Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Services And Community Care Nursing: Improving Health Disparities In Indigenous Populations

Background

Discuss about the Infection in Opioid Substitution Treatment Clinics.

Present scenario of the nation of Australia shows a wide disparity in health status of the Indigenous and the non-indigenous population. The inability of the Aboriginals and Torres Islander people to get access to western healthcare can attribute to culturally incompetent services of the healthcare professionals, improper knowledge of the authorities to identify the needs and requirements of the clients, lack of resources of the clients to access the health care and many others (Panaretto et al., 2014). Therefore, Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Services have come into the concept to provide a comprehensive care to the Indigenous people according to their cultural specifications and needs. This assignment would shed more light on their contributions and how community care nurses can help in development of quality of life of the indigenous people working under such organizations.

Aboriginal Community Control in Health Services is the procedure that mainly permits the regional aboriginal community to be engaged in different types of its affairs that should be related with any types of protocols that are suggested by the community. This can be stated as the incorporated Aboriginal organizations that are initiated by the regional aboriginal community that remains solely based in a regional Aboriginal community (McDermot et al., 2015). Mostly, an Aboriginal body governs such organizations and the local Aboriginal Community mainly elects this body. Such services are seen to deliver a holistic as well as culturally appropriate health services to the community who is actually controlling the services. Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Services are seen to be more effective than the other healthcare services for improvement of the indigenous health as their services help in providing comprehensive primary care that aligns with the needs and requirements of the clients. The organizations are seen to be comprising of a good number of indigenous healthcare professionals as well as culturally competent healthcare professionals of the non-indigenous origin who are well aware of the cultural preferences, inhibitions, traditions and concerns of the clients. Therefore, such services are seen to ensure higher satisfaction of the clients and ensure maintenance of respect, autonomy and dignity to the patients (Treolar et al., 2015).

Primary healthcare is a holistic approach that mainly helps in incorporating body, mind, land, spirit, custom as well as the socio-economic status. Primary healthcare in the aboriginal cultural construct can be seen to include essential as well as integrated care. This remains based on the scientific as well as practically sound and socially adoptable processes and technology. This is made easy to accessible to the different communities as much as possible so that the aboriginal individuals in the communities can leave through their complete participation in the two main aspects of self-determination and self-reliance (Stoneman et al., 2014). The primary healthcare services controlled by the aboriginal bodies are responsible for considering all aspects of the healthcare that may arise from social, emotional as well as physical factors. Such services undertake incorporation of the numerous health related disciplines as well as services that are subjected to its level of operation, funding as well as available services. The primary care services are not only seen to provide medical support with the different clinical services providing diseases and its associated management of the chronic ailments. The primary care services are also seen to include the environmental health of the Aboriginal and the Torres Islander people along with other services like the pharmaceuticals and counseling domains. The services also covers preventive medicines, health education as well as promotion, antenatal and postnatal care services, rehabilitative care services as well as maternal and child care services (Lovatt et al., 2015). One of the most important sociological domain that remain intricately linked with the primary healthcare services are the consideration of the social determinants of health of the aboriginal clients. These are the conditions where human beings are born, grow, work and live their lives. The World Health organization had provided ten important determinants out of which some are food, addiction, social gradients, education, income, employment, transport and many others. In order to provide holistic care to the aboriginal clients in order to ensure quality life to them, it becomes important for the healthcare professionals to look at these determinists in the lives of the patients and the ways they are contributing them to poor health and poor quality of life. The primary healthcare services arranged by the Aboriginal Community Control in Health Services also organize programs as well as essential support services for addressing the effects of the socio-somatic health issues and other services provided in the holistic context (Halcomb et al., 2016). This can be explained with the help of an example. There has been a higher mortality rate of the Indigenous children than the non-indigenous people and one of the main reason stated by the researchers are poor maintenance of health of the mothers before child birth and inability to care for the newborns in a scientific manner. Therefore, lack of education and financial ability to afford important resources can be contributed to such issues. Here the primary healthcare services would take upon them the responsibilities to educate mothers and allocate resources for better health for both mothers and babies.

Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Services

Community healthcare nurses are also called the public healthcare nurses who are trained in ways for working in the public health settings like that of the schools, jails, business, communities and many others. As they perform the roles of caregivers in the community, they are seen to develop bonds with the communities whom they are serving. This helps in formation of the long lasting relationships (Smolowitz et al., 2015).  They are seen to provide care based on evidence based information to provide services that are based on both evidence and science. They take upon the responsibility for the cultural as well as the socio-economic needs of the community and accordingly adjust the care that is needed.

They mainly perform definite roles like disease prevention specialist, community educators, and leaders of the collaborative efforts with other medical centers, advocacy and caregivers. They are mainly the frontline professionals of the primary healthcare services. The primary health care professionals working under the Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Services get the opportunities of developing prolong relationships with the clients of the community and help the people manage their health within their own communities (Zolnierek, 2014). Primary healthcare professionals have a number of duties like health promotion, illness prevention, rehabilitation and palliation, community development as well as education, research and advocacy. They need to address the social determinists of the health of the aboriginals under the Aboriginal Community Control in Health Services so that they can not only advocate on their behalf to the higher authorities or to the political level but also help in arranging resources so that the social determinants of health can be handled successfully. They are seen to include the interconnecting principles of equity, empowerment, access, inter-sectoral collaboration as well as self-determination. They are seen to encompass the understanding of the social, economic, and cultural as well as the political determinants of health and give priority to those in the Aboriginal communities who are in mot seed and thereby address the health inequalities.

They are seen to be maximizing the communities well as the participation, self-reliance, and the control ensuring effective collaboration, coordination and partnership with important stakeholders (Freund et al., 2015). The professionals need to work with the aboriginal heads of the community as well as other Aboriginal organizations to determine the needs of the community and to find out the successful strategies that would help in meeting the needs of the clients. Researchers are of the opinion that cooperation and collaboration are important actions that need to be taken by healthcare professionals, as these would ensure better services to the clients. Health and well-being are inextricably linked with other economic as well as social determinants like education, income, social gradient, race and others. Therefore, the nursing professionals should advocate about such determinants and help the different sectors of the society to link together to support the Indigenous people beyond their health needs. The primary healthcare sectors under the Aboriginal Community Control in Health Services should be working with the conjunction of the other sectors like that of education, immigration, employment as well as housing to keep healthy (Hall et al., 2015). The housing systems of the aboriginal communities are not scientifically prepared and therefore they are also not hygienic enough to allow enough sunlight, to avoid blocking of water in the drainage systems, improper sanitation and many others. For these, they may face different forms of skin infection, food poisoning and many others. Therefore, the primary healthcare professionals would not only be curing their infections but also should also be educating them about how to maintain proper hygiene and prepare their foods and covering them so that the chances infection decreases. Moreover, they should be also advocating this issue to the higher official under the Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Services and other concerned authorities so that resources are allocated for helping them to alter their housings in ways that would be scientific and would ensure their better living free from any disorders. There had been also a recent outbreak of the congenital syphilis across regions of Northern Australia (O’Donnell et al. 2016). This is a preventable disorder, which had not affected the nation for years, and it raises the concerns for the health of the Indigenous people. Here, the primary healthcare professionals play the role of collaborating with Aboriginal heads, identify the needs and knowledge, take up culturally appropriate intervention for their cure, develop health promotion programs and others (Huijig et al., 2015).

Primary Healthcare Services in Aboriginal Cultural Context

From the above discussion, it becomes clear that the Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Services have helped in arranging comprehensive care plan that needs the holistic needs of the Indigenous people aligning within their cultural expectations. The primary healthcare professionals who are also the community nurses are seen to play a vital role in the Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Services. Besides curing the different acute as well as chronic ailments, one of the biggest responsibility of the professionals to develop effective relationships with the clients and try to understanding the social determinants of health that are resulting in their ill health. The professionals need to identify the social determinants, advocate for them to the higher authorities, and refer those services accordingly to get help and advise them lifestyle management options. Such professionals would be working in associations with the elders of the community, take in considerations of their cultural traditions, identify their requirements and collaboratively try to find out solutions for the issues.

References:

Freund, T., Everett, C., Griffiths, P., Hudon, C., Naccarella, L., & Laurant, M. (2015). Skill mix, roles and remuneration in the primary care workforce: who are the healthcare professionals in the primary care teams across the world?. International journal of nursing studies, 52(3), 727-743.

Halcomb, E., Stephens, M., Bryce, J., Foley, E., & Ashley, C. (2016). Nursing competency standards in primary health care: an integrative review. Journal of clinical nursing, 25(9-10), 1193-1205.

Hall, W. J., Chapman, M. V., Lee, K. M., Merino, Y. M., Thomas, T. W., Payne, B. K., … & Coyne-Beasley, T. (2015). Implicit racial/ethnic bias among health care professionals and its influence on health care outcomes: a systematic review. American journal of public health, 105(12), e60-e76.

Huijg, J. M., Gebhardt, W. A., Verheijden, M. W., van der Zouwe, N., de Vries, J. D., Middelkoop, B. J., & Crone, M. R. (2015). Factors influencing primary health care professionals’ physical activity promotion behaviors: a systematic review. International journal of behavioral medicine, 22(1), 32-50.

Lovatt, M., Nanton, V., Roberts, J., Ingleton, C., Noble, B., Pitt, E., … & Munday, D. (2015). The provision of emotional labour by health care assistants caring for dying cancer patients in the community: a qualitative study into the experiences of health care assistants and bereaved family carers. International Journal of Nursing Studies, 52(1), 271-279.

McDermott, R. A., Schmidt, B., Preece, C., Owens, V., Taylor, S., Li, M., & Esterman, A. (2015). Community health workers improve diabetes care in remote Australian Indigenous communities: results of a pragmatic cluster randomized controlled trial. BMC health services research, 15(1), 68.

O’Donnell, C. A., Burns, N., Mair, F. S., Dowrick, C., Clissmann, C., van den Muijsenbergh, M., … & de Brun, T. (2016). Reducing the health care burden for marginalised migrants: the potential role for primary care in Europe. Health Policy, 120(5), 495-508.

Panaretto, K. S., Wenitong, M., Button, S., & Ring, I. T. (2014). Aboriginal community controlled health services: leading the way in primary care. The Medical Journal of Australia, 200(11), 649-652.

Smolowitz, J., Speakman, E., Wojnar, D., Whelan, E. M., Ulrich, S., Hayes, C., & Wood, L. (2015). Role of the registered nurse in primary health care: meeting health care needs in the 21st century. Nursing Outlook, 63(2), 130-136.

Stoneman, A., Atkinson, D., Davey, M., & Marley, J. V. (2014). Quality improvement in practice: improving diabetes care and patient outcomes in Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Services. BMC health services research, 14(1), 481.

Treloar, C., Rance, J., Bath, N., Everingham, H., Micallef, M., Day, C., … & Dore, G. J. (2015). Evaluation of two community-controlled peer support services for assessment and treatment of hepatitis C virus infection in opioid substitution treatment clinics: The ETHOS study, Australia. International Journal of Drug Policy, 26(10), 992-998.

Zolnierek, C. D. (2014). An integrative review of knowing the patient. Journal of nursing scholarship, 46(1), 3-10.