conflict (Iwelunmor, Newsome, & Airhihenbuwa, 2014). As my origin is from Nepal, I have found Nepalese people to belief on the supernatural element for health, illness and pain. Hence, they seek spiritual intervention to get cure to address their pain and suffering due to illness. However, such beliefs about illness is seen only in people coming from low socioeconomic background and poor education (Boden, 2015). I do not have the same belief like my fellow countrymen because high educational has helped me to belied the scientific and biological theories about health and illness. While practicing as a nurse in Australia, I also found that Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islanders held different beliefs about health and illness which affected their patterns of using the health care services too.

Torres Strait Islander people of Australia are different in cultural and ethnic context. While working in Australia, I got to know that they have a lot of similarities in the culture of individulas in Papua New Guinea and the Pacific.There are two communities of Torres Strait Islander near the coast of mainland at Bamaga and Seisia. The indigenous population trades with the people residing in Papua New Guinea and they are different in  cultural aspects as  compared to other people living in Australia (Casey, Murray, & Kirk, 2016).They are different in their way of living and have  variety of cultures and religions. Individuals belonging to Torres Strait Islander population are quite young as compared to the individuals who are non-indigenous (Doolan, Najman, Henderson, Cherney, Plotnikova, & Smirnov, 2015).They also are human beings and  have the basic  right to preserve their cultures and traditions. Young children who belong to Toress and Aboriginal community also have the right to education during the phase of early childhood. Children belonging to the Indigenous community are poorly educated as compared to non-Indigenous children. However, while caring for them in hospitals, I observed that the children of Torres Strait Islander population are unable to recieve early childhood education and adequate nutrition which exposed them to many health risk

While interacting with one of the patients from the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community, I was shocked to know that the individuals belonging to this community do not have access to proper medical and healthcare facilities. They were discriminated from other Australian population as because of their origin, ethnicity and low socio economic status. There are also  differnt types of risk and protective factors that  negatively influence the  mental and social health of Torres Strait Islander people(World Health Organisation 2015).Various risk factors included health issues, different health beliefs, cultural perception about health, financial issues, discrimination  on  the basis of caste, creed, religion etc, lack of  early childhood education among young children  (Townsend, White, Cullen, Wright, & Zeeman, 2017).It has been observed that a major portion of  individuals belonging to Torres Strait Islander suffer from HIV due to a lack of proper health care services.

Cultural factors

Structural factors

Structural factors related to health care infrastructure and accessibility to health services also had an impact on health.  I also realized that for indigenous population, social determinants of health , primary health care, and health well being of populations and communities at risk of exposure to HIV are directly interlinked to one another. Culture has an impact on social determinant of health and same was seen for indigenous populations too.  Social determinants of HIV include social discrimination of the infected individuals,gender biasness ,low socioeconomic status and experiences in childhood such as sexual abuse or children who have faced  emotional issues are seen to have infected with HIV during adulthood (Adimora and Schoenbach 2013).

Primary health care for HIV includes lack of information regarding safe sex due to low socioeconomic status and financial crisis, lack of proper counseling and treatment especially to women due to gender biasness. It is important to provide to medical facilities to individuals infected with HIV without any discrimination to lower down the rate of HIV patients on a global level (World Health Organisation 2015).Lack of proper healthcare facilities leads to depressive symptoms, anger, sadness and low self-esteem in individuals belonging to the Torres Islander and Aboriginal population (Thomas & Humphreys, 2015))

Proper counselling about preventing infection from HIV/AIDS must be provided to both  young boys and girls in an equal manner (Bennell, Hyde, & Swainson, 2013). Various nursing interventions in Australia involved working with various healthcare providers to make sure that the patients suffering from HIV receive proper care .It also involves monitoring of various sign of infections in the patients because of HIV and encourage them to have a proper balanced diet to increase the nutritional content.They should provide soft cushions to the patients to prevent the discomfort. They should also keep in check whether the stool of the patient suffering from HIV is consistent or not and should keep in check if the patient is suffering from abdominal cramps or pain (Bennett, Bertagnolio, & Gilks, 2008). They should be cooperative and sympathetic towards the HIV patients.

Preventive health care interventions for HIV include proper use of condoms by these indigenous populations to reduce the sexual transmission of HIV up to 94 %. Nursing interventions and family support can also help them in the prevention of HIV and  other relate health disorders. Community interventions play an important role improving their health condition and various other patients include proper counseling of patient affected by HIV and providing them psychosocial support to boost their confidence and improve their self-esteem. They should be treated with respect and dignity by the other individuals belonging non-indigenous population. They should not be discriminated and should be treated with respect on the basis of cultural and traditional context (Price, 2015).

Structural factors

This reflective essay helped me in demonstrating respect and the dignity of each individual belonging to the indigenous population and for the diversity of human beings. It also helped me in recognizing my responsibility for the benefit of the common man, the environment and society. Now, I will be able to think critically and reflectively and work both autonomously and in collaboration. I would like to provide healthcare services free of cost for these indigenous populations.. It is the human right of every AIDS patient to receive proper counseling about the preventive measures and the treatment tests (Diagnosing HIV, 2015).Equity and Rights should be balanced for all the patients affected by HIV. Proper policies, and laws are required in order to protect the individual rights of such patients. Proper measures and strategies for  education and employment should be followed for the individuals belonging to Torres Strait Islander community. They should  have basic rights to avail education  and proper access to  healthcare facilities  should be provide to them to prevent from several diseases. HIV is majorly seen among the individuals belonging to Torres and Islander community. Therefore, health promotion program is essential for these people to empower them towards self-efficacy and management of disease with reduction of related complications. Various strategies should be taken by the Government of Australia to lower down the discrimination between the individuals belonging to  Torres Strait Islander with  non-indigenous population

References

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