Managing Diversity For International Inclusive Workplace: Government Policies

Health Literacy Policy

Discuss about the Managing Diversity for International Inclusive Workplace.

According to World Health Organization, policies are defined as the plans, decisions and actions that are undertaken for the accomplishment of specific goals in a society. A policy contains many things such as targets, points of reference, priorities, and expected roles of stakeholders and in informing people. It consists of basic principles that guide the government in decision making process. There are many government health policies related to health literacy, equity and diversity at the workplace, disability, disadvantage, vulnerability and stigma that help to address the difficulties faced by the disadvantaged and stigmatized populations groups in accessing quality health care. The health literacy policies are formulated by the government to promote the benefits of health education among individuals and their access to health care. The disability policy is framed to look into the issues of the disabled people and problems faced by their families due to stigmatization. It also provides a framework for improving the lives of the disabled people, their families and caregivers. There is also policy regarding the equity and diversity in the workplace. It addresses the different attributes of a workplace, ways to promote a diverse workplace, the difficulties faced by the migrant nurses and valuing of cultural responsibility that makes a diverse workplace. The following essay would discuss the government policies related to health literacy, equity and diversity in the workplace and disability policy.

The term health literacy is aimed at providing access and use of health information to the people in maintaining a healthy lifestyle (Baum, Newman & Biedrzycki, 2014). Most importantly, it is aimed at describing the population groups who are at risk for low health literacy, promote health, improve health education among those groups and make them aware of their lifestyle choices (Johnson, 2014). According to the Australia’s Health 2012 statistics, the health literacy accounts for 41% among the 15-74 aged group of people that is considered as adequate or above the level (aihw.gov.au, 2017). Moreover, the statistics showed that people who are living outside the major cities and disadvantaged areas have low level of health literacy with poor self-assessed health status (Banham et al., 2014). The health literacy is an emerging issue in Australia and more than 60% of the Australians have a low level of health literacy. The main reason for developing the policy is to address the difficulties faced by the disadvantaged and stigmatized population in assessing the health education. The policy is aimed at informing the individuals, disadvantaged groups and health care system about the different aspects of health and in reducing the health risk factors and in preventing illnesses (Greenhalgh, 2015). The stakeholders involved in the health literacy policy were consumers, community, health and education policy organizations, health care providers and health care managers. The goals of the health literacy policy were to embed health literacy among the health care systems and integration of health literacy into education. The purpose of health literacy policy is to provide accessible information and use to the disadvantaged population about health education and better health outcomes. The expected outcomes of the policy were to reduce the low level of health literacy among the consumers, address the consumer health needs and provide equity in health literacy among the disadvantaged groups (Boot, 2016).

Gibb’s Reflection cycle – 1

While placed with a social care team in a village, one noticed that the people are not aware of the basic health education. They are not aware of the prevention measures and different aspects of health.

That moment was very sad and depressing knowing about the condition of the people there. One would perform better and make the most of the opportunity to educate the disadvantaged people about health. The incident was upsetting to witness the low level of health literacy in the area.

The good experience related to the campaign was that it provided an opportunity to provide valuable health education to the disadvantaged people in that area who were at low level of health literacy. This opportunity could also make one feel bad that many people are unaware of the basic health education and are at low literacy skills. The social determinants of health like socio-economic status are a major hindrance to their health literacy.

The experience analyzed that the health literacy policy developed by the Australian government is beneficial for the people with low health literacy. It encompasses the disadvantaged and stigmatized population educating them about health education, protecting them from low health literacy risk and spreading awareness about health education. This policy would bring about a great change that would reduce the burden of disease and cut down treatment costs in healthcare system.

In this situation, one should provide ample of information to the people including children regarding the aspects of health, health education and helping them to make healthy lifestyle choices through the health literacy policy.

If anyone encounters such a situation next time, one should try to provide information to the people as much as one can and spread awareness that will protect people from health risks. It would make them aware of preventive measures in giving transparent information and help in health promotion (Husebø, O’Regan & Nestel, 2015).

The National Disability Strategy is a ten-year policy from 2010-2020 that is developed with an aim to outline the key areas of disability. It also addresses the future reforms for providing specialist service systems for disabled people, their families and caregivers in Australia (dss.gov.au, 2017). The policy would inform the disabled people, their families and caregivers about the different disability service systems that would help to improve the outcomes for the disabled people. The Commonwealth, territory, state and national government working in collaboration with the Council of Australian Government (COAG) are the stakeholders who developed the policy framework (dss.gov.au, 2017). The aim of this policy is to address the problems and challenges faced by the disabled Australian people in the present and in the future. The purpose of this strategy is to improve the access of services for the disabled people by introducing special services and programs including National Disability Insurance Scheme. The expected outcome of this policy development was to improve the lives of the disabled people by providing them various services. The accessible and inclusive communities, rights to protection and justice, economic security, community and personal support, learning skills and services for their wellbeing are the priority areas of this policy (Dew et al., 2014). The access to physical environment needs like parks, transport, housing, communication technologies and digital information, recreational, sporting and cultural life for the disabled people. The measures for anti-discrimination, advocacy, complaint mechanism and justice systems for the people with disability, job opportunities, financial independence and adequate financial support for the disabled people who cannot work are included in the policy. The early education and care, higher education, employment and learning opportunities are addressed in this policy. Moreover, the policy consists of health services, disability and health systems, health promotion that would provide their wellbeing and they can enjoy their life as normal. This strategy is mainly focused on bringing about change in the mainstream and community programs and services for the disabled Australian people and their families and caregivers (Whitburn, Moss & O’Mara, 2017). This policy would help the disadvantaged Australian people with disability that has no access to the programs and services developed for them and their families. This policy would also help the people with disability to gain access to the services that would assist them to lead normal life as equal citizens (Dowse et al., 2016).

National Disability Policy

While assisting the disability support team in a suburban place in Australia, one encountered that a disabled child had no access to educational services and deprived of other basic facilities. The child was not able to walk properly and as the school was far, he had no access to proper transport to go to the school. The child’s family had no access to the mainstream facilities and is not aware of the services developed for the disabled people.

This incident was depressing and sad after encountering the conditions of the disabled people, their families and caregivers. One would be upset after witnessing the disabled child’s condition and felt pity for the other disabled people who had less to the healthcare services developed for them.

The incident provided an opportunity to help the disabled people in making them aware of the services and facilities and in providing ample support to them. However, on learning about the condition of the disabled child and the family’s condition, one would feel bad and try to help them as much as possible so that the child was able to go to school and lead a normal life.

This incident made one analyze that there is an urgency to improve the conditions of the disabled people and their access to the main stream facilities. They also need to be made aware of the National Disability Strategy policy that is aimed at providing services that would improve the lives of the disabled people and their access to various facilities.

After analyzing the incident, one concluded that the disabled people are not able to lead their life as potential and equal citizens. They are deprived of the various healthcare services and programs developed for them. Moreover, they require ample community support so that they do not feel isolated or deprived. It helped the family of the disabled child by making them aware of the policy and provided them access to the facilities that would help them.

If one again encounters such a situation in the future, one will provide ample of support to the disabled people and make their families and caregivers aware of the various services, programs and the National Disability Strategy policy that is aimed at improving the lives of the disabled people and their caregivers. This policy would make them able citizens and help them in leading a normal life (Hayes, 2014).

Being a multicultural nation, Australian diversity is reflected at the workplace. There are people coming from different cultural backgrounds and addressing their preferences would contribute a diverse workplace. There should also be equal opportunities for all the people coming across the globe so that they can share the common culture of professionalism. The Workplace Diversity Policy 2014-2018 was developed with an aim to provide a working environment that is free from discrimination and promote equity (aic.gov.au, 2017). The employees have equal access to the employment opportunities and promotion is merit based. The policy would inform the organizations and employees about diversity based information in the Australian community and adopt methods that would promote a diverse workplace. The policy was developed by the Australian Institute of Criminology (AIC) in collaboration with HR, Executive and Manager in valuing and encouraging a diverse workplace in Australian community (Collins et al., 2014). The policy is aimed at creating a supportive environment that includes all the employees from different cultural backgrounds and also address the needs of the Australian community (Ng & Metz, 2015). The objectives of the policy are to encourage workplace diversity and equal job opportunities for all employees. It also aims to retain a diverse workplace that is aimed to value equity and diversity, prevent discrimination and promote a diverse environment. The purpose of the policy is to foster a diverse workplace in the Australian community, improvement of communication among the employees, prevention of discrimination and promotion of equity at the workplace in Australian community (Pinheiro, Charles & Jones, 2016). The goals are to raise awareness and commitment to diverse workplace, retention of diverse workplace and provide supportive environment for meeting the needs of the diverse workplace (Barak, 2016).

During the initial days of the job, he was preparing for the presentation to be delivered during the first session. The incident occurred when he was due to deliver his presentation in front of his team. His team leader started with the presentation and it was his task to continue with the presentation. However, when he was about to deliver his presentation, he got nervous, visibly shaky and struggled to speak. Despite knowing that he was new to job, the team members were unsympathetic and the team members smirked on hearing his accent.

He felt miserably bad at that time and wanted to leave the job. He was embarrassed as he was unable to speak in front of his team and extremely angry towards the behavior of his team members. The incident made him depressed and he decided to talk to his team leader and manager about the incident.

He realized that every person feels nervous before their first presentation and become tongue tied at the first instant.

The situation made him feel bad on thinking about his team members. The reactions of the team members made his situation worse by not supporting him during the presentation. Instead of keeping quiet, he should have spoken to his team leader about the incident. He spoke to his team leader about the incident the following day.

In retrospect, he should have informed his team leader about the incident immediately after the meeting. The incident made him realize that there is requirement of a diverse workplace and to promote respect for everyone. The stringent implementation of the Workplace Diversity policy is required in the organization. He felt that he should have informed his team leader in the preceding days explaining his nervousness. Then, he would have helped him to overcome his nervousness and perhaps the incident would have been avoided.

In the future, one should talk to his or her seniors regarding one’s nervousness and plan to work on one’s presentation skills. This experience made him realize that one need to boost confidence during presentation and build up a trusting relationship with his team members (Kumar, 2016).

References

aic.gov.au,. (2017). Workplace Diversity Policy and Action Plan 2015-2018. Retrieved 24 January 2017, from https://www.aic.gov.au/media_library/aic/institute/workplace-diversity-policy-action-plan-2015-2018.pdf

aihw.gov.au,. (2017). Australia’s health 2012 (AIHW). Aihw.gov.au. Retrieved 24 January 2017, from https://www.aihw.gov.au/publication-detail/?id=10737422172&tab=2

Banham, D., Hawthorne, G., Goldney, R., & Ratcliffe, J. (2014). Health-Related Quality of Life (HRQoL) changes in South Australia: comparison of burden of disease morbidity and survey-based health utility estimates. Health and quality of life outcomes, 12(1), 113.

Barak, M. E. M. (2016). Managing diversity: Toward a globally inclusive workplace. Sage Publications.

Baum, F., Newman, L., & Biedrzycki, K. (2014). Vicious cycles: digital technologies and determinants of health in Australia. Health promotion international, 29(2), 349-360.

Boot, G. R. (2016). Representation of Indigenous health knowledges within health literacy related policy and practice documents across Australia, Canada and New Zealand (Doctoral dissertation, School of Health, Charles Darwin University).

Collins, J. H., Jakubowicz, A., Reid, C., & Chafic, W. (2014). Minority Youth and Social Transformation in Australia: Identities, Belonging and Cultural Capital. Journal of Social Inclusion.

Dew, A., Gallego, G., Bulkeley, K., Veitch, C., Brentnall, J., Lincoln, M., … & Griffiths, S. (2014). Policy development and implementation for disability services in rural New South Wales, Australia. Journal of Policy and Practice in Intellectual Disabilities, 11(3), 200-209.

Dowse, L., Wiese, M., Dew, A., Smith, L., Collings, S., & Didi, A. (2016). More, better, or different? NDIS workforce planning for people with intellectual disability and complex support needs. Journal of Intellectual and Developmental Disability, 41(1), 81-84.

dss.gov.au,. (2017). National Disability Strategy | Department of Social Services, Australian Government. Dss.gov.au. Retrieved 24 January 2017, from https://www.dss.gov.au/our-responsibilities/disability-and-carers/program-services/government-international/national-disability-strategy

dss.gov.au,. (2017). Progress Report to the Council of Australian Governments 2014 | Department of Social Services, Australian Government. Dss.gov.au. Retrieved 24 January 2017, from https://www.dss.gov.au/disability-and-carers/programmes-services/government-international/progress-report-to-the-council-of-australian-governments-2014

Greenhalgh, T. (2015). Health literacy: towards system level solutions. BMJ, 350, h1026.

Hayes, C. (2014). 1 The nature of reflective practice. Developing as a Reflective Early Years Professional: A Thematic Approach, 1.

Husebø, S. E., O’Regan, S., & Nestel, D. (2015). Reflective practice and its role in simulation. Clinical Simulation in Nursing, 11(8), 368-375.

Johnson, A. (2014). Health literacy, does it make a difference?. Australian Journal of Advanced Nursing, The, 31(3), 39.

Kumar, K. (2016). Reflection and its uses in Problem Solving and Personal Development.

Ng, E. S., & Metz, I. (2015). Multiculturalism as a strategy for national competitiveness: The case for Canada and Australia. Journal of Business Ethics, 128(2), 253-266.

Pinheiro, R., Charles, D., & Jones, G. A. (2016). Equity, institutional diversity and regional development: a cross-country comparison. Higher Education, 72(3), 307-322.

Whitburn, B., Moss, J., & O’Mara, J. (2017). The policy problem: the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) and implications for access to education.