Analysing health issues using a Social Determinants of Health

Question: Discuss about the Analysing health issues using a Social Determinants of Health Framework in Aboriginals. Answer: Introduction Although there has been a tremendous change in the health plus the wellness of Australians in recent years, indigenous Aboriginal people remain more disadvantaged in the long term health plus social and economic outcomes, relative to the non-indigenous Australians. The indigenous Aboriginals experience high rates of poverty, poor housing, racism and discrimination, poor or lack of transport and other social plus health issues compared to the non-indigenous Australians (Trewin and Madden, 2005). Such disparity in health plus social outcomes is usually the result of a complex array of cultural, environmental, geographical and socioeconomic factors that impact the health of indigenous Australians. This essay discusses how cardiovascular diseases (CVD) have affected the Aboriginal or Torres Strait Island Australians. It also addresses the determinants of health problems and their impacts on such population and things that should be done or have already been done to address the social det erminants of health problems Cardiovascular disease is a class of diseases involving the heart plus the blood vessels. Examples of cardiovascular diseases include congenital heart disease, high blood pressure, stroke, venous thrombosis and heart failure among others. The underlying risk factors associated with cardiovascular diseases are being obese, smoking, diabetes, poor diet and high blood cholesterol to mention just a few. Many of the indigenous Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islanders are deeply affected by cardiovascular diseases. In the year 2012 to 2013, about 15% of Indigenous Australians were reported to have CVD (Aspin and Brown 2012). About 5% of them had some heart, vascular or stroke diseases and 7% had high blood pressure. In 2012 to 2013, 15% of these Indigenous Aboriginals with CVD were women and 10 % men. Heart disease was prevalent among the indigenous Australians in remote setups relative to the non indigenous living in urban centers. In the year 2013 to 2014, about 1.5 times of non indigenous males were admitted to hospitals less than 2.0 times of non indigenous females. In all the age groups excluding 75 years and over, Indigenous Aboriginals were more hospitalized contrary to their counterparts, non-indigenous Australians. However, in 2013, CVD was the primary cause of death among the Aboriginal and Indigenous Australians. More deaths were witnessed for male Aboriginals with ischemic heart diseases than females. Surprisingly, a cerebrovascular disease caused more deaths among the indigenous Aboriginal females compared to the males. Consequently, Indigenous Aboriginals were 1.5 times more likely to die of cerebrovascular heart diseases and ischemic heart diseases compared to the non indigenous Australians (Aspin and Brown 2012). To sum it up, indigenous aboriginals were more prone to die from cardiovascular diseases at a younger age compared to the non indigenous people. Socioeconomic determinants of health among the indigenous Aboriginal population and the need to be taken Housing Housing circumstances such as homelessness, House tenure, and overcrowding have a great impact on the health and well-being of a person. The aspect of congestion occurs together with other factors including poor sanitation and water quality which are connected with higher risks of transferring infectious diseases, exposure to dangers like smoking indoors and higher risks of injuries at home (Angus, 1997). Insecure housing plus overcrowding is also associated with other factors such as stress plus adverse educational chances for learners like school attendance and educational continuity. Besides, homelessness is greatly linked with poor health. For the case of overcrowding, the Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islanders experience homelessness in different ways such as being extracted from traditional lands. Although there have been some improvements regarding overpopulation as well as home ownership for the Aboriginal Straight Torres Australians, the outcome for the indigenous Australians remains very small compared to the non-indigenous Australians. The National Affordable Housing Agreement aims at ensuring that every Australian has access to cheap, safe, as well as sustainable houses that will lead to socioeconomic participation. Almost a half of these agreement outcomes focus particularly on the indigenous Aboriginal people. The National Partnership agreement on remote Indigenous program is meant to address the issues of overpopulation, poor housing conditions, and homelessness as well as house shortages in remote setups. Under this umbrella, the government of Australia has commixed over $5 billion to help solve the issues of housing (Aspin and Brown 2012). Also, the government of Australia addresses the problem of accommodation among indigenous people by providing support for hous e ownership via financial literacy aid as well as assisted loans via the Indigenous Business Australia. Transport Transport is the primary determinant to access health care, goods services as well as support to the Aboriginals in maintaining societal obligations to traveling for the family commitments (Raphael and Swan, 1997). Aboriginal as well as Torres Strait residents face some hindrances to accessing necessary health care including logistics, cost plus the reliability of transport choices. Such challenges have a great impact on the socioeconomic status of healthcare service users who must travel long distances while sick, alongside carers who provide antenatal care services for people with disability, young children or even patients with chronic health conditions, substance use problems or just mental problems (Ospina, n.d.). However, limited or lack of transport impacts on the ability to access professional health care especially for patients with chronic diseases or health condition. During 2013, 90% of Aboriginal Islander primary health care services provided transport to people as part of health related plus community programs. According to Leonard et al. (2002), some of the approaches that have been undertaken to ensure the health of people include support for professional services flying into remote areas. In the Aboriginal people, patient transport service needs to be provided along with ambulance services and hospitals and voluntary groups. Also, the Queensland health has provided the cardiovascular outreach program to deliver a number of healthcare services in areas with limited to professional service access. Employment Participation in the labor force has significant consequences for the health, social as well as emotional wellbeing plus living standards of people. On the contrary, being physically disabled or sick or even nursing an individual in bad health acts as a hindrance to the employment participation. Besides the poor health outcomes, some of the key reasons for the indigenous Aboriginals having low labor force rates are low levels of education plus training, a small degree of job retention and experiences of segregation (Raphael and Swan, 1997). To reduce the unemployment rate especially in the indigenous remote areas, the Australian government needs to consider the proposal made by Forest review that was commissioned with the aim of creating innovative plus effective ways to address the enormous gap in the employment sector. Under the indigenous advancement program, the Australian government has allocated funds to the economy, jobs and land program. This program helps to support adults into employment, fosters indigenous business plus helps the indigenous Australian people generate social benefits plus income through the efficient use of lands. Another program job services Australia has been set to help qualified job seekers overcome vocational/non-vocational hardships that might abhor them from seeking and maintaining a job (Penm 2008). Education High levels of education such as universities are connected with improved health outcomes through an excellent health literacy as well as good prospects for the social and economic status that boosts great access to both safe plus healthy housing, good lifestyle such as feeding on a balanced diet (Henderson et al., 2007). Research conducted in America showed that death rate declined at a swift pace for people with more education, with a seven-year increase in life expectancy for the college education learners. On the same note, International literature holds that improvements in children mortality connected with high levels of maternal education as well as attributed such to different factors such as greater knowledge and willingness to access healthcare services (Santow, 2006). Osborne (1991) on the other perspective argues that adult learning is a great tool for achieving better health, education plus economic outcomes. However, longitudinal studies show that people aged 35 years and above and take part in post-school engage in healthier behaviors such as reduced alcohol intake, improved social plus emotional wellbeing and increased levels of workouts. Henderson et al. (2007) holds that learning is supposed to be for those unemployed or those economically inactive so as to lower heath inequalities. Further research also points out that the value of education; especially in midlife is good for those with poor education at a time of leaving learning centers, with the qualifications attained at such life stage providing an effect against the heart diseases. However, disability plus lack of financial stability are some of the impediments for the indigenous Aboriginals completing post-school qualifications. There is a strong connection between parental educatio n attainment, formal education attainment plus measures of heath literacy In a social survey conducted in 2008, indigenous parents sought ways that would help their children finish year twelve like support from families, school, and friends, grants to assist with affordability, career guidance plus learning centers being fit for culture or beliefs. Multifaceted techniques addressing home learning environment, pathways to employment, access to education and family are needed to improve the outcomes of education. The territory and state governments are responsible for administering government learning institutions as well as provide funding to such institutions. Ospina (2014) holds that the Australian government has allocated funds to help nongovernment schools with a vast number of indigenous borders, particularly from remote regions. Lastly, the youth connection program has committed to provide individual services especially to the indigenous communities Conclusion This essay has discussed a broad spectrum of issues. It seeks to show the link between lower social and economic status plus poverty as well as the health outcomes of the indigenous Aboriginal Strait Island people compared to their counterparts non-indigenous Australians. Throughout the essay, we have discussed how education, employment, housing, and transport have been of significant impact to the health of Aboriginal and Torres Australians. All in all, the paper shows the extent of which indigenous Aboriginals have been deprived their basic rights through inequalities mentioned above relative to the non-indigenous who are more educated, have professional jobs and enjoys government privileges References Angus, S. (1997). Promoting the health of aboriginal and Torres Strait Island people: Issues for the future. Promotion education, 4(3), 22-24. Aspin, C., Brown, N., Jowsey, T., Yen, L., Leeder, S. (2012). Strategic approaches to enhanced health service delivery for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people with chronic illness: a qualitative study. BMC health services research, 12(1), 143. Hayman, N. E., Wenitong, M., Zangger, J. A., Hall, E. M. (2006). Strengthening cardiac rehabilitation and secondary prevention for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. Medical Journal of Australia, 184(10), 485. Henderson, G., Robson, C., Cox, L., Dukes, C., Tsey, K., Haswell, M. (2007). Social and emotional wellbeing of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people within the broader context of the social determinants of health. In Beyond bandaids: exploring the underlying social determinants of Aboriginal Health (pp. 136-164). Cooperative Research Centre for Aboriginal Health. Leonard, D., McDermott, R., O'Dea, K., Rowley, K. G., Pensio, P., Sambo, E., ... Best, J. D. (2002). Measuring prevalence: obesity, diabetes and associated cardiovascular risk factors among Torres Strait Islander people. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health, 26(2), 144-149. Osborne, B. (1991). So Youve Been Appointed to a Torres Strait School: A Thumbnail Sketch of the Socio-Historical Context of Torres Strait Education. The Aboriginal Child at School, 19(05), 19-28. Ospina, M. B. (2014). Epidemiology and Use of Health Services for Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease among Aboriginal Peoples in Alberta: Insights into Aboriginal Peoples Respiratory Health. Peiris, D. P., Patel, A. A., Cass, A., Howard, M. P., Tchan, M. L., Brady, J. P., ... Brown, A. (2009). Cardiovascular disease risk management for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in primary health care settings: findings from the Kanyini Audit. Med J Aust, 191(6), 304-309. Penm, E. (2008). Cardiovascular disease and its associated risk factors in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples 2004-05. Raphael, B., Swan, P. (1997). The mental health of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. International Journal of Mental Health, 26(3), 9-22. Santow, G. (2006). Infant mortality among Australian Aboriginals. The Lancet, 368(9539), 916. Trewin, D., Madden, R. (2005). The health and welfare of Australias Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. Canberra, Australian Bureau of Statistics. Walter, M. (2016). Social exclusion/inclusion for urban Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. Social Inclusion, 4(1). Zubrick, S. R., Dudgeon, P., Gee, G., Glaskin, B., Kelly, K., Paradies, Y., ... Walker, R. (2010). Social determinants of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander social and emotional wellbeing. Working together: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander mental health and wellbeing principles and practice, 75-90.