Health Policy Assignment: Close The Gap, Health Initiative by Australian Government
Question
Task
Using the material provided in the Resource Bibliography, write a case study report on health policy assignment describing a project or projects that have attempted to address the Closing the Gap targets in ONE of the following areas:
- Community Development
- Education
- Health
- Imprisonment and Youth Justice* or
- Employment
Answer
Introduction
The health policy assignment will evaluate the justification of the health initiative “Close the gap”, created by the Australian government for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to offer them a better life. The initiative will be evaluated in the context of social justice as well as ethical and legal considerations. The discussion will also include the role of the nurses in order to justify the success of the program.
The initiative
Close the gap is the strategy that aims to improve the life outcomes of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people while targeting the aspects of language, land and water, housing, safety, justice, employment, education, and health. It addresses the inequalities experienced by Aboriginal communities in order to develop their well-being which will be equal to that of all Australians. It further objectifies engagement of children in high-quality childhood education to introduce them with their culture in early years. Finally, it offers enough opportunity for the student to exercise full learning potential.
Close the gap is the initiative of the Australian government for making a difference in the life of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. The program acknowledges their ongoing resilience and strength to sustain the oldest living culture of the world. The program is underpinned by the belief, that if the referred indigenous community has a complication in the delivery and design of health services programs and policies, which is considered here as the gap and if it affects them with better life outcomes, then it should be addressed. It recognizes the structural change in the society, which is needed The Australian government is working in collaboration with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to include business organizations, by implementing a new national agreement on closing the gap at the territory, state, local, and national level (Reath, & O'Mara, 2018). It has been acknowledged that the community must determine their own desired outcomes by being in partnership with the government and sharing in the decision making process.
The new way of working as per the initiative is to build a strong foundation, by utilizing the deep connection with their family, culture, and community (Johnston, Williams, Butler, & Kinner, 2019). The program aims to implement a plan where each party is in partnership with the community and the government. There is mandate for the proper direction for the policies and programs to make it aligned with the national agreement and take those actions to make the implementation successful. It has acquired a large partnership of different territories and localities with the help of the Australian Government and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders. Furthermore, the partnership includes the Northern Territory, Western Australia, Tasmania, South Australia, Victoria, Queensland, New South Wales, Australian Capital Territory, as well as Australian and local government associations (Implementation Plans | Closing the Gap. 2021).
Addressing towards social justice
For any initiative which is taken for the betterment of a community, it is important to evaluate the success of the initiative in the context of Social Justice and ethical and legal consideration. The 5 main principles regarding Social Justice are human rights, diversity, participation, equity, and access to resources. The targeting of the initiative Close the gap aims at health and long life for everyone including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders. It directly endorses human rights and access to resources (Parter, Wilson, & Hartz, 2019). Previously Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people mostly were ignored most of the social advantages and institutions, which were directly connected with social injustice, compromising their human rights and access to resources. The initiative of the Close the gap program with its strategic direction or goals has confirmed human rights and access to resources and its structure and sustain social justice for the initiative which are equity, access, human rights and participation, diversity (St Clair, Murtagh, Kelly, Ford, & Wallace, 2018). Further, it has even shared consideration for the healthy and strong living of children with high-quality education and enough for exercising all learning potential to confirm access. Other addresses equity, participation, and diversity principles of Social Justice, healthy and strong living of children has justified equity, high-quality educational opportunity assists in participation and diversity as inclusion of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander immediately confirms diversity in the entire setup (Albright, Hurd, & Hussain, 2017). Thus, it has justified all 5 principles of Social Justice.
The initiative has perfectly aligned its structure to secure Social Justice through its outcome. Further, it has even taken care of legal and ethical responsibility as a human right is the most important ethical consideration for any government, and any initiative which is taken by the government needs to be supported by the way for ethical consideration of human rights and dignity (Collard, Scammell, & Tee, 2020).
Leadership and governance of nurses
Addressing long and healthy lives for everyone including children is also mentioned which directly connects its partnership with the healthcare sector. Without having effective cooperation, a partnership in the healthcare sector, the initiative cannot be successful in the healthcare sector to offer long and healthy life. The main stakeholders are medical practitioners and nurses (Islam, & Ali, 2019). Nurses basically take care of the long and healthy living of the patient following the guidelines of the doctor. Offering the best care to the patient in order to make the initiative Close the gap successful, the nurses have played an important role by justifying effective leadership and governance in their role-playing. Most importantly considering the service type and industry type, they have accommodated ethical concepts in their leadership and governance to deliver the best care. The ethical concepts of justice, autonomy, non-maleficence, and beneficence mandate safety, quality, and integrity in their service providing to secure the best care. As the initiative of the program Close the gap directs towards healthy long life thereby by the ethical concept beneficence nurses has justified benefits for the people, by autonomy human rights and dignity, by justice fair treatment for every individual to includes equality in resource allocation and by non-malfeasance do not attend any harmful activity for the patient (Mostafa, & Abed El-Motalib, 2020). By the obtained leadership and implementing the ethical consideration in the leadership, the nurses have secured success for the initiative Close the gap ensuring the long and healthy life of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people with honesty, integrity, quality, and equality (Brown, Walker, Moskos, Isherwood, Patel, & King, 2017). Nurses by confirming best care for the patients include leadership in the setting. By providing, promoting and facilitating the best possible care for their patients they sustain clinical leadership and with effective monitoring to retain the culture they justify governance in the sector as well as for the program.
Conclusion
The paper has shared a deep concern for the Australian government initiative Close the gap for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to offer their long and healthy life, equality, educational opportunities. By addressing, it has successfully addressed Social Justice in its structure and nurses with the help of ethical concepts in leadership; it has announced the success of the initiative in all respects.
References
Albright, J. N., Hurd, N. M., & Hussain, S. B. (2017). Applying a social justice lens to youth mentoring: A review of the literature and recommendations for practice. American journal of community psychology, 59(3-4), 363-381. https://doi.org/10.1002/ajcp.12143
Brown, L., Osborne, K., Walker, R., Moskos, M., Isherwood, L., Patel, K., ... & King, D. (2017). The Benefits of a Life-first employment program for Indigenous Australian families: Implications for ‘Closing the Gap’. Journal of Social Inclusion, 8(1). https://d1wqtxts1xzle7.cloudfront.net/66383848/b5f9906a44ebfc43de33893c674025505009-with-cover-page-v2.pdf?Expires=1634102473&Signature=Ho25dPVtFds~DrUpnFBtjOkiskOoQxC~GId5~R4x0YRx1WWOGDYKQW2ud
~Az~ExAdCwSmNOAPIIf6goej-rPanUk9K6SpvmGCsOR-fZt2dEMYVe0iwqwGloUcWuYiCPVGi7TcSKYIMjCNSk2-7db3-A4jt9Yn-A1fJ47Jhr~t87Ml7cOOxlxwLdIg~6pL
7Mb7qSorl09kJGRbFwqs2z~-7a3NFwyvhuNnrQluyj
9M5rjBXPuGvaWDI0wkgCKeyvNHSX5f99-DYxgQ5hXZ57cT1LZtso3GuJ4VNKfiyXhXZfuGmfe207i2LOLkeAR-y10NCSnGPu22VaD-kMoQWOKUA__&Key-Pair-Id=APKAJLOHF5GGSLRBV4ZA
Collard, S. S., Scammell, J., & Tee, S. (2020). Closing the gap on nurse retention: A scoping review of implications for undergraduate education. Nurse education today, 84, 104253. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0260691719306288
Implementation Plans | Closing the Gap. (2021). Retrieved 9 October 2021, from https://www.closingthegap.gov.au/implementation-plans
Islam, T., Ahmed, I., & Ali, G. (2019). Effects of ethical leadership on bullying and voice behavior among nurses: mediating role of organizational identification, poor working condition and workload. Health policy assignment Leadership in Health Services, 32(1), 2-17. https://doi.org/10.1108/ LHS-02-2017-0006
Johnston, I., Williams, M., Butler, T., & Kinner, S. A. (2019). Justice targets in Closing the Gap: let's get them right. Australian and New Zealand journal of public health, 43(3), 201-203. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30958619/
Mostafa, A. M. S., & Abed El-Motalib, E. A. (2020). Ethical leadership, work meaningfulness, and work engagement in the public sector. Review of Public Personnel Administration, 40(1), 112-131. https://doi.org/10.1177/0734371X18790628
Parter, C., Wilson, S., & Hartz, D. L. (2019). The closing the gap (CTG) refresh: Should Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture be incorporated in the CTG framework? How?. Australian and New Zealand journal of public health. https://opus.cloud.lib.uts.edu.au/bitstream/10453/135720/1/Parter_et_al-2019-Australian_and_New_Zealand_Journal_of_Public_Health.pdf
Reath, J. S., & O'Mara, P. (2018). Closing the gap in cardiovascular risk for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians. https://www.mja.com.au/system/files/issues/209_01/10.5694mja18.00345.pdf
St Clair, M., Murtagh, D., Kelly, J., Ford, P. L., & Wallace, R. (2018). Telehealth: A Game Changer–Closing the Gap in Remote Indigenous Health in Three Remote Homeland Communities in the Laynhapuy Homelands, East Arnhem, Northern Australia. In Connecting the System to Enhance the Practitioner and Consumer Experience in Healthcare (pp. 132-138). IOS Press. https://books.google.co.in/books?hl=en&lr=&id=ao1xDwAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PA132&dq=closing+
the+gap+australia&ots=Rp8Dm86chs&sig=SCzYmRG7Zw
CJRq1Ki9Epv6ipfY4&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=closing%20the%20gap%20australia&f=false
