Indigenous Australians are the individual of Australia, who have been facing discrimination and violence from a longer period of time. These discrimination and violence exerts a mental pressure on them causing mental illness. They have arrived from Asia and Indonesia and were descended from the surrounding islands of Australia. Due to this, they lost their cultural and social background. Mental illness is common among the individual belongs to indigenous population of the Australia, which is induced due to the increase in risk factors such as, unhygienic life, proper treatment, illiteracy and discrimination (Adams, Drew & Walker, 2014). Several policies were formulated to reduce the effect of risk factor as well to create awareness about the illness and providing initial treatment to individual suffering from mental illness. To maximise the effect of policies rights were declared by the government.
Indigenous Australians are known as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander are the folks of Australia. They were descended from the groups of Australia and surrounding islands before the colonisation of British. Their history began around 65,000 years ago. They have arrived from Asia and Indonesia. They arrival in Australia is not clear and still is the matter of debate among researcher. They have occupied and used the entire continent and have adapted to ecological and climatic condition of the continent. Estimation of aboriginal population in Australia is around 300,000 to 1,000,000 (Parker & Milroy, 2014). They are believed to hunter gatherers, who did not domesticate animals or grew crops, instead totally dependent on the natural environment. S there is no one to one connection among the whole population of aboriginals end hence, have cultural and social differences among the demographic population. They are nit developed Mental health is more common in people of Australia. Indigenous Australian are more likely to suffer from dementia and depression. More than 30% of the aboriginal population are suffering from psychological issues. The settlement of Australia has caused a huge negative impact on their mental health causing mental illness among indigenous Australians along with other risk factors (Muller, 2014).
Indigenous health is defined as the physical, emotional, social and cultural health of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, indigenous Australians have poorer health as compares to the other population of Australia (non-indigenous Australians). Prevalence of chronic illnesses such as cardiovascular complications, mental health illness, diabetes, respiratory sickness and chronic kidney issue is more than any other disease. Rheumatic disease and bacterial infection such as trachoma is also prevalent in indigenous population. As illegal substance such as tobacco, alcohol and other illicit drugs are extensively used among the indigenous population, it can also lead to other health issues (Clifford et al., 2015).
Among all the disease, mental health issue is more prevalent is indigenous population as compared to the nonindigenous Australians. Mental health cases have shown a dramatic increases in case of indigenous population of Australia. Indigenous Australians are likely to have 10 times more effected with the mental condition issue such as dementia and depression. There are 12.4% of the indigenous population of 45 years and more are effected with dementia whereas in case of nonindigenous population it is only 2.6% of the total population. Increased mental health cases lead to high suicides rate in indigenous Australian population (Black et al., 2015).
Mental health deterioration in indigenous population of Australia is common as compared to non-indigenous population. Determinants responsible for mental health illness among the indigenous population are poor physical health. Due to unhygienic living and other factors their health condition remain poor, which arises the feeling of exclusion and inadequacy among the individual. Continuation of poor health without proper treatment can give rise to mental illness (Bodkin-Andrews & Carlson, 2016). Other risk factor associated with the introduction of mental illness among the indigenous populations are unresolved trauma, racism and discrimination, incarceration, violence and inappropriate culture treatment. Another most important risk factor associated that can give rise to mental health complication among the indigenous population are loss of identity and culture. When they are separated from their own identity and culture, they have nothing left with them, neither their own land nor food. After that they settled in Australia but to the lack of culture and identity they fill complete and suffers through trauma. These trauma is one of the factor responsible for mental illness among indigenous population. Cases of stolen children also pose a negative influence on the mental wellbeing in indigenous population thus increasing the risk of mental illness among the aboriginal individual (Tighe et al., 2017).
To reduce the rate of mental health among indigenous different programs were initiated by the health care organization and government of Australia such as Aboriginal Youth Mental Health Partnership. It is the program initiated in collaboration with department of health service in order to provide mental health support to the young individual who are at the high risk of getting affected from mental illness. Another program, Mental Health First Aid Training and Research program, which is developed to create awareness regarding mental health among the indigenous population and also offer first aid or initial assistance to the individual suffering from mental illness. In addition, there are other programs also which reduces the risk factor of mental illness in individual such as, Alcohol and Drug Counselling, Aboriginal Cultural Support Program (Hart et al., 2016).
According to the WHO (2019), equity is referred to as the distribution of health by avoiding biasness across the demographic population, whereas human rights are defined to as the production of health outcomes through the right to mental and physical health and long with that other human related rights also. Indigenous population shares a colonial legacy of dispossession and marginalization. They face difficulty in reconciling the conflicting demands of modernity and tradition and insist on the acknowledgement of human rights. They have been devoid of their human rights such as, they have been facing discrimination from a longer period of time, violence against female is common among them, and they have faced imprisonment due to the protest and forced assimilation. Despite of several laws and legislation the condition is not improved much (Australian Human Right Commission, 2019). To provide the equity and human rights to the indigenous population, UN government has introduced declaration. According to article 7, aboriginal population have right to healthy lifespan, mental integrity, physical, and liberty and health security of a person. Another article that talks about to reduce the discrimination in health care field is article 17. According to article 17, indigenous people have the right to stop the exploitation of their children or performing any hazardous works that may act as a hurdle in their education or pose a negative impact on the mental or physical health of the individual (Australian Human Right Commission, 2019). Article 24 also states about the health care rights of aboriginal population. Article 24 mentions that, indigenous population have the right to achieve standard treatment and health care safety for the people suffering from mental and physical health. Other articles that states about determinants responsible for mental health issue of indigenous Australians are article 22 that declares that special attention should be provided to the women, youth, children and individual with disabilities, it will reduce their mental pressure and hence will reduce the risk of mental illness (Australian Human Right Commission, 2019). The health care policy such as Mental Health First Aid Training and Research program helps to implement the rights declared by government in article 24. The Aboriginal Youth Mental Health Partnership will assist article 17 and 22 of the human rights.
Conclusion
From the report it is concluded that, indigenous population are prone to discrimination and other violence. These violation exerts a negative impact on the mental effect of the indigenous population and causing mental illness. Other determinants responsible for te mental illness are unhygienic life style, discrimination, loss of cultural background and violence. Effect of these risk factor are minimised by different health policies formulated by the government. The introduced heath care policy also maintains the rights declared by the government.
References
Australian Human Right Commission. (2019). UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples | Australian Human Rights Commission. Retrieved from https://www.humanrights.gov.au/publications/un-declaration-rights-indigenous-peoples-1
Black, E. B., Ranmuthugala, G., Kondalsamy-Chennakesavan, S., Toombs, M. R., Nicholson, G. C., & Kisely, S. (2015). A systematic review: Identifying the prevalence rates of psychiatric disorder in Australia’s Indigenous populations. Australian & New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry, 49(5), 412-429. https://doi.org/10.1177/0004867415569802
Bodkin-Andrews, G., & Carlson, B. (2016). The legacy of racism and Indigenous Australian identity within education. Race Ethnicity and Education, 19(4), 784-807. https://doi.org/10.1080/13613324.2014.969224
Clifford, A., McCalman, J., Bainbridge, R., & Tsey, K. (2015). Interventions to improve cultural competency in health care for Indigenous peoples of Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the USA: a systematic review. International Journal for Quality in Health Care, 27(2), 89-98. https://doi.org/10.1093/intqhc/mzv010
Hart, L. M., Mason, R. J., Kelly, C. M., Cvetkovski, S., & Jorm, A. F. (2016). ‘teen Mental Health First Aid’: a description of the program and an initial evaluation. International journal of mental health systems, 10(1), 3. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13033-016-0034-1
Muller, L. (2014). A theory for Indigenous Australian health and human service work. Allen & Unwin. Retrieved from: https://researchonline.jcu.edu.au/31565/1/31565%20Muller%202014%20Front%20Pages_final.pdf
Parker, R., & Milroy, H. (2014). Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander mental health: an overview. Working together: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander mental health and wellbeing principles and practice. 2nd ed. Canberra: Department of The Prime Minister and Cabinet, 25-38. Retrieved from: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Roz_Walker/publication/259715124_Working_Together_Aboriginal_and_Torres_Strait_Islander_Mental_Health_and_Wellbeing_Principles_and_Practice/links/59c3abb20f7e9b21a82fd663/Working-Together-Aboriginal-and-Torres-Strait-Islander-Mental-Health-and-Wellbeing-Principles-and-Practice.pdf#page=54
Tighe, J., Shand, F., Ridani, R., Mackinnon, A., De La Mata, N., & Christensen, H. (2017). Ibobbly mobile health intervention for suicide prevention in Australian Indigenous youth: a pilot randomised controlled trial. BMJ open, 7(1), e013518. https://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2016-013518
WHO. (2019). Gender, equity, human rights. Retrieved from https://www.who.int/gender-equity-rights/en/
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