...Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islanders | April 3 2016 | | | Introduction Australian Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islanders are one the oldest communities of the Australia. About sixty-eight percent of Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders live in the urban area of Australia like Queensland and New South Wales. Rest of the population resides in the remote areas of Australia. The recent surveys show that the population of aborigines and Torres Strait Islander are having a serious health issue of increasing mental illness (Busfield, 2012). Also, the rate of suicide is getting high amongst them. These people have a traditional view towards their health; they don’t just associate it with a person, but with the whole community and spiritual, social and emotional well-being of the whole community. The Australian Government and the health department are working hard to overcome the problem of mental disorder and high rate of suicide amongst the Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islanders (Whitlock, Wyman & Moore, 2014). Factors that are associated with mental disorder and suicide When a person is socially and emotionally unwell, and there is a remarkable change of behavior and thinking it is known as mental illness. According to a health survey in 2008, about thirty-one percent of Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders aged above fifteen years were suffering from psychological distress of high level. Which was twice in comparison to non-aboriginals. This survey measured...
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...Statistics in Australia show that between 14 to 18% of children and adolescents are experiencing mental health issues. Due to this, the estimated forecast for depression, self-harm and suicide in the next generation of Australian adults is particularly alarming. Access to support for families and young people effected seem to have increased considerably over the past 20 years. However, still only 60% of those effected were able, or willing to access health services (Report on the Second Australian Child and Adolescents Survey of Mental Health, 2015, p.6). Why? This essay will point out the necessity for a concentrated effort by government authorities and the extended community to help promote programs to identify mental health issues in their...
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...Aboriginal and Indigenous populations in Australia. The following will identify some of the accepted causal attributes and expression of depression within remote and urban communities. In addition, the identified tools used to assess depression for this review will be examined. Finally, the relationship between the management of mental illness and current programs aimed at supporting indigenous people towards achieving holistic balance will be identified and examined to highlight possible contributions of future research. Aboriginal people have long been subjected to disadvantage in comparison to non-aboriginal people in Australia. (Reference) the roots of disadvantage is widely accepted across literature to flow from colonisation and presently developed into complex issues and traumas shared inter-generationally. These complications have impacted many aboriginal people in relation to their physical health, development, culture and their social and emotional well-being. (Reference). According to the Australian Institute of Health & Well-being (AIHW), the issued report in 2011 found that mental disorders such as depression, anxiety, schizophrenia and substance abuse disorders were identified as being the second highest affliction in the indigenous population. Furthermore, hospitalisation was more frequently engaged upon. AIHW data represented that; aboriginal people were twice as likely to require hospitalisation for a mental illness. Specifically, within groups aged...
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...Tuesday, 12 August 2014 STRUCTUAL ! A lot of health services are not as accessible and user-friendly for Indigenous people as they are for non-Indigenous people, adding to higher levels of disadvantage. Sometimes this is because more Indigenous people than non-Indigenous live in remote locations and not all health services are offered outside of cities. Sometimes health services are not culturally appropriate (do not consider Indigenous culture and the specific needs of Indigenous people). Also, some Indigenous people may not be able to use some services because they are too expensive. (Slide show) Social and emotional wellbeing is a term used to talk about a person’s overall social, emotional, psychological (mental), spiritual, and cultural wellbeing. Factors that are important to social and emotional wellbeing include a person’s. (refer to slide show) Social and emotional wellbeing is often confused with mental health, but it is much broader: social and emotional wellbeing is concerned with the overall wellbeing of the person. On the other hand, mental health describes how a person thinks and feels, and how they cope with and take part in everyday life. It is often seen, incorrectly, as simply the absence of a mental illness. (Slide show) Important determinants of Indigenous health inequality in Australia include the lack of equal access to primary health care and the lower standard of health infrastructure in Indigenous communities (healthy housing, food, sanitation etc) compared...
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...Australian Health Care system is a continuous process and the system change will affect all consumers from all background as well all health professional. Rural and remote areas health care: The shortage of healthcare professionals in rural communities is a global problem that poses a serious challenge to equitable healthcare delivery. In Australia rural areas are underdeveloped in most of these areas (rural and remote areas). About one-third 32 per cent of Australians live in rural and remote areas 29 per cent in regional areas and 3 per cent in remote areas (AIHW, 2008a). Persons in rural communities can suffer more chronic health due to the lack of health care services in rural areas. My review discusses an overview of and the lack of services within these communities. As stated in the a discussion papers on Primary Health Care (www.health.gov.au), geographical location accessibility to and availability of appropriate health services and rural and remote environments including socioeconomic status, lifestyles, and are undoubtedly the hallmark characteristics of rural and remote Australia. The lack of distance and transport are major problems to accessing health care for many rural Australians. Health care systems servicing the needs of rural and remote Australians cannot be seen apart from the transport system that either takes services to the people or brings patients to those services. Health transport may be required at different points within the health care system...
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...influences an individual’s perception of illness and health.” 1000 wrds There are many definitions for 'culture' with the anthropologist Sir Edward Tylor (1871) cited by Ravalico (2006) defining it to mean 'that complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, custom and any other capabilities and habits acquired by a member of society.' Culture also influences how one perceives their health and the idea of what it means to have ‘good health.’ One community group whose culture strongly impacts on individual’s perception of illness and health is the Australian Aboriginal community. Aboriginal Australians have a shorter life expectancy than others (ABS 2008, Shaouli et al 2011) which threatens Aboriginal culture as ‘elders’are the transmitters of Aboriginal culture. Aboriginal people experience worse health and more disease with the latter being three times more than that for the total Australian population (NATSIS 2008 cited by ABS 2008). Culture is one of the many social determinants of health and affects health (Carson, Dunbar, Chenhall and Bailie, 2007). Some indigenous people are fatalistic about their health (Thackrah and Scott 2011) although most can access medical help when needed providing they trusted their medical practitioners (ABS 2008, DATSIPD 2009). Other obstacles include language, lack of public transport and telecommunications (Shaouli et al 2011). Therefore, the impact of culture on individuals’ health is crucial to investigate as Aboriginal culture...
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...(state of being extremely poor) and mental health / illness with reference to primary health care principle and practices. The term mental illness is defined, as a health issues that considerably affects how people thinks, behaves and cooperate with other people (Government of Western Australia Mental Health Commission, 2010). The word poverty means not be able to have basic needs such as food, health care, clothing, and education. Aboriginal community is suffering from different types of issues such as lack of medical and disability services, litter education, high rate of unemployment, broken families and high crime rates due to all this issues the individual lead to mental illness. According to Scaraceno (1997), stated that poverty is one of the main risk factors of progressing mental health illness among Aboriginal community. In Aboriginal community, economic poverty is not the main issue that public are going through however, spiritual, emotional, behaves poverty pass through generation-to-generation, which affects whole community. The outcomes of spiritual, emotional, economic poverty plenty of people develops mental illness which lead them for suicide case (Bowers, 2013). Lack of education on social and health wellbeing cause depression and stress, which becomes worsen when time pass and lead to metal health issues. 2. Identifies and explains tools, techniques and skills used to promote mental health and wellbeing. There are few...
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...national youth mental health foundation whose primary focus is the mental health and wellbeing of young Australians. Headspace tackles the issues that stand in the way of young people access to appropriate health services by placing over 40 help centres around Australia and providing resources and information to professionals that work with young people. Headspace Campaign: The We’ve got your back campaign was developed in April 2012 and is a national awareness campaign that aims to dramatically increase young Australians awareness of everyday mental health issues affecting themselves and their friends. Run over a course of three years, Headspace advertises with 10 posters and 3 television commercials. These advertisements are presented in the form of animation, depicting various mental health issues, ultimately they show that young people can beat mental illness and let them know that headspace is a place for them to seek help. They cover six everyday issues that young Australians struggle with; depression, stress, anxiety, drugs, relationship problems and fitting in. The We’ve got your back campaign arms people with the skills to identify and guide themselves on how to deal with these issues and urges them to seek external help where appropriate. Ottawa Charter: The Ottawa Charter was created at an international conference for health promotion in Ottawa on the 21st of November 1986. Created as a response to growing expectations for a new public health movement around...
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...CQ1) How are priority issues for Australia’s health identified? 1. Account for the differences in health status of men and women in Australia (7 marks) 2. Define the following terms: mortality, morbidity and life expectancy (3 marks) 3. How is epidemiology used to improve the health of Australians? Provide examples (6 marks) 4. Outline two indicators of morbidity. Include examples in your answer (3 marks) 5. Why is it important to prioritise particular health issues in Australia? Include examples in your answer (5 marks) 6. Discuss the limitations of using epidemiology to describe the current health status of a population (4 marks) 7. Compare the health status of Australian males to Australian females (4 marks) 8. Analyse the importance of social justice principles in selecting health priorities in Australia (6 marks) 9. Demonstrate how an illness or disease is selected as a National Priority area (5 marks) 10. What is the role of epidemiology? Explain how epidemiology can be used to determine the priority areas for Australia’s health (4 marks) 11. Explain the main measures of epidemiology. What information do they provide about the current health status of Australians (4 marks) 12. Is Australia a healthy nation compared with the rest of the world? Explain your answer. How can Australia’s health be improved? (5 marks) 13. Distinguish between the terms ‘prevalence’ and ‘incidence’ (2 marks) 14. Identify reasons for Australia’s declining infant mortality rate...
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...Briefly Discuss DSM IV and ICD 10 and list the main categories of clinical disorders. The paper will discuss the main dangers of classification identified as labelling and Stigma which have lifelong implications for those diagnosed with a mental illness. The main advantages of classification such as most appropriate treatment and community education Definition of the Classification system used to Diagnosis Mental illness. As Social workers it important to try and grasp the concepts of how classification of mental illness is arrived at and to have a basic knowledge of the types of mental disorders people can be classified as having so we can understand the basis of a diagnosis. According Mendelson (2001) “Classification refers to ordering of objects into groups on the basis of their relationship. The result is a classificatory system. Nomenclature related to agreed names that have been assigned to disease or syndromes. Taxonomy covers principles and methods underlying the practice of classification. Finally, nosology denotes the conceptual system that supports the strategy of classifying.” ( Mendelson 2001 p. 63) Golightley (2004) text states that classification is an important step towards the diagnosis of a mental disorder. Mental disorder is broken down into various classifications that represent groups or syndromes of symptoms. Thus if a series of symptoms fits into a recognised pattern of behaviour they can be classified as for example, schizophrenia and a diagnosis...
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...Foundations of psychology: Assessment 1A Jessica Sowden Student number 11595390 Word count 462 Question 2. Even though the mental health and wellbeing of CALD individuals in Australia is a national health priority, there is little information about how Australian clinicians incorporate multicultural counselling into their practice. The aim of this study was to get a better understanding of how different types of mental health professionals work effectively with CALD clients. To find out what skills, strategies and behaviours were used by participants and what was effective and not so effective. The study methods involved began by getting 15 mental health professionals from different age and social demographics. The 15 were a mix of clinical psychologists, social workers, counsellors, general psychologists and a psychiatrist. All participants had some sort of experience with CALD clients. Each participant was given a form to complete regarding their age, experience, education, professional context and ethnicity of participants client base. Then an interview was conducted which went for around 45 mins to an hour. It involved one open ended non directive question followed by several prompts if needed. The interview was recorded by tape and later transcribed and analysed by the first and second author. The study found that most participants found it necessary to collect cultural knowledge before...
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...makes a good health care system? A health care system is an organization consisting of individuals and associations delivering health requirements and services towards the society. These health care systems differ in a large variety around the world as certain nation meets a different necessity. In a good health care system, factors such as financial, technological and policies are important and greatly affect the structure of the system. An important role of financial in the health care system is the funds provided by authorities. Funds supported by the government for public hospitals benefits the system where patients are provided with sufficient sickbeds, nurses, emergency wards, ambulance vehicles and food. These subsidies allow hospitals to prevent over flowing of patients left unattended during emergency and casual consultation times. In most general hospitals, subsidised funds allow hospital authorities to hire more nurses which increase the efficiency of patients being tended and decrease the workload on the doctors (Palmer and Short, 2010). Furthermore, the funds are greatly beneficial towards the practices of specialised doctors in certain types of patients such as cancer and other complicated diseases. In a health care system, technological factors are required to improve the quality of resources provided to patients and assist greatly in medical research departments. In most countries, health practitioners increased the adoption of Health Information Technology...
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...hunting for young men to either recruit or kill. Chaman then spent three years in the Nauru processing centre. It was a time of uncertainty, and as with many other asylum seekers, he became increasingly anxious and desperate” 1 Chama’s Story is just one of many for asylum seekers who seek refuge here in Australia. They come to our country expecting safety and freedom alongside the most basic human right. Yet when they arrive they are imprisoned and treated as criminals. It is clear that the laws surrounding this issue are in dire need of change. Australia is a country well known for its diversity of beliefs and religions, it is said to be accepting of others, however, when the topic of asylum seekers is brought forth, the government and media portrays the need for border protection, and “stopping the boats”. This type of hostile political enforcement and negative media coverage only furthers the portrayal of refugees as something fear, in the mind of most Australians. However, although it is not widely broadcasted by the Government or media, Australia has a legal obligation to help asylum seekers under the United Nations Refugee Convention 1951, to which Australia is signatory. According to the United Nations Convention relating to the Status of Refugees, amended by the 1967 Protocol (the Refugee Convention) defines who is a refugee and what basic rights countries must provide to them. According to Article 1 of the Refugee Convention it is stated that “a refugee is...
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...Introduction According to Schweitzer et al (2007) ‘In the 2002-03 program year, Australia granted a total of 12 525 visas under its Humanitarian Program ( Department of Immigration and Multicultural and Indigenous Affairs, 2003). In keeping with the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) guidelines, priority was given to the resettlement of people from Africa, with this group comprising 47% of all humanitarian entrants (Department of Immigration and Multicultural and Indigenous Affairs, 2003). Humanitarian immigrants present higher levels of stress and socialisation problems when compared to other migrant entrants (MacLennan, 1997). A significant portion of humanitarian entrants have ran from circumstances involving great violence and exhibit trauma, economic turmoil, loss of family and social networks, and significant breaks from education or work (Kline &Mone, 2003). Refugees tend to have experienced war and famine (Adams et al, 2004) and these experiences have led them to experience substantially trauma, involving physical and mental torture, sexual abuse, and other distressing conditions (Neuner et al, 2004). According to Farwell (2004), experiencing trauma during war and economic troubles leads to their mental turmoil. Experiencing and witnessing violence is connected to an array of various deliberating psychological effects such as anxiety, depression, substance abuse and post-traumatic stress disorder (Silove, 2001). Psychological distress related to psychosomatic...
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...The Qualitative study of mental health practices with Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CALD) clients was considered first of its kind to explore this issue in Australia (Khawaja & Lathopoulous, 2014, p.11). The key focus was on the approaches used by professionals to determine and develop models for best practice, in an effort to increase the use of available services and improve outcomes for CALD clients. Professionals from various disciplines were chosen by the authors to participate in the study. The research was conducted as a semi structured interview with open one open ended questions, and several prompting questions if required, for further analysis. Further participants were involved until no new topics were offered. The findings of this research both supported and disproved previous work discussed throughout the article, concluding that the view of Dyche & Zayas; Tsang, Bogo, & George (2003) of the importance of and reliance of cultural knowledge was unrealistic, and may lead to cultural stereotype (Thomas & Weinrich, 2004), and that respect and mutual trust (Colins & Arthur, 2010), and flexibility (Cadwell et. al 2008) were more effective. The study concluded that it was much more important to approach CALD clients as individuals. The authors highlighted Stuart’s (2005) views that self-awareness and skills, and building a rapport with the client compensated for any lack of cultural competence. The only difference concluded in the study...
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