Discuss about the Determinants of Health Factors.
Recently developments have been noticed in the well-being and health among indigenous Australians however, in terms of long-term socio economic and health, no such progress has been noticed. Higher rates of inappropriate housing, poverty, poor health and nutrition are noticed among indigenous Australians compared to the non-indigenous Australians. However, due to this, the healths of the indigenous Australians are adversely affected. The disparity in social and health outcomes thereby, results in determinants of health factors among them.
This essay emphasizes on the non-health factors of life affecting the health status of the individual indigenous Australians. This essay discusses the health factor determinants of the indigenous Australians. The four health determinants selected for discussion in this essay are racism and discrimination, education, employment and income, health behaviors and lifestyle.
Racism and discrimination is the second most issue faced by indigenous Australian community in terms of employment, availing healthcare facilities and education. As commented by Simpson and Yinger (2013, p.36), the most common forms of racism and discrimination noticed in Australia is against the indigenous natives of the country. Aboriginal Australians face discrimination extensively in their daily lives. Therefore, racism against indigenous Australians is very common and that many people are engaged in discriminatory activities towards them. Racism and discrimination adversely the mental condition of the individuals as this makes them depressed and anxious. Therefore, psychological imbalance leads to the health complications indirectly among the indigenous Australians. Due to increased cases of discrimination, indigenous people have left their native places. For example, people might move away if an indigenous Australian sits near them. As a result, the aboriginal Australians feel socially isolated that adversely affects their psychology.
As asserted by Biddle et al. (2013, p.91), the impact of discrimination and racism is mainly encountered by indigenous Australian in terms of government facilities and employment. In terms of employment, indigenous Australian people are not given equal advantage. The non-indigenous Australian people are preferred more while looking for employees by the employers. The indigenous Australians are excluded based on their race at the beginning of any recruitment process. The non-indigenous Australians do not prefer mixing and involving with indigenous people. Lack of employment results in less income thereby, leading a below standard lifestyle. The indigenous people are not allowed to avail the government facilities that incurs increased amount of cost on them. Moreover, indigenous Australians have also faced discrimination while availing public transports. While using public transport, they have faced verbal abuse as well as indifferent looks in the face of the co-passengers. According to reports, aboriginal Australians have even encountered situations where things have been thrown at them because of discrimination. Based on such discriminations faced by the indigenous Australians, they feel it is difficult for them to succeed in terms of career, as they are restricted from availing from appropriate opportunities.
Discrimination also prohibits the aboriginal Australians to avail health care facilities. When taken to the hospital, indigenous Australian patients are treated badly and are left without treatment. As a result, the patients remain unattended causing health complications at times, leading to death of the patients. Racial discrimination restricts the indigenous Australians to access services or resources, creates psychological stress and assaults as well. As a result, indigenous Australians have poor living conditions and decreased quality of health care services. Psychological stress results in development of depression, anxiety and bad habits in order to cope up with the discrimination. Moreover, the indigenous Australian community is vulnerable towards assaults thereby, affecting their physical health.
Education is the key of building the base of individuals in order to live a standard life. Each individuals needs to be educated as this allows them to develop better understanding and minimize the level of ignorance within them. As commented by McGovern (2013, p.63), the indigenous Australians lacks proper educational facility due to barriers such as teaching materials and context, claustrophobic classrooms, poverty. The main concern is the teaching language as the first language of many indigenous Australians is not English. As a result, the children are unable to understand and lack interest towards education. Moreover, the indigenous Australian students are unable to relate themselves with the teaching materials. This is because majority of the context does not consider and emphasize the lives of indigenous Australians due to which, the students cannot relate themselves.
The rate of indigenous Australian teachers are also comparatively less in the educational system thereby, minimizing the range of cultural perspective for the students. Indigenous Australian families dwell in small houses that results in several family members staying in the same house. This makes it difficult for the children to concentrate on studies and even the brightest student is lost due to lack of appropriate atmosphere for study. The poverty level and the lack of knowledge among the parents also prohibit the encouragement of education among the indigenous Australians. As asserted by Biddle and Cameron (2012, p.56), indigenous Australians have lower level education compared to the non-indigenous Australians. Many students have not attended schools as well as students have left school without attending the complete school.
Distance, cost and the infrastructure of the educational institutes can be the significant barriers. The schools were at distance from the place of dwelling thereby, making it difficult and costly for the students to travel. Therefore, in order to cut cost the families did not encourage their children to attend schools. Moreover, the educational institutes lacked appropriate infrastructure for the students. The schools also lacked provision of accommodating increased number of students that also discouraged the students. On the contrary, the students willing to continue study could not avail the facility due to transport and financial issues. The teachers in the schools lacked professionalism that discouraged the students in attending schools and continue studying.
Children also have bad memories that they were not allowed to speak their native language and were restricted from talking about their culture. At certain cases, the students were eager and willing to pursue study efficiently but the schools lacked full time teachers. The dwelling place of the indigenous Australians lacked teachers massively that adversely affected the educational system for the children. The above-mentioned factors play a crucial role in the drawback of the educational system for the indigenous Australian community thereby, restricting them to progress and walk simultaneously with the modern world.
Employment and income among aboriginal Australian is a significant issue as they are generally deprived of the advantages n this context. As asserted by Hopkins et al. (2012, p.425), the aboriginal Australian people are not given equal chances of employment compared to the non-indigenous Australians. This is a significant issue of discrimination noticed against them in Australia. Indigenous Australian individuals think that lack of employment opportunities restricts their chances of growth and success in their career. As a result, they prefer to move out of their native place to get better chances of employment. As seen previously, indigenous Australian population lacks proper and sufficient education due to issue such as distance, language, content and lack of infrastructure. Therefore, due to inappropriate education and formal degrees, the employers think indigenous Australian people non-eligible for employment.
This is another significant reason for the population to have sufficient employment. As a result, indigenous Australian people earn their livelihood from traditional employment. Due to this, their rate of income is comparatively low that results in difficulties in leading a standard life and accessing suitable facilities. Indigenous Australian people are compelled to live below standard life due to less income. The individuals are deprived of basic facilities that are significant in today’s world. They are also unable to fulfill the basic needs to the family such as education, accessing public transport and accessing healthcare facilities. At certain instances, the indigenous Australian people are unable to consume suitable food resulting in poor nutrition among them.
As commented by Katzenellenbogen et al. (2015, p.712), the rate of death among indigenous Australian people are comparatively higher than non-indigenous Australian people. Therefore, the children born are malnourished and suffer poor nutritional values within their system. This increases the rate of mortality among the children of the indigenous Australian population. Recently, availing healthcare services incurs huge expenses on individuals. Due to less income, the indigenous Australian people are unable to access suitable and latest healthcare systems. As a result, their diseases and complications remain untreated that leads to early death among indigenous Australian population. Lack of employment and less income increased the level of poverty among the indigenous Australian population. The result of this poverty can also be availability of less or specific number of jobs in a particular area. In fact, travelling was an issue thereby, restricting employment opportunity for them. Moreover, employers considered indigenous Australian population unreliable and indolent that resulted in minimizing their chances of being employed. Moreover, the male and females of the indigenous Australian population were engaged in low skilled works such as farming, mining and laboring that gave them less wages. This made it difficult for them to live a standard life in the society.
Negative health behaviors and lifestyle are predominantly noticed among the indigenous Australian people that results due to alcohol consumption, smoking, poor nutrition, lack of proper diet and physical activities. As mentioned by Lucero et al. (2014, p.12), physical inactivity is one of the many reasons that cause diseases among indigenous Australian population. Therefore, the health condition of the indigenous Australian are poor compared to non-indigenous Australian population thereby, increasing their mortality rate. Reports suggest that indigenous Australian population suffers psychological stress due to discrimination and racism. As a result, they develop symptoms of depression and anxiety. In order to cope up with the situation, indigenous Australian population eventually develops bad habits such as smoking and alcohol consumption.
Poor health along with bad health habits adversely affects their health resulting in early death. As suggested by Lowell et al. (2012, p.200), indigenous Australian people have at least one long-term health conditions due to their lifestyle. This is due to lack of proper hygiene, sanitation and living environment for them. Majority of the indigenous Australian population lived in rented houses that had poor and inadequate facilities. Many of the houses were reported to be over crowded and had a claustrophobic environment making it difficult from them to stay. Moreover, many of them were also reported to be homeless and availed homeless services.
Indigenous Australian people had poor knowledge about health due to lack of proper education. They were completely unaware of the nutritious food products and the significance of having it. As a result, they were vulnerable to diseases that adversely affected their health. Moreover, poverty is another reason for poor health and lifestyle related issues among indigenous Australian population. Less income and lack of employment restricted the indigenous Australian population to consume appropriate diet with proper nutritious value. Lack of education makes the indigenous Australian population unable to take care of their health and avail the required facilities.
Long-term consumption of alcohol and smoking habit makes the indigenous Australian population addictive. This severely affects their health and leads to development of chronic diseases that becomes incurable with time. Moreover, alcohol consumption and smoking makes the individuals indolent, unreliable, unfit and unskillful for working. They tend to lose self-dependency due to which their chance of being employed reduces drastically.
Lack of proper diet and nutrition increases the mortality rate among the indigenous Australian population. The children born lack nutrition and are malnourished compared to non-indigenous Australian population. Moreover, many of the indigenous Australian population have been reported of having disability since birth. Lack of proper nutrition for the developing fetus has resulted in disability within children since birth. Therefore, the indigenous Australian population has been facing severe health issues and complication due to behavioral habits and lifestyle led by them.
In this essay, it can be concluded that indigenous Australian populations are less benefitted compared to non-indigenous Australian population in terms of employment, income and education. Indigenous Australian population encounters discrimination that leads to psychological stress and affects their health adversely. Therefore, in order to cope of with psychological stress, they eventually develop bad habits. Moreover, lack of proper employment and income restricts the indigenous Australian people to avail proper education, transport services and healthcare services. As a result, the mortality rate of the indigenous Australian people is comparatively higher. This also results in increase level of poverty among their community and restriction from accessing normal facilities.
References
Biddle, N., Howlett, M., Hunter, B. and Paradies, Y., 2013. Labour market and other discrimination facing Indigenous Australians. Australian Journal of Labour Economics, 16(1), p.91. https://business.curtin.edu.au/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2016/04/AJLE-v16n1-Biddle.pdf
Biddle, N. and Cameron, T., 2012. Potential Factors Influencing Indigenous Education Participation and Achievement. Research Report. National Centre for Vocational Education Research Ltd. PO Box 8288, Stational Arcade, Adelaide, SA 5000, Australia. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED538263
Hopkins, K.D., Taylor, C.L., D’Antoine, H. and Zubrick, S.R., 2012. Predictors of resilient psychosocial functioning in Western Australian Aboriginal young people exposed to high family-level risk. In The Social Ecology of Resilience (pp. 425-440). Springer New York. https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-1-4614-0586-3_33#page-1
Katzenellenbogen, J.M., Teng, T.H.K., Lopez, D., Hung, J., Knuiman, M.W., Sanfilippo, F.M., Hobbs, M.S. and Thompson, S.C., 2015. Initial hospitalisation for atrial fibrillation in Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal populations in Western Australia. Heart, 101(9), pp.712-719. https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Joe_Hung/publication/272520988_Initial_hospitalisation_for_atrial_fibrillation_in_Aboriginal_and_non-Aboriginal_populations_in_Western_Australia/links/54ec32c50cf2ff89649f2dd6.pdf
Lowell, A., Maypilama, E., Yikaniwuy, S., Rrapa, E., Williams, R. and Dunn, S., 2012. “Hiding the story”: Indigenous consumer concerns about communication related to chronic disease in one remote region of Australia. International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 14(3), pp.200-208. https://espace.cdu.edu.au/view/cdu:39092/Lowell_39092.pdf
Lucero, A.A., Lambrick, D.M., Faulkner, J.A., Fryer, S., Tarrant, M.A., Poudevigne, M., Williams, M.A. and Stoner, L., 2014. Modifiable cardiovascular disease risk factors among indigenous populations. Advances in preventive medicine, 2014. https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Lee_Stoner/publication/260951961_Modifiable_Cardiovascular_Disease_Risk_Factors_among_Indigenous_Populations/links/00b7d53307966164e3000000.pdf
McGovern, S., 2013. Education, modern development, and indigenous knowledge: An analysis of academic knowledge production (Vol. 1167). Routledge. https://books.google.co.uk/books?hl=en&lr=&id=A9poxUZjnbIC&oi=fnd&pg=PP1&ots=XNm6WJBTUl&sig=P3AVepd3ybV-jqabWkYt3zQTCks#v=onepage&q&f=false
Simpson, G.E. and Yinger, J.M., 2013. Racial and cultural minorities: An analysis of prejudice and discrimination. Springer Science & Business Media. https://books.google.co.uk/books?hl=en&lr=&id=mCsBCAAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PA2&dq=Racial+and+cultural+minorities:+An+analysis+of+prejudice+and+discrimination.+Springer+Science+%26+Business+Media&ots=htbKBaP_gg&sig=M2UmW9VX6xyb0lShOSV0cG1zZPE#v=onepage&q=Racial%20and%20cultural%20minorities%3A%20An%20analysis%20of%20prejudice%20and%20discrimination.%20Springer%20Science%20%26%20Business%20Media&f=false
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