In the year 2005, statistics showed that 2.6% of Australian children between the age of 12 and 14 were into risky drinking. However, 21% of Australian teenagers between the age of 15 and 17 had dangerous drinking habits (Baines, and Rowe, 2013).
The first health policy intends to invest in the development of both the indigenous children and the majority of Australian tribes. The COAG released the strategy in 2009 with a vision to guarantee quality childhood to indigenous children by the year 2020 (Barnes, and Rowe, 2013). Improving the early lives of individuals ensures a bright future for the Aboriginal children and the country. Part of the investment will recruit health specialist who will train the children about the dangers of alcohol consumption. 2005 Australian statistics indicate that more than two percent of children below the age of fifteen were alcohol addicts.
The strategy intends to improve the cultural, emotional, and physical development of the children. Cultural bias stresses the children are leading them to resort to alcoholism for consolation. Therefore, the policy tends to ensure social equity regarding service delivery to curb addiction. The strategy also intends to improve the relationship between the young ones and their parents who in turn explain the dangers of addiction to teenagers (McMurray, and Clendon, 2015). Excessive consumption of alcohol can push the children to violent acts and even accidents. The Australian government has also promised to assist parents in caring for the children.
The second national policy aims to prevent children from engaging in habits that deteriorate their health like excessive alcohol consumption. The strategy seeks to turn Australia into the healthiest country by the year 2020 (Talbot, and Verrinder, 2013). The principle outlines various prevention strategies targeting alcoholism among teenagers. The first strategy involves warning the alcohol outlets countrywide against selling alcoholic drinks to individuals below the age of eighteen. The second strategy consists in introducing the topic of alcoholism in the school curriculum. The teachers have the responsibility of explaining the dangers of alcoholism to the children such as liver cirrhosis.
The national administration intends to partner with the territories and states to end alcoholism among the young indigenous children. The government plans to fund the local administrations to improve the lives of the teenagers. An example of a region that has implemented the alcoholism prevention strategies is the Queensland state. The policy runs from 2010 to 2013 and intends to end alcoholism among the Aboriginal children (Croyden et al., 2018). The strategic directions tend to create a healthy aboriginal community with healthy children. The strategies target individuals below the age of eighteen. Apart from alcoholism, the preventive mechanisms aim to address health concerns like obesity and tobacco use among the young ones.
The third policy focuses on primary health care provision to all Australians regardless of their race or origin. The national administration launched the strategy in the year 2009 to address the health concerns of the indigenous communities (Smyth et al., 2016). Government agencies went ahead to establish Medicare Locals to reach the Aboriginals and Torres Islanders individuals. One of the functions of the local health facilities is to provide rehabilitation services to young alcohol addicts. The facilities also offer educational programs to the youth and their families including the severe effects of alcohol consumption.
Australian government value the input of the young individuals and their relatives when developing any health policy. For example, legislation on alcoholism incorporates a study on the causes of the addiction. Recent research has shown that factors like relationship problems and depression compel the youth to alcoholism (Gray et al., 2017). Therefore, all levels of governance aim to tackle the causative agents of the addiction before releasing the prevention measures. The state agencies are currently training Aboriginal children on the essence of staying away from relationships till they attain the age of the majority.
Health Promotion
According to WHO, health promotion should include the entire aboriginal community and not just the teenage alcohol addicts (Baum, and Fisher, 2014). The move assists the parents to participate in the wellbeing and health of their children. The promotion intends to tackle health determinants like the environmental, physical, and economic factors. Other determinants include political, cultural, and social factors. The inequalities in the distribution of social amenities like schools and hospitals can cause stress and anxiety among teenagers. Therefore, they resort to drugs like alcohol and tobacco. The government should ensure equal distribution of essential resources to prevent depression and subsequent alcoholism. Health promotion applies strategies like education, communication, legislation, and fiscal measures to counter health hazards. Educational programs expose the dangers of alcohol consumption to the young individuals. The Ottawa Charter requires various governments to combine multiple strategies that can end alcoholism among the young aboriginals (Thompson, Watson, and Tilford, 2018). The Charter expects the health agencies to develop supportive environments for a healthy Australia. The teenagers should participate in health promotion to make it a success. The participation gives the young ones a platform to state the reasons behind their alcohol consumption. Health professionals should assist the promoters to receive a desirable result from the promotion campaigns. Therefore, the specialists should educate the teenagers on the dangers of alcoholism. The promotional projects should be pro-active and sustainable to the country’s economy. The health promotion must also tackle the determinants like unemployment. An efficient promotion should empower the aboriginals and respect their space and time. It must also be culturally sensitive and address the problems facing the indigenous individuals.
Primary Health Care
The first principle of primary health care is accessibility. The care services should be affordable, and available to all Australians regardless of their location, ethnicity, or age (Gardner et al., 2018). Therefore, the government should construct rehabilitation centers at the local areas to benefit the teenage Aboriginals who are alcohol addicts. The health stakeholders should use the available resources like the media to train the teenagers about the effects of alcohol. The national administration should also conduct health promotion campaigns to sensitize the citizens on alcoholism. The addicts should assist the health agencies to find solutions to their health issues.
Advocacy
Advocacy tends to change factors like policies, regulations, and prices of health determinants. For example, health activities can lobby the government to raise the alcohol drinking age from eighteen to twenty-one (Freeman et al., 2016). Such a move prevents teenagers from drinking alcohol since they have not reached the required period. The government can also increase the prices of illicit brews to scare away the youth; since they cannot afford expensive drinks.
Equity
Equity involves treating every Australian reasonably regardless of their origin, race, language, culture, or location (Lane et al., 2017). Therefore, the government should promote equal alcoholism preventive measures among the indigenous and non-indigenous citizens. A recent study has shown that the Aboriginals lack proper schools, hospitals, infrastructure, and other social amenities. Education from schools enlightens the children about the dangers of alcoholism. On the other hand, health specialists from hospitals can treat the addicts from complications like liver cirrhosis. The government should ensure that quality schools and hospitals are present at the local areas to tackle the alcoholism problem among the teenage aboriginals. Health practitioners should also incorporate the cultural beliefs of the aboriginals in the treatment methods. Culturally sensitive medical attention improves the health of indigenous individuals. The national administration should also empower the aboriginals to enable them to send their children to schools.
Self-determination
Self-determination involves allowing every Australian to freely choose their economic activities and political stand (Tsou et al., 2015). The inability of the indigenous people to make an open choice of their source of livelihood has made a majority to be jobless. Unemployed parents cannot educate their children; therefore, the teenagers resort to alcoholism due to depression. Thus, the government should accord the aboriginals their right to self-determination. The national administration should also recognize and accept the distinct decision-making and culture of the indigenous individuals. Failure of the government to understand the distinction of the aboriginals affects both the families and the young ones. The principles of self-determination require the various stakeholders to respect the culture of the indigenous people in all aspects of service delivery. Additionally, the service providers should treat the aboriginals in equal measures to the non-indigenous groups. The government should consult the aboriginals before taking any action that has national interest.
Rights and Access
The linguistic and cultural diversity of the Australian population should not deny the indigenous individuals the right to access various services (Freeman et al., 2016). The lack of schools has left the aboriginal teenagers idle as the non-indigenous young ones acquire education. The Australian government should follow the principles of rights and access to ensure that the services are tailored towards the social inclusion of all citizens. The media outlets should also run indigenous programs and recruit aboriginal presenters. The move intends to educate the young ones on the severe effects of alcoholism. The aboriginals have the right to access quality health facilities like the other Australians. Therefore, teenage alcohol addicts must get adequate medical attention to address diseases like alcoholic poisoning. The government must also construct proper roads to link the local areas to the urban centers
References
Barnes, M. and Rowe, J., 2013. Child, youth and family health: Strengthening communities. Elsevier Health Sciences. Retrieved from: https://trove.nla.gov.au/nbdid/50371919
Baum, F. and Fisher, M., 2014. Why behavioral health promotion endures despite its failure to reduce health inequities. Sociology of health & illness, 36(2), pp.213-225. Retrieved from: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/1467-9566.12112
Croyden, D.L., Vidgen, H.A., Esdaile, E., Hernandez, E., Magarey, A., Moores, C.J. and Daniels, L., 2018. A narrative account of implementation lessons learned from the dissemination of an up-scaled state-wide child obesity management program in Australia: PEACH™(Parenting, Eating, and Activity for Child Health) Queensland. BMC public health, 18(1), p.347. Retrieved from: https://bmcpublichealth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12889-018-5237-8
Freeman, T., Baum, F., Lawless, A., Javanparast, S., Jolley, G., Labonté, R., Bentley, M., Boffa, J. and Sanders, D., 2016. Revisiting the ability of Australian primary health care services to respond to health inequity. Australian Journal of Primary Health, 22(4), pp.332-338. Retrieved from: https://espace.curtin.edu.au/handle/20.500.11937/27329?show=full
Freeman, T., Baum, F., Lawless, A., Labonté, R., Sanders, D., Boffa, J., Edwards, T. and Javanparast, S., 2016. A 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, 18(2), p.93. Retrieved from: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277953616305056
Gardner, K., Sibthorpe, B., Chan, M., Sargent, G., Dowden, M., and McAullay, D., 2018. Implementation of continuous quality improvement in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander primary health care in Australia: a systematic scoping review. BMC health services research, 18(1), p.541.Retrieved from: https://www.unsw.adfa.edu.au/school-of-business/dr-karen-gardner
Gray, D., Cartwright, K., Stearne, A., Saggers, S., Wilkes, E. and Wilson, M., 2017. Review of the harmful use of alcohol among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. Retrieved from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5876995/
Lane, H., Sarkies, M., Martin, J., and Haines, T., 2017. Equity in healthcare resource allocation decision making: a systematic review. Social Science & Medicine, 175, pp.11-27. Retrieved from: journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0020731418762721?ai=1gvoi&mi…af..
McMurray, A. and Clendon, J., 2015. Community Health and Wellness-E-book: Primary Health Care in Practice. Elsevier Health Sciences. Retrieved from:
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Smyth, W., Lindsay, D., Holmes, C., Gardner, A. and Rahman, K.M., 2016. Self-reported long-term conditions of nurses and midwives across a northern Australian health service: A survey. International journal of nursing studies, 62, pp.22-35. Retrieved from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2745066
Talbot, L. and Verrinder, G., 2013. Promoting health: the primary health care approach. Elsevier Health Sciences. Retrieved from:
https://www.elsevierhealth.com.au/promoting-health-9780729542579.html
Thompson, S, Watson, M, and Tilford, S 2018, The Ottawa Charter 30 years on: still an essential standard for health promotion, International Journal of Health Promotion and Education, vol. 56, no.2, pp. 73-84, https://doi.org/10.1080/14635240.2017.1415765
Tsou, C., Haynes, E., Warner, W.D., Gray, G. and Thompson, S.C., 2015. An exploration of inter-organizational partnership assessment tools in the context of Australian Aboriginal-mainstream partnerships: a scoping review of the literature. BMC public health, 15(1), p.416. Retrieved from: journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/205031211666111
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