Indigenous Cultures and Health Behaviors Free-Sample for Studetns

Questions: 1.Critically reflect on your Own understanding and Definition of Health and how this relates to an Aboriginal definition of health. 2.The Second Step on the Cultural Continuum is Brokerage. Using the Week 1 reading by Dr Coffin as a starting point, Critically reflect on what this may mean to you. 3.Some Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People Experience Intergenerational trauma because of Past and Present Government Policies. What Impact could Intergenerational trauma have on the Wellbeing of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island people today?4.Our Personal Values and Beliefs can Impact on how we view and Understand people and Experiences. Identify Some of your Beliefs/Values towards Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People/families.5.What are the Social Determinants of Health? Answers: 1.According to the definition of health provided by World Health Organization, health is the state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity (Organization., 1999). Therefore it can be said that health is not concerned with just the physical well being of individuals, it encompasses societal and spiritual welfare of all the individuals as well to a large extent. Every single human being has the right to good health, irrespective of their lifestyles, race and socioeconomic status, however in reality is never is distributed in equality (Organization., 1999). Health care is not a commodity, it is rather a necessity no human should ever be denied, although in the face of global modernization, there are still sectors within our society that are neglected vastly. However different communities have different definition of health, different principles that they adhere to, and taking aboriginal population under consideration they have a very different take to health than the normal city dwellers (Aspin, Brown, Jowsey, Yen, Leeder, 2012). According to the aboriginal community health is a culmination of physical and mental equilibrium and control over their environments, along with their sense of dignity and respect. Their perception of health and wellbeing is very similar to their lifestyle principles, aboriginal have a collectivist approach to life in contrast to the individualistic trend of non-aboriginal populations (Aspin, Brown, Jowsey, Yen, Leeder, 2012). If we contrast the definition of health in the aboriginal communities to the mainstream idea of health we will find many a contradictions. In the mainstream lifestyle health is concerned as the physical and mental wellbeing of a single individual, they are rarely bothered by the sickness or desperation of others, however in aboriginal people they consider the health and wellbeing of the entire community. According to their rules and principles even if one member of the community is hurting, the community hurts along with him (Durey A. T., 2012). In my opinion, the mainstream society has a lot to learn from these old school cultures, where the definition of health by WHO conveys that health is not just concerned with being physically health, are we successful in incorporating this knowledge in the health care(Aspin, Brown, Jowsey, Yen, Leeder, 2012). Considering my own experiences there still are a myriad of discrimination with people suffering from mental illnesses in our society, when we forget to treat a mental disorder as an object of mockery and disdain rather than what it actually is disease, hence it can be said that time has come for us to change our systems and thinking so that we can also incorporate elements of compassion and empathy like the indigenous communities so effortlessly do. 2.Culture is the very foundation on which our nature, behaviour and lifestyle develops, all that we are and all that we aspire to be leads back to our cultural background. It is not a surprise that the indigenous communities have a very different cultural background to the mainstream population of the Australian communities (Tankard, 2012). Hence, respecting the cultural security while providing health care to the aboriginal population become a necessity. Cultural security serves the purpose of protection from the threat of modernization to the cultural believes and principles. In the aboriginal Australian population cultural security is a mean for them to feel respected and valued in the society, however it is often misinterpreted. Different studies suggest that the indigenous population often feel discomfort and violating when they feel their cultural norms and believes are not secured by their health care service providers. Unfortunately the health care system is not much aware of what comprises of cultural security for this population and how it can be offered to the patients. I have seen many of the organizations treating cultural security only through their recruitment structure. The majority of health care organizations feel just incorporating aboriginal staff will be enough to claim their services to be culturally secure (Van der Leun van der Woude, 2012). However, it does not even begin to address the issue of cultural security. In order to create a culturally secure health care service, they health care service has to incorporate a cultural security liaison officer who belongs to the aboriginal community that they hope to cater so that the officer understands all the aspects of the community and takes measures in accordance with them. Recruiting aboriginal staff that does not have any connection with the aboriginal community they are attempting service, as the majority of Australian health care facilities are doing, is not going to be beneficial. In order to incorporate sustainable cultural security in the health care operations ait is important for to incorporate three key elements, safety, security and awareness. Linking these three key aspects with cultural brokerage can lead to culturally secure health care practice. For instance, including communication and respect can be the turning point in this scenario, that some of the health care authorities is now incorporating. And with these practicing the language barrier that poses the maximum threat to the cultural security of aboriginals can also be overcome (Coffin, 2007). 3.Trauma can be defined as the aftermath of experiencing any violence to catastrophic event that they underwent in the pasty which continues to overwhelm the individuals in the future as well (Waldram, 2014). Trauma is personal and private to everybody, as different people respond to different situations with uniqueness. However, sometimes trauma of an unforgettable magnitude is passed on from generation to generation by the means of parenting and upbringing; this is what intergenerational trauma hints at. The aboriginal population of Australia have gone through trauma for a number of reasons due to colonisation, like the violence they were subjected and the loss of land and loved ones. Apart from that the government policies like forced removal of aboriginal children, a trauma of that magnitude will be passed on undoubtedly. The aboriginal residents still suffer the consequences of this trauma, both the children and the adults. The trauma and the pain that they bear with themselves poses a huge hurdle in front of them restricting them to participate in all aspects of their lives. Considering the children that either experienced the trauma themselves or had a indirect connection to the traumatic event through the parenting practices or stories they might have heard a hundred times, they often cannot succeed to express themselves personally and professionally and never gain the confidence that they have a right to (Kirmayer, Gone, Moses, 2014). The adults however bear much more than that; studies suggest that shame often is the successor of trauma. A traumatic event can lead a perfectly mentally sound human being towards the dark abyss of depression and seclusion. We can only imagine the consequences of the kind of trauma that is passed from generation to generation. Studies suggest that the aboriginal population suffer more from mental disorders than the general population and intergenerational trauma is the biggest contributing factor to it (Aguiar, 2015). In my experience as well I have found majority of indigenous to be reserved and withdrawn, and almost all of that incidences lead back to intergenerational trauma. The individuals who relive the traumatic events of the past everyday fear anything and everything; they fear the government, the society and the normal people. It creates a huge gap between what health care they receive and the health care they receive. At most times they do not seek the help they need and even if they do they cannot communicate to the staff about their grievances. It creates a challenge for the health acre professionals as well, when they cannot elicit enough information about their illnesses from the aboriginal populations. I have seen many health care workers struggle trying to make the aboriginals comfortable enough to share their problems. Another problem they usually face is denial when they aboriginals object to anything they are asked to do while the care and treatment needs suffer the consequences. 4.Aboriginal people have been treated differently since the start of the westernization of the world. They have deep rooted cultural believes and traditions that they fought o retain till their last breaths (Passey, D'Este, Sanson-Fisher, 2012). Adaptation might be the key to life, however the aboriginal population have given up everything for their will to not adapt. And as they could never really blend in to the changes all around them they have been looked down upon in the past and they are looked down upon even now (Passey, D'Este, Sanson-Fisher, 2012). A big failure of modernization is that it could not obliterate our judgmental believes, our modernized society still lags behind in equity and liberation(Panaretto, Wenitong, Button, Ring, 2014). I have seen from the childhood indigenous people being treated different in our locality, in my school and in health care facilities as well. Growing up I used to believe the traditions and believes that the indigenous people followed were too backward and superstitious. I thought they do not have the desire to blend in, they have this huge burden of old trauma and mistrust in them that would never allow them to see past their misconceptions. However I would be quick to admit that the most of the misconceptions were mine, in the course of this semester I learned a lot about the aboriginals and their lives. In learned about their customs and their rituals and learned the meaning behind it, their collectivist values and lifestyles. I learned about their triumphs and their loss and how that shaped their characters and behaviours. Their collectivist living style inspired me, I was moved to see how compassionate and empathetic they are and how the sorrow of anyone of their community is supported by all the members without being questioned and judged. And I questioned myself our society has adapted so much to the changes, the transformations, the revolutions, at what point we left our empathy and compassion behind. In my opinion time has come for us to embrace their differences that they so readily do and learn from each other so that there is equity in the society in place of blatant discrimination. 5.There are a number of social determinants that can undermine the heath and wellbeing of the aboriginal populations. The very first determinant that demands attention in this scenario is the racism. Racial discrimination continues to be the most foreboding type of challenge in receiving quality health care (Kelaher, Ferdinand, Paradies, 2014). Studies suggest that the most of the discrimination and the societal stigmas and prejudice lead to a vastly lacking health care system for the indigenous Australians. The loss of land also is a huge burden for the aboriginal people to handle. The granting of land for this communities is much lesser than what they require and it incorporates a detrimental effect on their health and wellbeing. Their history of dislocation and dispossessions has led to trauma that the aboriginal population could not overcome even if they wanted to. The stress and aftermath of that violence and brutality still restricts them to take full control of their lives, i t affects their health both physical and mental and their standard of lifestyle (de Leeuw PhD, 2012). It can be sated that the there are a lot of factors that poses a challenge for the aboriginal to join the main stream society and regain the control they deserve over their lives. Although the society is changing it is not enough. There is need for stricter policies that provides the aboriginal population liberation and independence and along with them lends a supportive hand towards the so that they are no longer denied access to the mainstream society and the privileges associated with health and good living (Artuso, Cargo, Brown, Daniel, 2013). Bibliography Aguiar, W. . (2015). 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