92441 Health And Wellbeing | Assessment Answers

Explanation of closing the gap 

A huge difference exists between the life expectancy of the non-indigenous group and the indigenous group of people. The policy had been implemented to reduce the gap in health services between the non-indigenous and the indigenous group. A number of serious health and social issues were found to affect a larger segment of the indigenous population group. As reported by Hayes et al. (2015), high child mortality rates were seen to be present within the indigenous group. Some of the vulnerable target groups of the population were the women, the children, and the aged population segment. Since 1998, the mortality rate of children has been reduced by 35%. There have been high numbers of cases of chronic diseases within the aboriginal group which have been affecting the overall quality of life.

Significance of the policy on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people 

The policy has produced significant impact upon the aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander social group. The indigenous mortality rates from circulatory, respiratory and kidney disease have been reduced by 35.5% by the implementation of the policy. As reported by Moran (2016), the implementation of the policy has been able to reduce the percentage of smokers from 55 to 45% for people aged 18 years and above. The rate of trachoma has been seen to be high for indigenous children aged 5-9 years. Hence, due to the implementation of the policy the rate have fallen from 14 percent in 2009 to 4.7 percent in 2016 (Salamon et al. 2017). As reported by Moran (2016), the rate of vision impairment within the indigenous Australians has been reduced to six times the rate which was present earlier.

As mentioned by Cumming et al. (2016), the implementation of the policy have been seen to affect in a positive manner some of the major areas of such as chronic disease prevention and management, child and maternal health. It had been found that due to the language and cultural differences the Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait islander people have been seen to suffer from social exclusion which considerably affects their mental health and well being. It has been seen that mental health is a serious concern within the Australian aboriginal and Torres Strait islander people. This could be attributed to a number of factors such as the social exclusion present within the community, the myriad drinking problem, unemployment etc. Some of these factors have been seen to widen the community gap. The policy also aimed to provide equal employment opportunity to each and every person within the community. As mentioned by McCracken et al. (2016), the increased job access and healthcare services helped in reducing the social problems faced by the indigenous group to a considerable amount.

Challenges and barriers in the implementation of the policy 

There are a number of challenges which are faced in the implementation of close the gap policies. Some of which have been described over here such as lack of knowledge regarding the implementation of effective practices which could reduce the gap in health and social care amenities of the indigenous group of people. As mentioned by Boydell et al. (2018), lack of funding for indigenous health programs further affects the success rate. The lack of cultural awareness further affects the success rate of the programs as the healthcare professionals are unable to communicate effectively with the indigenous group of people and understand their grievances. As reported by Foley and Houston (2014), the lack of trust and social gaps prevents the indigenous group of people form communicating precisely with the community care workers and health care professionals which results in some of the health issues of the community being unaddressed. There are very few indigenous groups of people who are actually absorbed in the community and healthcare services.

The lack of indigenous group of people within the healthcare sector further widens the gap as there are a number of factors which act as barriers in the absorption and retention of indigenous group of people. Some of these are lack of support, burnout from time pressures, high staff turnover rate etc. The lack of transport act as additional barriers as the community care workers working in close association with government and federal government agencies could not reach out to the remote parts of the city (Boydell et al. 2018). Additionally, the lack of proper living conditions from the government further acts as a de-motivating factor.

Long term consequences of Close the Gap on health and social determinants 

The Close the Gap services have been implemented by the government with an aim to reduce the grievances faced by the indigenous group of people with regards to equitable access of health and social care services. The CTG services aim to reduce the inequality in life expectancy between indigenous and non-indigenous group by the year 2030. As reported by Foley and Houston (2014), CTG services have been seen to reduce the rate of smoking within the indigenous population group. The CTG policies closely targets upon improving the housing infrastructure as they are closely related to maintaining optimum health within an individual. The CTG services aim at providing adequate amount of housing and food to individuals along with access to free healthcare checkups. As reported by Burke and Korngiebel (2015), the implementation of the CTG policies help in has reduced the rate of child mortality rates by 35%. It has been found that the indigenous group of people have 2.3 times the disease burden to that of non-indigenous group of people. The Australian Government expenditure was not commensurate with the greater healthcare needs. Hence, through CTG services the Australian government needs to spend $1.38 per indigenous group of people compared to $1.00 on non-indigenous group (Carey et al. 2017).

Benefits of Close the Gap on the patient

The CTG services brought about a number of benefits for the patient as she is a 51 year old woman living alone and suffering from diabetes associated illnesses. The leg ulcer of the patient makes it difficult for her mange her daily activities of living. Through, the patient got referred by the Australian Liaison Officer (ALO) to the Australian Medical Services (AMO) they were not able to attend to her need. Therefore, based upon the scarcity of health services the patient could be directly referred to the CTG services (Brown et al. 2015). The CTG service professionals could pay home visits to the patient and provide free of cost healthcare services. The CTG services make access to primary healthcare services easy as it works with multiple healthcare channels. As reported by Brands et al. (2018), working with multiple care channels makes the process of referral further easy.

Services provided by AMS and ALO to the patient 

The ALO works as local health consultant who analyses the basic health details along with the patient history. Here, the patient Judy had been referred to the AMO by the ALO based upon her health condition, as her leg ulcer needed regular dressing treatment. The Australian Medical Services (AMS) work in close association with a number of medical channels, which could cater to the long term health requirements of the patient (Townsend et al. 2018).

Conclusion 

The indigenous group of people are different from the rest of the population with respect to their culture and beliefs. Additionally, the indigenous population group are located at remote locations which make it difficult for the healthcare professionals working within the community centres to reach out to them. In the lack of the basic community services the miseries within the indigenous community have been rising. Hence, the introduction of the Closing the Gap services by the Government could reduce the disadvantage within the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

References 

Boydell, V., Neema, S., Wright, K. and Hardee, K., 2018. Closing the gap between people and programs: lessons from implementation of social accountability for family planning and reproductive health in Uganda. African journal of reproductive health, 22(1), pp.73-84.

Brands, J., Garvey, G., Anderson, K., Cunningham, J., Chynoweth, J., Wallington, I., Morris, B., Knott, V., Webster, S., Kinsella, L. and Condon, J., 2018. Development of a National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Cancer Framework: A Shared Process to Guide Effective Policy and Practice. International journal of environmental research and public health, 15(5), p.942.

Brown, A., O'Shea, R.L., Mott, K., McBride, K.F., Lawson, T. and Jennings, G.L., 2015. A strategy for translating evidence into policy and practice to close the gap-developing essential service standards for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cardiovascular care. Heart, Lung and Circulation, 24(2), pp.119-125.

Burke, W. and Korngiebel, D.M., 2015. Closing the gap between knowledge and clinical application: challenges for genomic translation. PLoS genetics, 11(2), p.e1004978.

Carey, T.A., Dudgeon, P., Hammond, S.W., Hirvonen, T., Kyrios, M., Roufeil, L. and Smith, P., 2017. The Australian Psychological Society's Apology to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People. Australian Psychologist, 52(4), pp.261-267.

Cumming, C., Kinner, S.A. and Preen, D.B., 2016. Closing the Gap in Indigenous health: why section 19 (2) of the Health Insurance Act matters. The Medical Journal of Australia, 205(6), p.283.

Foley, W. and Houston, A., 2014. Closing the gap by increasing access to clinical dietetic services for urban A boriginal and T orres S trait I slander people. Nutrition & dietetics, 71(4), pp.216-222.

Hayes, S.L., Riley, P., Radley, D.C. and McCarthy, D., 2015. Closing the gap: past performance of health insurance in reducing racial and ethnic disparities in access to care could be an indication of future results. New York, NY: Commonwealth Fund, pp. 102-154.

McCracken, K., Marquez, S., Kwong, C., Stephan, U., Castagnoli, A. and Dlouhá, M., 2015. Women’s Entrepreneurship: closing the gender gap in access to financial and other services and in social entrepreneurship. European Parliament, pp.25-34.

Moran, M., 2016. Closing the gap is proving hard, but by working developmentally we can do better, pp.45-65.

Salamon, L.M., Haddock, M.A. and Sokolowski, S.W., 2017. Closing the gap? New Perspectives on volunteering north and south. In Perspectives on Volunteering (pp. 29-51). Springer, Cham, pp56-85.

Townsend, C., White, P., Cullen, J., Wright, C.J. and Zeeman, H., 2018. Making every Australian count: challenges for the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) and the equal inclusion of homeless Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples with neurocognitive disability. Australian Health Review, 42(2), pp.227-229.