Reflective Writing 1

Introduction
What do we actually mean by aboriginal holistic health and what are the ways in which it affects

strategies, policies, and programs I begin this study by defining few terms; the Aboriginal community

formed that controls the issues which directly impact their community. Wholistic health it is not only

the matter of physical health of an individual but it is the matter and concern of the society and

community where he lives.(Canberra, 1981) In order to take care of the physical well-being of an

individual along with the society and community, a potential health strategy has been introduced which

entirely focus on the healthy lifestyle to prevent sudden deaths by improving the health status.

Potential Health strategy

As per my study and observations following are the objectives: Reducing spreading of non-infectious

diseases and health risk factors; decreasing infant mortality by improving the health of mother and

child; providing equal opportunities to all individuals to access all the healthcare services.

I would suggest that by organizing public health awareness camps proper knowledge of these policies

must be given, policies related to healthy diet, knowledge improvement of inhabitants with respect to

creating a significant balanced diet which improved and maintains health levels, providing healthy and

nutritious food in all the educational institutes and organizations (Kite and Davy, 2015). Some

important tasks need to be performed to achieve these objectives.

Introducing health programs in schools and offices like 3 a day in which an individual must

consume at least three healthy fruits in a day to increase their immunity levels. The concept of cultural

safety and collaboration is also one of the major outcomes of implementing the policy. It has been seen

that in few places aboriginal people have experienced social, cultural and colonization assimilation

through various programmes conducted and introduction of policies. In this context of delivery of
Reflective Writing 2

healthcare there are few unsafe cultural practices which has defined as an action that is disempower,

diminish or demean the cultural identity and well- being of an individual.(Cooney, 1994)

Policy outcomes

I completely agree that by providing equal opportunities to all individuals for having access to

healthcare services provided to them will lead to increase in life expectancy at birth, reduction in

mortality from non- infectious diseases for adults below the age of 64, improvement in health

conditions of children, decreased morbidity with infectious decease, equally balancing the funding

among public and private sectors of healthcare, giving proper treatment to outpatients (Funston, 2013).

I would say that to achieve these outcomes certain actions must be taken like restricting alcohol

consumption and also restricting the amount of Trans acids used in various products, and to decrease

the infant mortality, I would suggest that parents must be informed timely about the impact of using

addictive products at the time of pregnancy and importance of mothers milk for childs health.

Developing action plans for reducing environmental pollution as it is the most hazardous thing for an

individual's health causing traumatism and mortality. Reduction in infectious disease can only be done

by providing updated information on treatment of such diseases and what preventive measures must be

taken should also be defined (LoGiudice, 2016).

As per my observations, in order to implement the policies successfully it is important to ensure the

availability of culturally safe environment. It has been observed that there is a strong relationship

between a nurse and a patient but the impact of this relationship will not be seen until and unless the

policies and structures are not culturally safe. As per NCCC(National Centre for Cultural Competence)

the culturally competent organisation consists of set of structures, principles and values. There are set

of person who still does not have proper access to healthcare services provided by the government due

to which these set of people often do not get timely medications and they die. By implementing the

strategy which I have chosen there will be an improvement in health outcomes of the indigenous
Reflective Writing 3

population thus leading to filling the gap between indigenous and non-Indigenous (McWhirter et al.,

2015). This can be done by eliminating the inequality and thus introducing the measures to ensure

equal opportunities for everyone. To achieve this objective I will take the help of local government to

arrange promotional activities for good health, prevention of disease , early diagnosis of disease and

different health care services provided to them and all this will be done irrespective of status, place

where the person lives, age, gender etc in order to ensure the equality, proper cooperation and

coordination is a must among all the local government bodies, public sectors, private sectors they

should come up with improving the accessibility of these promotional activities introduced and also

timely monitoring the general public health status. What all must be done to reduce the gap can also be

ensured by making an action plan under which proper cooperation between media, journalists, editors

must be there to spread the information related to healthcare camps (Practitioners, 2016).

The government must allocate proper funding to these camps and to the hospitals for improving the

facilities provided to patients because sometimes it happens due to non-availability of funds patients

suffers a lot in terms of shortage of beds, medications, cleanliness and other major facilities so to

ensure the healthy life style government must allocate proper funds. Organizing activities to inform

groups about the health issues taking into consideration the age and gender as people from different

genders have different body requirements so their health issues will also be different likewise; people

from different age groups will react differently in different situations, cultural safety, collaboration,

self-determination. Aboriginal people have seen self-determination as a means of regaining control on

the matters of management which directly impacts them and their cultural identities. It is at the same

time may be a matter where such people can take advantage to control the situations as per their

requirements through self-determination and can be easily negotiated and agreed upon quickly.(Stout &

Downey

I would implement the policies which promote a healthy choice in society, making these choices easier
Reflective Writing 4

for an individual to access. This can be done by organizing public health awareness camps under which

proper knowledge of these policies must be given, policies related to healthy diet, knowledge

improvement of inhabitants with respect to creating a significant balanced diet which improved and

maintains health levels (Watson, Young and Barnes, 2013). Healthy and nutritious food is made

available in all educational institutes and organizations. Proper cooperation and coordination is a must

among all the local government bodies, public sectors, private sectors they should come up with

improving the accessibility of these promotional activities introduced and also timely monitoring the

general public health status (Practitioners, 2016). What all must be done to reduce the gap can also be

ensured by making an action plan under which proper cooperation between media, journalists, editors

must be there to spread the information related to healthcare camps.

Focused self-determination must be there in order to achieve all the objectives of the policies as there

are so many factors which are affecting negatively and will not let the implementation a success.

Conclusion
In this study I have focused on few parameters mainly introducing the policy keeping in mind the

current status of the people and making objectives which when implemented will give positive

outcomes. As there are so many people living in one place and each and every one should be treated

equally and all the services provided must be given to each and every segment of the population so task

has been introduced which will be performed by all the departments be it public or private taking the

help of local government and media, editors, journalists so that awareness must be spread across all the

segments. If my policy is introduced then there will be no segment left who will not be given proper

medications and healthcare services.

Reflective Writing 5

References
Funston, L. (2013). Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Worldviews and Cultural Safety

Transforming Sexual Assault Service Provision for Children and Young People. International

Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 10(9), pp.3818-3833.

Kite, E. and Davy, C. (2015). Using Indigenist and Indigenous methodologies to connect to deeper

understandings of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples quality of life. Health Promotion

Journal of Australia, 26(3), p.191-195.

LoGiudice, D. (2016). The health of older Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. Australas J

Ageing, 35(2), pp.82-85.

McWhirter et al., (2015). Genomics in research and health care with Aboriginal and Torres Strait

Islander peoples. Monash Bioeth. Rev., 33(2-3), pp.203-209.

Practitioners, T. (2016). Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health. [online]

Curriculum.racgp.org.au. Available at: http://curriculum.racgp.org.au/statements/aboriginal-and-

torres-strait-islander-health/ [Accessed 4 Oct. 2016].

Walter, M. (2016). Social Exclusion/Inclusion for Urban Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander

People.SI, 4(1), p.68.

Watson, K., Young, J. and Barnes, M. (2013). What constitutes ?support? for the role of the Aboriginal

and Torres Strait Islander child health workforce?. Australian Health Review, 37(1), p.112.

NCCC, cultural safety and self-determination

http://www.naho.ca/jah/english/jah05_02/V5_I2_Cultural_01.pdf