Question:
Discuss about how Australia, racism Influences the Health Care Services.
Being a multi-ethnic and multicultural country, Australia has an increasing diverse population. Even though there are different people from different ethnicities live in this country, the sense of racism still prevails in the country. Regardless of numerous efforts of the government and other nongovernmental organizations, there is still a sense of racism amongst the general population of Australia (Durey, 2010). Considering the Indigenous population and their health, it has been found out that they have more health and safety issues than the non-indigenous people. This may also due to the ongoing health disparities for mistreating the Indigenous people as a result to colonization in their land. This issue has been raised several times as the government of the county has tried several times to bring a culturally competent environment for all the citizens. The concept refers to the major policies that minimize the inequalities for the quality and access of the health care services within a cross cultural environment. The culturally competent policies tend to promote cultural tolerance, therefore enhance the capability of accessing the health care services within different organizations and ensure that the medical service providers deliver a quality service for all the cultural groups (Betancourt et al., 2005). However, in Australia, racism influences the health care services to a great extent. This is quite unfortunate that racism still plays a major part and it has an intimidating control on the health care providers. Therefore, this essay will trigger this prevalent issue of racism in the health care services for the culturally minor groups and the impact of Australian media on such issues.
Racism on the rise in Australia: Migrants’ reports cultural shift (Marriner, 2014)
The taken article is from the Sydney Morning Herald. The article shows how the migrants are reporting more cultural shifts in the country and how people are being harassed while travelling on the public transport as other co-travelers are asking them questions, especially on their personal detail such as their origin, where are they living, embarrassing them due to their skin color or religious belief and how they are being discriminated at their work places due to their belonging to a racially minor group in the country. Along with that, the article has also highlighted the ongoing discrimination against the skin color, ethnicity or religious beliefs. The rate of discrimination in the country has gone up to around 12% in the year 2012 (Marriner, 2014). Australia has already been identified for having highest rate of migration programs in the country, the migrants tend to complain regarding the prevalence of racist and discriminatory behavior repeatedly. These experiences of the migrants can also lead them in having disparity in the health care services which may have a major impact on their health. As stated by Marriner (2014) until now the racial discrimination act of Australia has not done anything significant which has led to the belief that people can be racist.
There have been several times that the social theorists have highlighted the increasing issue of racism, yet racism has been a major issue in the Australian society. According to Eggertson (2015) where many claim that racism has been socially intolerable with the course of time, on the other hand some studies also show that the public behavior has still been stigmatized with racial expressions. Therefore it has indicated that even if the nature of racism is changing with time, but it still exists in thee society. People have also been mistrusted, dangerous due to their skin color or religious belief. In the past, the migrants in Australia also had societal issues and suffered from different settlement issues. Therefore it can be said that racism still persists in the Australian society even though its nature has changed with time.
Indigenous health isn’t all bad news. Pulver, L. (2013)
This article on Indigenous health has been taken from the ABC News and written by Pulver (2013). The article has focused on the major factors of the Australian non-indigenous and indigenous communities and their media activities. The article also explained that negative statistics regarding the indigenous health has been continuously highlighted in the Australian media, whereas the success in making the health care services culturally competent has been entirely ignored. A major newspaper The Sydney Morning Herald has already identified the last ten years as a wastage due to the growing rate of kidney disease, diabetes, osteoporosis and asthma amongst the indigenous population. It has also been found that there is gap of eleven years of life expectancy rate between the non-indigenous and indigenous people. However, at the same time there are success stories such as indigenous people giving up smoking has been ignored in the media. The increasing rate of smoking had brought several health issues in the indigenous population; however it has reduced to a great extent in past few years. However, this issue should have been acknowledged by the Australian media, but the media has focused more on portraying the negative issues regarding the indigenous health. This article also suggests that the in place of focusing on the negative issues, media should also highlight the positive ones in order to support the effectual community activities.
The establishment of the health services controlled by the Aboriginal community has approved the cultural safety of the health issues of indigenous people. However, on the other hand these organizations are still not capable of providing culturally competent environment within the health care services (Fanany & Fanany, 2012). Therefore there are several studies that focus on the negative attitudes of media towards these issues. Therefore overcoming these issues would be much easier if the medical workers can utilize their knowledge for cultural competency an deliver that through the media, therefore it would be easier for the organization that are working towards bringing a culturally competent atmosphere for all.
Indigenous medical students face barriers to being doctors, Adelaide conference told.
This article has stated that racism still acts as a barrier for a huge number of indigenous students and it is increasing with the course of time. The medical students who belong to aboriginal communities tend to face racist attitudes within their work places. People tend to have a racist approach while they find indigenous people as their patients; therefore the people who are keen to practice medicine face this issue from their patients. In a recent conference, it has been said that the indigenous people tend to be very cautious regarding the health system as it has been experienced that they have been discharged early. Moreover, it has also been identified that there is a methodical discriminatory attitude against the indigenous communities. Therefore this article has suggested for making the educational organizations, medical institutions a more culturally competent environment which can further make the upcoming change possible. Even though this article provides few simple solutions for dealing with the racist attitudes in the Australian society, it is difficult to say that there is little racism in the society which can be dealt with such solutions. As stated in the article the most effective solution to the racism would be making the people culturally aware, especially within the health care sector. Culturally incompetent environment can be an obstruction for the individual growth for the medical workers and their patients as well.
In most the cases, the indigenous people are not treated as similar to the people from non-indigenous population, rather they are treated as some object for operating in the hospitals. As the health care sector has a different attitude than the other organizational environment, the medical workers should have the basic knowledge for cultural competency and safety (Paradies, 2016). Any failure in the language can be a major reason for racist behavior and conflicts. Therefore these can act as an obstacle for success in the medical career and using the available health care services for the aboriginal people (Nelson, 2015). Therefore this can also lead to a huge imbalance in power as well. There are several instances where the aboriginal students face racist attitudes in their schools or work places. Furthermore it can also lead to a serious withdrawal of the bright students from medical careers. Also the aboriginal patients are also treated in a different way while they tend to access the health services. Therefore it is entirely the responsibility of the organizations to make their working atmosphere culturally competent by making people more knowledgeable regarding the cultural differences and why it should be preserved.
Racism rife in school, finds study (Marriner, 2013)
This article indicates to the issue of facing racism in school. The data has shown that four children out of five who have English as a second language in their schools tend to face racist attitudes in school. The rate of facing such attitudes is at least one time in a month. After conduct a thorough research amongst the students of four high schools and five primary schools in Victoria, it can be found out that ‘you do not belong to Australia’ is one of the most used sentences towards the non-Australian students (Marriner, 2013)). It can also been seen that they are not being included in other activities such as sports. The students also tend to hit them due to the prevalence of racism in their attitude. Therefore it also indicates that the children are learning such behavior as they watch such activities around them, even by the elders. Another data has indicated that the racist attitudes have increased as around 55% students consider racism as a major issue at their schools.
Racism is still a prevalent issue in the Australian society as the national data also considers the prevalence of racist attitudes amongst the general population. People tend to face such attitudes in different situations in life. Another set of data shows that the around 27% of students over the age of fifteen tend to experience the discriminatory attitude, especially within the school settings, employment situations or general public places (Truasheim, 2014). It has also been indicated that this sense of racism has also been extended to the health care settings which tend to increase the inequalities in the health care services.
My experience with racism says that racist attitudes persist everywhere around the world. It is not only for the aboriginal people, but it is also for the Asians and the others who do not belong to Australia. The four media articles presented here also showed that racism has indirectly or directly affected those health care services of the migrants and the aboriginal people. There are several organizations and the Australian government is working together for overcoming this issue. However they still require adequate funding for bringing an environment that is culturally safe and competent. Moreover within the health care services, the medical workers should have the attitude for treating all their patients in a similar way. There should always be an equal approach for the provided health services. Along with that, the Australian media should also provide the positive news to the population, not only the negative ones. The positive news can also influence others to work together for bringing a culturally safe setting for everyone.
Conclusion:
In conclusion, it can be said that the health care sector is entirely different than any other sector; therefore the medical workers should have a culturally sound attitude while treating their patients along with while they are being served by an aboriginal medical worker. Therefore for overcoming the racist attitudes in the health care sectors, the medical organizations should take effective steps for making people aware regarding the negative sides of such racist behavior and the importance of respecting the cultural differences. They can also conduct campaigns that would be able to make a difference in the ongoing racism in the country.
Reference list
Aveling, N. (2007). Anti-racism in Schools: A question of leadership?. Discourse: Studies In The Cultural Politics Of Education, 28(1), 69-85.Retrieved from https://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01596300601073630
Betancourt, J., Green, A., Carrillo, J., & Park, E. (2005). Cultural Competence And Health Care Disparities: Key Perspectives And Trends. Health Affairs, 24(2), 499-505.Retrieved from
https://dx.doi.org/10.1377/hlthaff.24.2.499
Durey, A. (2010). Reducing racism in Aboriginal health care in Australia: where does cultural education fit? Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health, 34(1), 87-92. doi: 10.1111/j.1753-6405.2010.00560.x
Eggertson, L. (2015). Election 2015: closing the Aboriginal health gap. Canadian Medical Association Journal, 187(16), E469-E470.Retrieved fromhttps://dx.doi.org/10.1503/cmaj.109-5155
Fanany, R., & Fanany, D. (2012) Health as a Social Experience Melbourne: Palgrave Macmillan.
Kwate, N. (2014). “Racism Still Exists”: A Public Health Intervention Using Racism “Countermarketing” Outdoor Advertising in a Black Neighborhood. Journal Of Urban Health, 91(5), 851-872.Retrieved fromhttps://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11524-014-9873-8
Nelson, J. (2015). Racism and Anti-Racism in Families: Insights from Performativity Theory. Sociology Compass, 9(6), 487-498.Retrieved fromhttps://dx.doi.org/10.1111/soc4.12268
Nurses can help close the gap. (2014, March). Australian Nursing & Midwifery Journal, 21(8), 11. Retrieved from https://go.galegroup.com.ezproxy.cdu.edu.au/ps/i.do?p=AONE&u=ntu&id=GALE%7CA362063452&v=2.1&it=r&sid=summon&userGroup=ntu&authCount=1#
Paradies, Y. (2016). Colonisation, racism and indigenous health. Journal Of Population Research, 33(1), 83-96. Retrieved from https://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s12546-016-9159-y
Truasheim, S. (2014). Cultural safety for aboriginal and Torres Strait islander adults within Australian music therapy practices. Australian Journal of Music Therapy, 25, 135-147
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