Government Strategic Directions For Aboriginal Health Case Study

Description Of One Priority Area And Two At-Risk Groups

The main purpose of the paper is to provide a health plan review. The objectives of health plan review is to identify the main health issues in a population, identify the areas of development, review the plan that are designed to implement in order to address the health issue in the population and evaluate the effectiveness of the plan (Garrard 2013). In this regards the paper will provide the review of the health plan provided by Koolin Balit: Victorian Government strategic directions for Aboriginal health 2012-2022. The following paper will provide an overview of the health plan. The report will then discuss about the one of the priority areas for example a healthy start to life, two at-risk groups such as indigenous pregnant woman and children and three relevant social determinants of health like education, social support and poverty in order to critically analyse the effectiveness of the health plan.

The main aim of the program is to cater to the needs of the aboriginal community members dwelling at the Victorian region of Australia and provide adequate facilities to them in order to make them feel socially favoured and bridge the gap between the common people and the members of the aboriginal community and in the manner in which they are exempted from availing the basic amenities of health care (Koolin Balit Victorian Government strategic directions for Aboriginal health 2012–2022. 2013). The vision of the program is to provide adequate assistance to the indigenous tribal people so as to ensure a decent standard of living, to rationalize and discourage the discrimination in availing healthcare facilities operating presently between the general population and the aborigines and also to adopt measures so as to make the health care facilities available, readily accessible to the aboriginal community members (). The program wishes to achieve its objectives on the basis of satisfying the four primary requirements grouped under the categories of the following-

The program has set stringent guidelines in order to achieve the four devised categories by incorporating proper nutrition, rehabilitation care so as to rehabilitate the prevalence of substance abuse within the community, incorporate advanced strategies to treat health issues and also adopt measures for the care of the elderly people. The program is entirely a government initiative and wishes to fulfil its objectives between the time span of 2012-2022 for uplifting the living status of the aborigines (Koolin Balit Victorian Government strategic directions for Aboriginal health 2012–2022. 2013).  Government Strategic Directions For Aboriginal Health Case Study

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Education

The priority area that has been chosen by me to focus upon is ‘A healthy start to life’. The plan include reduce perinatal mortality, low birth weight, smoking in pregnancy and increase breast feeding (Koolin Balit Victorian Government strategic directions for Aboriginal health 2012–2022. 2013). This particular segment has been chosen as it involves the most vulnerable sections of the indigenous population that is, the expecting mothers and the newly born infants. It is important to note here that these two proportion of the population are extremely vulnerable and require attention in terms of the maintenance of nutritional framework and other health factors such as, cessation in smoking in aboriginal pregnant women and consumption of alcohol during pregnancy (Koolin Balit Victorian Government strategic directions for Aboriginal health 2012–2022. 2013). Intensive care units for imparting maternal care as well as the neo-natal care has been mandatorily covered in the program ensuring that the caregivers are culturally competent and possess a professional degree in cultural competency specialising in dealing with the indigenous aborigines. ‘GoreenNarrkwarrenNgrn-toura’ and the ‘Koori alcohol’ action plan aims at providing assistance to the pregnant mothers so that they quit the consumption of alcohol or cigarettes during the pregnancy period for the better health of the baby (Koolin Balit Victorian Government strategic directions for Aboriginal health 2012–2022. 2013).

This particular section of the report will provide a brief discussion regarding the three social determinants of health that are linked with indigenous pregnant women. The main three social determinants that contribute to the poor health outcomes of indigenous pregnant women are education, social support and poverty (Braveman and Gottlieb 2014).

Education as a social determinant impacts on the well-being and health of the aboriginal pregnant women (Perrin 2013). It has been found that due to lack of education the indigenous pregnant women fail to understand the proper age of pregnancy and the way of maintain their life during pregnancy. They lack the information related to proper diet and nutrition that are required during pregnancy (Pacquiao 2016). Most of the indigenous pregnant women are induced in the substance abuse such as drinking, smoking and others during pregnancy that increases the risk factor of severe health issues (Passey et al. 2014). Such lack of awareness is the result of lack of education. They are unaware of the effect of such activity on the health of their new born babies. Most of the pregnant mother gives birth to a physically or mentally ill baby. In some cases due to high level of addiction the mother had lost her baby in the womb. Due to such lack of education the maternal and infant mortality rate has increased in the population (Pacquiao 2016). Statistics has shown that there are only 22.8% aboriginals that have completed year 12 or equivalent education (Perrin 2013). It is considered that better education helps a person in overall self-assessment of health.

Social Support

Social support as a determinant of health also contributes to the poor health outcomes of indigenous pregnant women. Social support is defined as the supportive relationship, supportive group activities, contribution of the community and civic engagement. Involving in the social connection is a prerequisite for improved physical and mental health (Allen et al. 2014). However, the aboriginals face enormous social discrimination such as race-based discrimination, discrimination due t culture and identity and gender discrimination. Such discrimination creates depression and mental distress, thus affect the mental health of the pregnant women (Rubin 2016). The indigenous women face inequalities due to their groups, culture, race and religion. Due to such social deprivation and discrimination they lack proper health interventions, thus face enormous health issues during pregnancy. Government Strategic Directions For Aboriginal Health Case Study Due to lack of social support the indigenous women face insults, racist taunts, physical or mental abuse and violence as well. Such activities affect both t heir physical and mental health. Such social factors lead to increasing ill health and unequal health outcomes in the population (Pacquiao 2016).

Poverty is another factor that leads to unhealthy lifestyle and lack of well-being. In the indigenous population due to lack of education and social deprivation they suffer from unemployment and poor economic condition that restrict them to avail adequate care service at the time of need (Rubin 2016). During the time of pregnancy a woman require adequate amount of nutrition, food and medicines to maintain their health and well-being. Due to lack of financial support the pregnant mothers fail to fulfil their health requirements. Lower income and lack of employment contributes to the poor self-assessment of health (Perrin 2013). Due to such poor economic condition the aboriginal pregnant women lack proper health service and suffer from severe health issue such as diabetes, respiratory risk, cardiovascular risk, malnutrition and in many cases such illness leads to maternal death (Braveman and Gottlieb 2014). The lack of health service due to poverty sometimes affects the health of the new born as well. Babies suffer from genetic disorders, malnutrition, mental disorder and physical disabilities (Pacquiao 2016).  It has been found that the average weekly income of aboriginal families is $395, which is not adequate for fulfil health requirements and maintain wellbeing (Markwick et al. 2014). Thus it is important to introduce proper health policies to provide equal health service in rustic areas with low income and decrease the health disparity.

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From the above discussion it can be said that such social determinants of health are relevant to the poor health outcomes of indigenous pregnant women and contribute effectively to the increased maternal and infant mortality rate.

Conclusion:

From the above discussion it can be concluded that, the report has elaborated the aim of the health report such as meet the requirements of the aboriginal community members of the Victorian region of Australia and provide adequate facilities to the population and bridge the gap between the common people and the members of the aboriginal community. The report has demonstrated the area of priority of the health plan and has focused on one ‘A healthy start to life’ as it is related to the most vulnerable groups such as pregnant mothers and new born infants. Education, social support and poverty have been identified as the three social determinants of health that are responsible for poor health outcomes of pregnant women in the population. The program has set guidelines to achieve expected outcomes by incorporating proper nutrition, rehabilitation care, advanced strategies for health issues and care for the elderly people. It is expected that the plan will achieve positive outcomes within 2022.

References:

Allen, J., Balfour, R., Bell, R. and Marmot, M., 2014. Social determinants of mental health. International review of psychiatry, 26(4), pp.392-407.

Braveman, P. and Gottlieb, L., 2014. The social determinants of health: it’s time to consider the causes of the causes. Public health reports, 129(1_suppl2), pp.19-31.

Garrard, J., 2013. Health sciences literature review made easy. Jones & Bartlett Publishers.

Koolin Balit Victorian Government strategic directions for Aboriginal health 2012–2022. 2013. [ebook] Victoria: State of Victoria, Department of Health. Available at: https://file:///C:/Users/User/Downloads/1307014_koolin_balit_jul13_WEB%20-%20PDF.pdf [Accessed 1 Aug. 2018].

Markwick, A., Ansari, Z., Sullivan, M., Parsons, L. and McNeil, J., 2014. Inequalities in the social determinants of health of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People: a cross-sectional population-based study in the Australian state of Victoria. International journal for equity in health, 13(1), p.91.  Government Strategic Directions For Aboriginal Health Case Study