Aboriginal Peoples and Forest Land Issues

Question: Discuss about the Aboriginal Peoples and Forest Land Issues. Answer: Introduction Cultural diversity is an important aspect in a healthcare setting. The changing demographics and the interaction between a patient and care provider from culturally different background defines the quality of care delivered. The understanding of the beliefs and values of the individual by the health care provider is important and there is a need for the cultural diversity in a health care set up. Cultural Diversity Cultural diversity is defined as the cultural varieties and differences existing in people coming from different cultural backgrounds (Banks 2015). People from across the globe come together and interact and cross culture communication takes place in personal or at workplace. It is a framework that includes the health, needs and a way a person view the world. This cultural diversity is also important in a health care organization as the diseases and disabilities are different and viewed differently from a persons perspective depending upon their cultural origin. Moreover, a culturally diverse health care workplace would help to eliminate the inequalities in providing the medical facilities to the underserved populations (Purnell 2012). The promotion of cultural diversity by the health care organizations would help in improving the access to health facilities by the ethnic and minority populations. It would also help to address the patients core beliefs, respect for their value system s and helps the health care organization in understanding the culturally determined behaviors. Multicultural health issues have a great impact on the delivery of patient care by the health care professionals. The cultural diversity and linguistic barriers are one of the major cross cultural issues encountered in a health care setting (Paniagua and Yamada 2013). The verbal and non-verbal communication between the patient, their family members and the health care professionals greatly affects the attitude and course of treatment towards the illness. In a case scenario, a health care professional was explaining the course of treatment to the patient. As the patient X was unable to understand the language of the health care professional, it led to the miscommunication due to linguistic barrier raised due to disparities in the cultural background of the patient and the health care professional. Moreover, the body parts and types of illnesses have different meanings in different cultures that impact the clinical presentation and treatment. There are health care services provided to the culturally sensitive clients enhancing the quality of care. In Australia, many services are provided for the culturally sensitive and linguistically diverse backgrounds (Clifford et al. 2015). The multicultural health units by the Local Health District conduct and monitor programs to provide accessibility of health care to the linguistically and culturally diverse communities. This program would help to build the capacity of the health needs and services provided to the culturally diverse backgrounds. The multicultural and bilingual health workers also perform roles in providing the health care to the patients in the NSW health systems. The multicultural health workers provide, planning, research, community development, capacity building, health education, promotion and training. These clinical services would help to promote specific communities who are culturally sensitive and provide them assessment to the new improved health services. They also provide services that would be utilized by the multicultural aged people, women and other culturally diverse community people. The NSW multicultural health communication service would help to ensure the quality of health information to the culturally diverse and sensitive community people (Perry, A., Woodland and Brunero 2015). They work in collaboration with the NSW health service providers in constructing innovative communication models that would help to understand the barriers faced due to culturally disparity in providing the health care services to the culturally diverse and sensitive patients. The multicultural health communication service also provides information about health in a multilingual website that would be utilized by the culturally sensitive clients. The specialists in statewide multicultural health care services helps to develop and implement various services and initiates at the state level to build the capacity of NSW health care system in providing the local advice, information, assessment, training and treatment to the multicultural and diverse clients. They have programs and services provided in the form of interpreter that operates 24/7 to ensure services to the non-speaking clients that are culturally sensitive. They utilize these services in communicating efficiently with the health care providers. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people gives importance to the traditional lands. They have a traditional connection with the land associated with the area and its of paramount importance to them. They have a physical, spiritual, cultural and social connection with the traditional lands they are associated with. They consider that Aboriginal health and well being is associated with the land management and care (Tindall, Trosper and Perreault 2013). They believe that the land management would help them to get jobs and the artworks convey that they have a strong connection with the land that they are related with (Carmichael et al. 2013). The land owns the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and every aspect of their life. The health of land is the main concern in their culture and they believe that it is the fundamental thing that defines the health of their people. They understand the symbiotic relationship between the land and the people and this cultural knowledg e is passed from generation to generation. The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people faced health care issues that had an impact on the delivery of health care to them. The historical health care issues were mortality rate, cardiovascular diseases, cancer, child health and diabetes (Britt et al. 2013). The mortality rate was high in the indigenous people rather than the non-indigenous people. The infant mortality accounts for about 80% dying below the age of one. The overall mortality rate is high in indigenous rather than the non-indigenous people. About 1.95% Aboriginal people is hospitalized as compared to the total Australian population. The infant mortality rate is high due to lack of immunization and there is lack of knowledge gap in people regarding the basic nutrition and in leading a healthy life. The cardiovascular incidence is high in the indigenous people as they lead a sedentary lifestyle and there is lack of physical exercise making them prone to heart problems. They lead a sedentary lifestyle and prefer to consume high quantity of carbohydrate and protein rich foods. The incidence of cancer is high among the indigenous people rather than the non-indigenous. The reasons for the high incidence of cancers are due to the lack of knowledge leading to the diagnosis of the cancer at a later stage. They are less accessible to the treatments available for them. The problem also lies in their attitude towards health, visiting a doctor and participation in screening programs. The child health is a major issue. The infant mortality rate is high as compared to the non-indigenous population. The reason lies in the proper post natal care provided to the babies, their health care assessment parameters like bodyweight and diagnosis for congenital diseases. Type 2 Diabetes is also a major health issue among the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander population. The younger generation was affected by the diabetes and die at a younger age. Some women also die due to gestational diabetes. The health issues faced by the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander population are serious and pose a threat to the population. The mortality rate among the population needs to be dealt at a serious level (Browne et al. 2012). The people should be made accessible to different screening programs, the health care programs providing them knowledge about health. The infants should be made accessible to the different postnatal services, provide knowledge to the mothers about infant care and different immunization processes (Runciman et al. 2012). The population needs to be informed about nutrition and healthy lifestyle so that they would understand the ill effects of the sedentary lifestyle. The practice of physical exercise would help to reduce the problems of cardiovascular diseases and other related risks. The young generation should be made aware through different awareness programs that would help them to be informed about the diseases affecting the young people. The different cance r screening programs and providing knowledge about cancer would help to prevent and increase the prognosis of the diseases. The type 2 diabetes is caused due to sedentary lifestyle. Therefore, the population requires wide knowledge about health benefits and in changing their attitude towards health. Conclusion The cultural diversity issue is a major concern in a health care setting. It needs to be addressed in providing the best quality of care to the patients by the health providers. The patients differ in their attitude, beliefs and values in accepting a disease and the related treatment. Therefore, it is important for the health care professionals to address the cultural diversity issues and ensure the best quality of care to the culturally sensitive patients. References Banks, J.A., 2015.Cultural diversity and education. Routledge. Britt, H., Miller, G.C., Henderson, J., Bayram, C., Valenti, L., Harrison, C., Charles, J., Pan, Y., Zhang, C., Pollack, A.J. and O'Halloran, J., 2013.General Practice Activity in Australia 2012-13: BEACH: Bettering the Evaluation and Care of Health(No. 33). Sydney University Press. Browne, A.J., Varcoe, C.M., Wong, S.T., Smye, V.L., Lavoie, J., Littlejohn, D., Tu, D., Godwin, O., Krause, M., Khan, K.B. and Fridkin, A., 2012. Closing the health equity gap: evidence-based strategies for primary health care organizations.International Journal for Equity in Health,11(1), p.1. Carmichael, D.L., Hubert, J., Reeves, B. and Schanche, A., 2013.Sacred sites, sacred places(Vol. 23). Routledge. Clifford, A., McCalman, J., Bainbridge, R. and Tsey, K., 2015. Interventions to improve cultural competency in health care for Indigenous peoples of Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the USA: a systematic review.International Journal for Quality in Health Care,27(2), pp.89-98. Paniagua, F.A. and Yamada, A.M. eds., 2013.Handbook of multicultural mental health: Assessment and treatment of diverse populations. Academic Press. Perry, A., Woodland, L. and Brunero, S., 2015. eSimulation: A novel approach to enhancing cultural competence within a health care organisation.Nurse education in practice,15(3), pp.218-224. Purnell, L.D., 2012.Transcultural health care: A culturally competent approach. FA Davis. Runciman, W.B., Hunt, T.D., Hannaford, N.A., Hibbert, P.D., Westbrook, J.I., Coiera, E.W., Day, R.O., Hindmarsh, D.M., McGlynn, E.A. and Braithwaite, J., 2012. CareTrack: assessing the appropriateness of health care delivery in Australia.Medical Journal of Australia,197(10), p.549. Tindall, D.B., Trosper, R. and Perreault, P., 2013. The social context of Aboriginal peoples and forest land issues.Aboriginal Peoples and Forest Lands in Canada, pp.3-14.