Answer To: The module content is taught under four themes: Theme One - Exploration of a geographical area and...
P answered on Oct 23 2022
Health Needs Assessment of Indigenous Australians
Table of Contents
Summary of Geographical Area: New South Wales 3
Factors Impacting the life of Individuals 4
Target Population chosen for the study 6
Health related needs of Target Population 7
Mental Health problems 8
Unemployment 9
Respiratory Diseases due to climatic change 10
Health promotion opportunities available for the most important need 11
Summary of Geographical Area: New South Wales
The geographical area chosen for understanding the health needs assessments of Indigenous Australians is New South Wales. New South Wales is located across the coastal line of the Australia which constitutes costal strip, mountains, agricultural plains and western plains. The climate in this area is humid subtropical. In the present essay the chosen population to study are the Aboriginal & Indigenous Australians. Those Aboriginal and Indigenous people living in the New South Wales are known as “Wiradjuri” (Leane, 2022). In New South Wales most of the Indigenous people are mostly distributed to southwestern areas of Sydney and western New South Wales (Hyman et.al., 2020). Economy wise the New south Wales is the most important state of Australia and is associated with the various industries, agriculture, animals etc. (Islam et.al., 2021)
As per the Australian Institute of health Statistics (2022), the percentage of the Indigenous Australians living in this area constitutes approximately 33.2% of the total indigenous Australians living in the Australia (Australian Institute of Health Statistics, 2022). Indigenous Australians are the First nations people who colonized and still following the olden traditions and most of them are living in the remote areas (Nursey-Bray et.al., 2020). The Indigenous Australians live in the scared sites with significance natural landscape and follows cultural values, spiritual and family-based relationships. Of 25.5 million Australians Indigenous Australians constitutes 3.3%. The scared sites of geographical area constitute hills, rocks, waterholes, plains, lakes and billabongs. It was understood from the scared sites that most of them live in the costal and sea areas. Hence, they are remote from the center of the nations. The Indigenous Australians inherit their knowledge, tradition, ceremony and culture from their earlier generations. It was understood from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (2019) that 9.8 % of the 9.8% of the indigenous Australians speak their indigenous language and nearly 150 different types of the languages are being spoken by different communities of the Indigenous Australians (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2019). Of the 150 different types of the indigenous languages the most widely spoken languages are Kriol, Yumplatok and Djambarrpuyungu.
It is clearly evident that, the indigenous communities are the most widely accepted separate groups of Australia who are more vulnerable to various diseases due to the climatic changes and are clearly distinct in terms of language, culture and beliefs from rest of the Australia. From the Health statistical reports of Australia, it was understood that the overall health indicators of the indigenous community are worse when compared to the other population and the age distribution pattern is reverse when compared to the other people in Australia (Shepherd et.al., 2012).
Factors Impacting the life of Individuals
The indigenous communities’ lives in the remote areas across the costal lines and the climatic changes have the direct impacts on their poo health and well-being (Cook et.al., 2020). Industrialization is one of the main causes for the climatic changes and increased vulnerability to various diseases. The climatic changes may result in cyclones, droughts etc. resulting in the loss of housing, people and poor nutrition (Majedul, 2022). Remoteness is the other reason because of which there is a limited healthcare facility and another reason is that most of the indigenous communicates lacks trust on the health care services (Nolan-Isles et.al., 2021). This resulted in the increased prevalence of heart diseases, cancers, Diabetes etc. and a sharp rise in the number of deaths were reported across the community. The other factors which have direct impacts on the health and well-being of the indigenous communities are socio-economic status, culture, beliefs and emotional factors (Kapeli, 2020). It was also reported in the literature that there are poor literacy rates which resulted in the poor financial status of the communities. The poor financial status is associated with poor nutrition, increased obesity rates, poor infra structures, poor hygiene practices etc. (Brereton & Jagals, 2021) Remoteness is associated with the low availability of the resources, inadequate healthcare services, poor sewage management systems. In addition, the climatic changes results in poor hygiene and increase number of diseases in the community. The remoteness and socio-economic status have resulted in the poor growth of the children in the indigenous communities. These factors will impact both the physical and mental health of the individuals. Of the various factors climatic factors contribute to severe risk of the indigenous communities. With increase in the temperatures there are the risk of the forest fires that in turn limits the growth of the vegetation whereas, the decreased temperatures will result in the sea rise levels that results in the flood across the remote areas (DeFries et.al., 2019). Both climatic extremes will have severe health impacts on the individuals and increased economic burden of the nation. The discrimination of the indigenous communities from the rest of the Australian has resulted in the increased mental stress and most of the people in the community are addicted to alcohol and substance abuse (Whyman et.al., 2021).
The most important factors which are affecting both the health and well-being of the Indigenous Australians are:
1. Socio-economic factors such as poverty is associated with the poor housing, poor nutrition, poor literacy rates.
2. Remoteness is associated with the lack of transportation, limited resources and limited health care services availability.
3. Climatic changes are associated with increased risk of forest fires, droughts and diseases.
4. Racism contributed to the social exclusion and land restrictions.
5. Incarceration in which one of the family members in jail that has increased the suicidal rates across the communities.
6. All the above factors have resulted in adapting the indigenous communities towards increased substance usage as a result there is an increased prevalence of the substance usage associated disorders such as depression, anxiety, delusion and other mental health problems.
Hence, it was understood that there is an immediate need to improve the resources for the Aboriginal community to preserve the native culture of the Australia for future generations.
Target Population chosen for the study
There is an increased health-risk across the community due to improper knowledge and awareness about the various nutrition and hygiene practices. As per my view the most targeted population was the youth of the Indigenous communities. Lack of education has resulted in the poor financial status, poor nutrition and poor hygiene practices. I have chosen the youth aboriginal individual because the next generation health and well-being are associated with these people. Educating these people will help them to get good employment opportunities by which they can rely on good nutritious food and will educate the children interests towards the education (Maunah, 2019). Increased literacy rates Is directly associating with the increased employment opportunity, health awareness and financial stability which in turn reduces the disease risk. The healthy community will have economic investments and these investments can be applied to other improvements in the community such as improving the infra structure such as schools, healthcare services etc. (Hauck et.al., 2019).
It is very clear that the youth of any nation is the primary key source of transition in personal life. This is the age in which the people will make the decisions about their relationships, education, career and others. It is clearly evident that there is a direct impact on the individuals by various socio-economic factors, environment etc. Most of the Aboriginal and Indigenous youth are...