Introduction

The Indigenous community is the group of native or first people, who are occurred naturally in any given place or they are original owners of a particular region in contrast to the people who have settled or colonized in the place recently (Chua & Kadirvelu, 2019). These people have their specific languages, beliefs, ethnic groups and practices. Indigenous people have a distinct relationship with their ancestral land and they follow their traditions of the early culture associated with a particular place. They have their diverse concepts related to their development which are based on the traditional values, needs and priorities they have.

In this report, the burden of physical, social and mental disorder is highlight which the Indigenous community of Australia is facing, and provides a critical analysis of the new public health approaches applicability on the health problem of the people. Although these people are small in number, they are facing so many health challenges from a long time which affects their life expectancy and there are many challenges in the delivery of health services for them. The main causes behind this are poverty, poor hygiene, prevalent infections, malnutrition, overcrowding and environmental pollution. These people are mostly depending on the charity of general practitioner for healthcare because medical care is not affordable for them. By increasing awareness, recognition and government commitment these health challenges can be reduced.

The indigenous people and their health challenge

In the present time, nearly 370 million indigenous are living all over the world and facing a low level of health. The main causes behind this are poverty, poor hygiene, prevalent infections, malnutrition, overcrowding and environmental pollution. Around 3 per cent of the total population of Australia is indigenous which is living in remote areas and about 2.5 per cent of them are badly facing social, physical and mental disorders because of alcohol and drugs misuse (Altman & Hawke, 2018). Torres Strait Islander and Aboriginal people are known as indigenous people and they are 2.4 per cent of the total population of the country. They have their unique language, culture, practices and beliefs with their traditional land. Their life hope is 17 to 20 years less than the other people of Australia. In aboriginal men, the expectancy of life is 54 years and in women, it is 61 years (Daly, 2018). One of the major challenges that Australian aboriginal people are facing is a physical, social and mental disorder.

The burden of disease for the community

As per the data, every 1000 aboriginal were living with the diseases or had a premature death, in the year 2011 in Australia (Moon, et al., 2018). The burden of disease experienced by the indigenous or aboriginal people is 2.3 times the rate of non-aboriginal people. Rate of non-fatal burden of disease for indigenous people is 2.0 times of the non-indigenous and in the fatal burden of disease, it is 2.7 times. Most burden causing diseases in aboriginal people are mental disorders, respiratory disease, cardiovascular disease, injuries and cancer. One-third of the total burden of the diseases could be prohibited or prevented by eradication of the contact to the risk factors like alcohol and tobacco use, high blood pressure, physical inactivity and high body mass. 

Some major burden of the disease for the aboriginal people are poverty, poor access to the health services, insufficient education and the cultural pressures due to urbanisation (Gogineni, et al., 2019). Due to poverty, the aboriginal people are unable to take proper medication or the health care services as they cannot afford the payment of hospitals and most of the people from them are dependent on the charitable trust funding. These people have not even access to the health services and some of them are not having any knowledge about the services and healthcare facilities. Most of them are using their ancestral remedies for the cure of diseases which do not work on them. 

Aboriginal people have not sufficient or proper educational knowledge so it is also a burden to them because they have many different languages which they use to communicate with each other in their community (Shield, et al., 2018). Without educational knowledge, they cannot speak the language that other people use to speak and they cannot explain the problem or issue regarding their health to anyone if they approach the hospital or healthcare institute anyway. Aboriginal people have cultural pressure and have their ancestral values to follow and traditional beliefs with their lands. They are afraid of the urbanization as they thought that their culture and beliefs may be lost. So, there are problems in getting the healthcare services from the hospitals and healthcare institutes which are outside of that particular area as the aboriginal people are sometimes unable to go there by their own.

Risk factors for the diseases

The risk factors for the mental disorder are so many like extreme consumption of alcohol, obesity and overweight, insufficient food consumption, insufficient physical activity, smoking and hypertension (McCabe, et al., 2016). aboriginal people start the consumption of alcohol at a very high level to avoid the stress of their life and became change into habit later. Exceeding the recommended level of alcohol is classified as engaging in unnecessary consumption of alcohol. Bodyweight status is calculated in the body mass index, in which two binary variables are classified, first is overweight and second is obesity. 

A smoker is categorised on the daily or occasional basis of smoking and aboriginal people are very active in smoking. Mostly aboriginal people are not doing any physical activities which are an important part of health and body fitness and to avoid diseases. If the minutes of physical activities are less than 150 in a week, it is counted as insufficient. A person should intake fruits and vegetables regularly for good health. But aboriginal people are not able to eat sufficient fruits and vegetables because these are not affordable for them (Brimblecombe, et al., 2018). High blood pressure may cause hypertension in these people and most of them not even know about it due to lack of knowledge. 

Social determinants for the situation of the community

There are some social determinants which affect the health of the aboriginal people. Psychological risk factors are one of them which are occurred differently in aboriginal people and other Australians and these are food insecurity, psychological distress and financial stress (McKay, et al., 2019). The indigenous community is very poor in comparison to other people. Psychological distress is a risk factor for anxiety and depression and there are negative impacts of psychological stress on the health of people in many ways, directly or indirectly. It led a person to the worst poor health by increasing the unhealthy behaviour engagement and became the cause of stroke and coronary heart disease. 

Food insecurity impacts on nutritional intake and it has an array of emotional and social consequences like social exclusion, loss of productivity and impaired learning. The failure of the implement or applicability of various government agreements, instruments and treaties to secure the rights for aboriginal people is also a concern of matter. There are more specific standards are required for the implementation of rights on these people so that they enjoy the fundamental freedom of their health and care (Taylor & Guerin, 2019). 

Critical analysis of the public health approaches 

Public health approach primarily focuses on averting health issues to develops safety and better health for everyone instead of individuals. It is a theoretical model which is extensively accepted by many regulations like education, health and welfare are included. Conceptualising a specific health issue or social problem under a public health outline is prevention. The aim of public health models is to avert any issues from happening by targeting the social determinants or the main risk factors and addressing these at the overall population level instead of risk groups (Eriksson, et al., 2018). This is called an ‘upstream’ step towards prevention.  

There are few steps of a public health approach that can be helpful for the aboriginal people to improve their health and get better care for the diseases they are suffering from. Public health intends to deliver the extreme advantages for the numerous people and aboriginal people can achieve it by a particular process of new public health which is:

Defining or expressing the issue

The issue or problem should be defined by the systematic format of information in which the magnitude, consequences, scope and characteristics are included. It defines the issue in terms like what, who, when, how and where. For the mental health issues, it is important to know the causes and symptoms so the person will able to know about the cautions of the problem (Worden, 2018). If there is an issue of violence occurred against women then it needs to understand that who are the victims and committers, where it happened, and when or how are the committers able to do it. 

Identifying the protective and risk factors

It is very important to identify the risk factors because one can prevent the environment or the issues by knowing about the harmful effects of the alcohol and tobacco to avoid the diseases or mental disorders occurred from them (Lee, et al., 2018). In the case of violence, it is important to understand the causes or reasons and the factors that decrease or increases the risk of happening the violence. This step reviews or identifies the factors which can bring the people on the risk of these mishaps and describe them as either perpetration or victimisation. It also identifies the protective factors which may reduce or stop the violence in any case.

Developing strategies and programs to target the factors

In public health approaches, involvement strategies and programs are designed to target the protective or risk factors (Mendelson, et al., 2018). These involvements evaluated for the learning, process and efficiency of the prevention. Health challenges can be reduced with the implementation of strategies and programs which increase the awareness, recognition and commitment. 

Ensuring extensive acceptance of the preventions by broadcasting the information

Information of the solutions for the preventions of the factors which highly influence the violence, requires the strategies and involvement of the analysis about the aspects which have worked or not (Beatriz, et al., 2018). It builds a frame of suggestion in the prevention and enables to spread the information broadly which helps in the successful involvement of the people in it. The purpose of public health approaches is to expanding by executing promising and effective interventions widely. Monitoring of the effects of interventions and evaluation of their impact and effectiveness concerning its cost is very important.

The public health approaches collectively and individually reduce the mental health problems of the aboriginal community and support the progress of the skills and knowledge to improve the mental health of the people (Davies & Wood, 2018). With the help of public health approaches, people can make actual change in the indigenous or other communities. Most of the organisation often ignore this aspect in overall health but Public health model has highlighted the importance of mental health with the proactive and risks factors across the communities. The public health approaches and involvements can improve mental health in different settings and alternative stages of life. It offers a guide to allow health practitioners to support their mental healthcare. This way public health approaches can be a great help in reducing the health issues in aboriginal people.

Conclusion

Public health approaches are very important for the better healthcare of the indigenous people. It is concluded that in aboriginal men, the expectancy of life is 54 years and in women, it is 61 years. One of the major challenges that Australian aboriginal people are facing is a physical, social and mental disorder. It is provided that the burden of disease experienced by the indigenous or aboriginal people is 2.3 times the rate of non-aboriginal people. Rate of non-fatal burden of disease for indigenous people is 2.0 times of the non-indigenous and in the fatal burden of disease, it is 2.7 times. The risk factors for the mental disorder are so many like extreme consumption of alcohol, obesity and overweight, insufficient food consumption, insufficient physical activity, smoking and hypertension. It is stated before that the failure of the implement or applicability of various government agreements, instruments and treaties to secure the rights for aboriginal people is also a concern of matter. The public health approaches collectively and individually reduce the mental health problems of the aboriginal community and support the progress of the skills and knowledge to improve the mental health of the people. The public health approaches and involvements can improve mental health in different settings and alternative stages of life.

References

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