Indigenous Community Health Assignment Focusing On Indigenous Health And Social Justice Issues

Question

Task: why is indigenous health and social justice important and how can current services be improved using indigenous community health assignment research strategies?

Answer

Section 1 - indigenous community health assignment: health related condition/issue

1.1 Identification of a health condition amongst “Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people”
This indigenous community health assignment identifies diabetes as being a major health concern among native communities. Diabetes in the Indigenous Australian has become a common problem and approx. 18% of the Aboriginal individuals having age of 25 used to have high blood sugar levels. This begins from the 5% in the teenager and 39% in the age group of 55 years. When this is not treated in time it led to have adverse impact on the lives of the sufferer (Ahpra.gov.au. 2022). Hospitalization and death are the effects of this disease in West Australia. This disease is a substantial problem for the "Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people'' (Healthinfonet.ecu.edu.au, 2022). Diabetes is dominating among other chronic disease which the Aboriginal people are currently suffering from. This poses challenges to the healthcare system.

1.2 Prevalence of issues amongst the “Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people”

a. Comparison with non-Indigenous people
According the indigenous community health assignment studies done on Burrow and Ride (2016), Aboriginal people used to experience this disease at a disproportionate level, and they are more likely to have this disease as compared to non-indigenous people. The tendency is three to four times higher as compared to non-indigenous people. The prevalence of this disease is not restricted to young people; however, women and children also have a greater impact on their overall health. Children are eight times more likely to have this disease. People who suffer from diabetes die at an early age of life.

b. Possible reasons for the same or different in the prevalence comparison
According to Hare et al., (2020), the people of Aboriginals are the most disadvantaged people. They do not have proper food, income, education systems, or access to healthcare facilities, which results in a certain number of diseases that lead to an increased rate of death. On the contrary, according to Maple-Brown (2020), Australia is known to be the leading healthcare service provider in the world. This country has access to the latest medications and healthcare technologies. The health workforce is highly skilled, diversified, and qualified, and they are very competent in terms of delivering safe and quality-based care.

The "Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care" plays a significant role in guaranteeing a wide range of services delivered to the Australian people. This commission is responding to meet the healthcare needs of the majority of people. However, the majority of the "Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander" Australian public remained disadvantaged in having significant treatment for positive health outcomes (Healthinfonet.ecu.edu.au, 2022). Nevertheless, the level of diabetes among the Aboriginal people used to reflect a wide range of contributing factors. The indigenous community health assignment identified these factors involve cultural, social, and historical factors.

Section 2 - health promotion or health care program

2.1 Describe a health promotion or health care program
The finding demonstrates that healthcare professionals and socially acceptable clinics can help "Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander'' individuals with diabetes. Additionally, it is also suggested that continuous quality improvement has the tendency to improve the victims that are experiencing diabetes (Ahpra.gov.au. 2022). Several health promotion and healthcare programs have been undertaken to help people with diabetes. In 2013, the agency called "Diabetes Australia"

This provided the government with insight into what the Aboriginal people were suffering from and what they needed to get rid of these diseases (Burrow & Ride, 2016). In the following years, some more action plans were taken. In 2015, the Federal government released a strategy to cure diabetes at a high level. “The new National diabetes strategy and Diabetes Australian Action Plan" highlighted the holistic approach to mitigating this disease.

2.2 Critical analysis of the health promotion or health care program After the collaboration of the two approaches mentioned above, there were some benefits in the reduction of diabetes among the Aboriginal people are listed below.

Deadly choices program: This program was conducted on the school-based children and provided the opportunity for the age group from 7-14 to participate in the program. The facilities which the program used to provide healthcare check-ups, participates in physical activity, and others (Socha, 2021). It has been found that with the continuous effort in the program, there were improvements found in the health of the children. An increase in the knowledge of taking care of health was found in the children. The frequency rate in terms of breakfast consumption has increased. This program was able to improve the health of children suffering from chronic diseases.

Living strong program: According to Socha (2021), physical inactivity, poor nutrition, and obesity are the contributing factors to developing diabetes. In order to overcome the impact of diabetes, the program, namely the Living Strong program, was established to provide the victims with the care and facilities to improve their health. The prevalence of type 2 diabetes is higher in the Aboriginal people as such health services in terms of screening and knowledge about proper intake of diet were facilitated through this program.

Life modification program: This indigenous community health assignment program was conducted to improve the lifestyle of the Aboriginal people. This was funded by the Victorian government and was under the control of Diabetes Australia (Ahpra.gov.au. 2022). This program offered a range of services to the Aboriginal population that drove the population to good health. This program used to support in promoting a healthy lifestyle among adults and children. In the 12-weeks the program some positive results have been shown. The men who used to be engaged in physical activity in the program improved their health in terms of fitness, reduced WC, anthropometric, and metabolic rate, and found a decreased rate in insulin resistance (Burrow & Ride, 2016). In addition, the women's program rendered nutrition education and the invitation for physical activity to the Urban Aboriginal people resulting in a reduction of BMI rate, obesity, and improved overall health.

Limitations of program
Although the above-mentioned program was successful in mitigating the health issue of the individuals, there were some limitations that restricted the facilities to be rendered to the individuals. The major limitation associated with the living strong program identified during the indigenous community health assignment research was the funding option. To run any program, it is necessary to be funded and must have support from the government. However, this program was lacking in this area. In addition, for participation in the deadly choices program, it was required to pay a minimum amount of fees to be paid by the students in exchange for services (Titmuss et al., 2019). This refers to the fact that students who pay fees are easily able to have regular health check-ups and have an increased rate of fresh fruits and vegetables.

Potential barriers to implementation and access to the program
To provide services the barriers that come forth implementation of the programs are Incorporating advertisements to create awareness about taking part in the program is the potential barrier. The program used to have limited advertisement options. Encouraging exercise via a partnership with the local council was the potential barrier (Mydr.com.au, 2022). Thirdly, this program was associated with providing healthy food options. However, they were facing having to have smooth accessibility to healthy foods that they were opting to make available to the victims of diabetes (Sherwood & Mohamed, 2020). This was the barrier that was faced by the service provider. However, the individuals used to face challenges in accessing the program in terms of a lack of transport services in the area in which the program used to be held. This created difficulty in accessing the services (Titmuss et al., 2019). The other barriers to the programs were associated with the inability to purchase medication and proper food to improve their health in the programs. People of Aboriginal origin used to be very poor.

Section 3 - indigenous community health assignment: culturally competent and safe care plan

3.1 Culturally competent & culturally safe care plan
The health of the individual can be improved when primary healthcare services undertake the following components to provide service based on the culturally safe care plan.

Culturally respectful: According to Best and Fredericks (2021), cultural respect is used to be attained when the healthcare system becomes a safe environment for the Aboriginal people. In terms of diabetes, the health of the individual will improve when whatever they communicate with the doctors is respected by them or the staff. The following factors for being culturally competent for improving diabetes are:

Organizational commitment and approach: The commitment and approach of the organization in terms of rendering safe and culturally sensitive health care are significant. Indigenous leadership is an indicator that the services are respectful and culturally aware.

Cultural and communication services: The health services that "value Indigenous culture" by rendering culturally suitable resources and indigenous artwork, communication style, and others help to make the individual feel that they are culturally safe. Organization commitment to the diabetes patients must be adhered with prescribing all the medication that will help eradicating diabetes. Its commitment must with careening, management and treating all the affected people at large.

Training and development of workforce: The indigenous workforce within the healthcare environment proves to be increasing the cultural safety of the indigenous patients (Aihw.gov.au, 2022). This is because these employees greatly know the priorities and needs of the Indigenous patients. In addition, when these employees are trained and developed at a high level, they will be able to maintain a culturally safe environment for the patients. Diabetes people are very sensitive in nature. Thus, culture safety can be maintained when these patients administered with effective medication and regular monitors by the trained nurses and staffs that will assure safe culture for taking treatment (Sherwood & Mohamed, 2020).

Stakeholder collaboration and consumer engagement: It has been found on this indigenous community health assignment that community and client feedback is significant for healthcare services in terms of ensuring the programs and policies are meeting the requirements of the "Indigenous community”.

Emphasis on patient/client experience of health care
Cultural safety includes the experiences of the Indigenous healthcare services in terms of effective communication, decision-making process, and respectful treatment (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, 2022). Following is the framework of the patient's experience:

Communication: The communication quality between the indigenous patients and the service providers is maintained in a culturally safe environment and it is significant in providing the quality of services to the patients. Respectful communication ensures excellent healthcare to the people. When the respectful communication will be provided to the diabetic patients all it will relates to expressing the feelings, emotions and pains regarding suffering of the diabetes.

Respectful treatment: The staff is provided with the authority to take care of all the patients at a high level. These are adhered to provide respectful treatment to the diabetic patients in the form of using soft and soothing languages that will assure a culturally safe environment to the people.

It has been found that patients' experiences are critical aspects for bringing about a safe culture and when these are assured the health of the individuals gets improved. Access to health care services

It has been found on this indigenous community health assignment that Indigenous people used to have poorer health as compared to non-Indigenous Australians (Titmuss et al., 2019). This is because they do have easy access to healthcare facilities. These disparities in the access for healthcare services used to indicate a problem for cultural safety.

Preventive health issues: This refers to providing immunization to the population so that prevention of disease can be made (Safetyandquality.gov.au, 2022). In addition, screening and some more tests will be helpful in rendering preventive health issues. The immunization refers to the insulin medication for protecting the patients from hiking blood sugar level (Sherwood & Mohamed, 2020). On the other hand when test will be initiated for the diabetes patients it will happen that physician will be aware at what level medication will be given to the patients. This will ensure preventive measures.

Hospital service: Multiple services are there which can be utilized for accessing the hospital's services. They are local wards, emergency wards, and others. However, this reflects the way how long the patients are used to waiting for getting their treatment. When the diabetic people will get treatment and reduced waiting hours, a culturally safe environment is created.

Specialist services: The health service of Australia does provide special treatment to the individual. This assures the culturally safe environment to the people (Titmuss et al., 2019). Indigenous people suffer from extreme conditions of diabetes this will assure improved healthcare.

References
Ahpra.gov.au. (2022). Retrieved 18 May 2022, from https://www.ahpra.gov.au/About-Ahpra/Aboriginal-and-Torres-Strait-Islander-Health-Strategy/health-and-cultural-safety-strategy.aspx.

Aihw.gov.au, (2022). Retrieved 17 May 2022, from https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/australias-health/patient-experience-of-health-care.

Best, O., & Fredericks, B. (Eds.). (2021). Yatdjuligin: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander nursing and midwifery care. indigenous community health assignment Cambridge University Press.

Burrow, S., & Ride, K. (2016). Review of diabetes among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.https://ro.ecu.edu.au/ecuworkspost2013/2226/

Cultural safety in health care for Indigenous Australians: monitoring framework, Summary - Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. (2022). Retrieved 17 May 2022, from https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/indigenous-australians/cultural-safety-health-care-framework/contents/summary.

Cultural safety in health care for Indigenous Australians: monitoring framework, Module 1: Culturally respectful health care services - Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. (2022). Retrieved 17 May 2022, from https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/indigenous-australians/cultural-safety-health-care-framework/contents/module-1-culturally-respectful-health-care-services.

Safetyandquality.gov.au, (2022). Retrieved 17 May 2022, from https://www.safetyandquality.gov.au/publications-and-resources/resource-library/nsqhs-standards-user-guide-aboriginal-and-torres-strait-islander-health.

Titmuss, A., Davis, E. A., Brown, A., & Maple?Brown, L. J. (2019). Emerging diabetes and metabolic conditions among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young people. Medical Journal of Australia, indigenous community health assignment 210(3), 111-113.https://staging.mja.com.au/system/files/issues/210_03/mja213002.pdf