• Subject Name : Nursing

How the Policy of Assimilation 1961 Has Impacted the Overall Health Status of Australian Indigenous Men, Women and Children

Table of Contents

Step 1.

Step 2.

Step 3.

Step 4.

Effects of racism in the mental health of Aboriginal men.

Effects of racism in the mental health of Aboriginal pregnant women and their unborn babies

Effects of racism in the mental health of Aboriginal children.

Role of government and nurses to close the gap.

References:

Step 1

Throughout the ice ages of the Pleistocene, vast ice sheets covered the whole earth. Sea levels were dropped to 120 meters and exposed the broad areas of flooded lands. Vegetation, animals, birds, and insect colonized the lands over time and these lands represented as a single landmass for Tasmania and Australia (Bennett, 2020). As the aboriginal people moved across the huge landscape of Australia, they found some new materials, resources, and foods that changed with the seasons and latitudes. The indigenous peoples enjoyed their better health in 1788 than most people living in Europe. They did not suffer from measles, influenza, smallpox, and many other common diseases' of the 18th century (Boyer, 2019). Indigenous peoples are likely to suffer from hepatitis B and some bacterial infections.

Step 2

The health status of Australia's Torres Strait Islander peoples and the aboriginals is poor, comparing to the rest of the Australian population. All the age group bellows 65 years, the age-specific ratio of deaths for indigenous Australians are twice than the non-indigenous population. Indigenous peoples who are basically known as the 'Fourth World' are found in various countries. The health status of these people is highly affected by the country in which they are located (Chartrand, 2019). Australia, as a first-world, it failed to manage its health terms for the indigenous population. Australian government aimed to close the gap between indigenous and non-indigenous Australians within a generation. The government also targeted to reduce the mortality rates for the indigenous children under five in the Australian Government meeting held in 2007. The campaigns to narrow the gap between the health of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and the other citizens of Australia and, in the present time, the contribution of Australian health sectors towards the aboriginal peoples are widely welcomed. The concentration on the relativities of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health compared to mainstream health can improve the obvious health status of the indigenous people of Australia.

Step 3

The assimilation policy was an absorbing policy of Aboriginal peoples into Australian society through the process of removing the aboriginal children from their families to destruct the Aboriginal society. The Aborigines Protection Board officially adopted this assimilation policy in 1951. This board increased the established practice of removing Aboriginal children with fair skin from their families (Cousins and Nieuwenhuysen, 2020). The children were placed in an institution where they could be trained to take the correct place in Australian society. Assimilation Policies offered that the indigenous peoples could enjoy the same living standard as the other Australians if they adopted the customs and beliefs of Europe. Protection and assimilation policies impacted the indigenous peoples included the separation of education for the Aboriginal children. It also includes the factors of town curfews, no social security band, a state guardianship to all the Aboriginal children, and passed laws to segregate indigenous people for separate living areas (Cunneen, 2020). Though the indigenous peoples are not equally accepted in the society and the essential belief of the indigenous people in inferiority and their culture underestimates the objectives of the Assimilation policy led the policy to its failure.

Step 4

Effects of Racism in The Mental Health of Aboriginal Men

The indigenous peoples are experiencing racism in most factors in Australia. The initial engagement between the indigenous peoples and the Australians are arguing with government policies and legalization (Dunstan et al., 2020). The government policies discriminate against human rights and are deprived of the opportunity to participate in Australian society as equal citizens for the indigenous peoples. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples are experiencing direct and indirect racial discrimination in many sectors. Direct racial discrimination is identified when someone is treated less fairly than someone in a similar situation because of their color, race descent, and immigrant status. Racism is an unfair and avoidable disparity in resources, capacities, or opportunities on the religious, ethnic, and cultural differences (Ellinghaus and Wickes, 2020). It can be said if a man experiences racial discrimination, then the main would more likely to experience behavioral and emotional difficulties and come up with suicidal thoughts. These things would force the man to attempt suicide and come up with a huge disadvantage of racism. Racism can force an Aboriginal man not to participate in healthy activities like different sports and do not even let them sleep as it makes a huge impact on the mental health of the particular man. An aboriginal man can start to take drugs, alcohol, and other activities to manage their stress and self-regulation (Henrich, 2019). This racism can affect a man by giving them a long term effect of Trauma and engage them in self-destruction and can develop lifestyle diseases, and they are more likely to be entered into the criminal justice system. Suicide rates for Indigenous Australians are more than double from the general population. Recent reports say that almost one in three aboriginal adults is reported as a high level of psychological distress. On the impacts of racism, the Australian Human Rights Commission said that racism is more than words cannot define racism, but it includes all the barriers to prevent peoples from enjoying equality and dignity for the human race. Racism actually defeats the people from maintains their mental health and comes up with a bunch of stress. In the policy of assimilation, the Australian government tried to adopt the culture and peoples from the Torres Strait Island, but they failed to accompany their culture with them and failed to give them proper equality as the other Australians (Jackson, 2020). The direct and persistent victims of racism are more likely to experience the negative physiological factors, and this racism factors also affect the indigenous peoples who are playing sports at professional levels. They are not revealing their identity in the field to reduce the chances of being bullied and harassed by the racist players. They also face diversity and inequality in the sports field, and more frequent exposure in the different working fields can impact the multiple domains of an individual's health. Reducing and Tackling racism in different fields can help the Aboriginal peoples to experience better behavior from the other Australians and also help them to be equal with other peoples.

Effects of Racism in The Mental Health of Aboriginal Pregnant Women and Their Unborn Babies

Racism is one of the most negative psychological causes of poor mental health among Aboriginal Australian women. Sensitive and culturally safe mental health can be beneficial for women during their pregnancy. Aboriginal women are experiencing racism in different development periods of Australia as well as they fear to come up with their problems due to the fear of discrimination (Kent-Wilkinson, 2019) . Experiencing racism during pregnancy can increase the stress levels and compromises the mental health of the mother, which eventually affects the development of the future child. Research on the impact of racism on the health of Aboriginal pregnant women in Australia is limited. Policies are aimed to reduce the inequalities among the aboriginal and non-aboriginal Australians. The health sector is now focused on the individual health of every aboriginal woman, and they might target the psychological issues of poor mental health during pregnancy. Racism hits the mental health at the community level and extends the stress and other negative psychological effects among the pregnant women of Aboriginal Australians. This stress factor can easily reflect the physical and mental health of the future baby. The Australian government should create design and models in the health sector to reduce the psychological stresses in the period of pregnancy, and they should increase self-empowerment and the sense of personal control among this population for giving a better future to the next generation. The government should monitor the micro-social policies to reduce the effect of racism on the community of Aboriginal Australians. The various micro policies can reduce racism in Australian society if they are implemented in the right way and process. Racism can be defined as a set of the system which includes all the factors of attitudes, practices, and beliefs, and the racism starts when ethnic, racial differences are increased among two communities, which might affect the political representation, employment and various sectors for the Aboriginal peoples of Australia.

Effects of Racism in The Mental Health of Aboriginal Children

Childhood is a time of rapid development of the children. Mental health is established in the early life of the children. It helps the children with the foundation for all the aspects of development, including their educational, social, emotional, and cognitive development. In the Aboriginal Australian community, the parents are also affected by the racism factors of Australia. It eventually affects the mental health of the children (Martin, 2020). The children are facing racism in various sectors of Australia, and it definitely breaks their mental health and forces them to take drugs and consume alcohol. And for this reason, they are suffering from different diseases and experience the negative impacts of mental health in their childhood. Assimilation policy also allows the Australian government to take the children from the Aboriginal communities and teach them the ethics and believes which actually help them to participate in the first world community, but the children are facing pressure from an early age because they are detached from their families, and this affects their mental health and leads them to face different negative psychological issues.

The Australian government should support these children to increase their mental well being, and they should stop racism in different sectors and raise the self-empowerment for the peoples and the children to reduce the suicide cases and psychological disorders among the Aboriginal peoples of Australia (McGrath, 2020) .

Role of Government and Nurses to Close the Gap

To close the gap between aboriginal and first-world people, the Australian government launching a national registration and a scheme of accreditation among 37 health organizations, including the Torres Strait islander health organization and the working entities, to imply the Australian regulation scheme for the health practitioner. Australian government intends to do this work because they want to develop the health sector as per the Aboriginal Australians, and they also want to reduce the suicide attempts among the children and young of the community. This development strategy will be developed by a close partnership with Aboriginal health experts and organizations (Osmond, 2019). The group actually ensures the better performance of health sectors for the aboriginal peoples, and they also manage the safety culture and reduce the threat of racism in the health sectors to offering an enjoyable healthy life for the aboriginals of Australia and this changes help them to be equal with other Australians, enriched by the strong culture, justice, and dignity for living in a healthy atmosphere (White, Barwick and Meehan, 2020).

The group is now focusing on various facts to achieve desirable outcomes. The group is trying to come up with a safe, cultured workforce in the health sectors supported by the consistent standards, guidelines, and codes among all the professionals and the co-workers of the health sector (Price and Rogers, 2019).

They are using their leadership skills to influence other people to maintain the culture of the health sectors and also help them to understand the disadvantages of racism in the health sectors to achieve the desired goal.

The group encourages the community of Aboriginal peoples and the Torres Strait islanders to participate in the working procedures of the health sectors to increase the development of safety culture in the health organizations.

The groups ensure safe culture and proper designs for the aboriginal peoples to interact with them, which eventually reduces the factors of racism in the health workforce (Sheppard et al., 2019). They are ensuring better services and good culture towards the Aboriginal peoples and Torres Strait islanders to increase the participation of the aboriginal communities in different national schemes.

The nurses and the health professionals are ordered to maintain the safety culture in the health sectors for the aboriginal peoples, and as a nurse, I would like to interact with the peoples and cultures of the Aboriginal communities to close the gap. I also like to come up with some motivation to heal the mental health of the children of the community and try my level best to provide the best services towards the peoples, which eventually help them to overcome the fear of discrimination in the community.

References for Aboriginals and The Mining Industry

Bennett, S., 2020. White politics and black Australians. Routledge.

Boyer, Y., 2019. Moving Aboriginal health forward: Discarding Canada’s legal barriers. Purich Publishing.

Chartrand, V., 2019. Unsettled times: indigenous incarceration and the links between colonialism and the penitentiary in Canada. Canadian Journal of Criminology and Criminal Justice, 61(3), pp.67-89.

Cousins, D. and Nieuwenhuysen, J., 2020. Aboriginals and the mining industry: Case studies of the Australian experience. Routledge.

Cunneen, C., 2020. Conflict, politics and crime: Aboriginal communities and the police. Routledge.

Dunstan, L., Hewitt, B. and Nakata, S., 2020. Indigenous family life in Australia: A history of difference and deficit. Australian Journal of Social Issues, 55(3), pp.323-338.

Ellinghaus, K. and Wickes, J., 2020. A Moving Female Frontier: Aboriginal Exemption and Domestic Service in Queensland, 1897–1914. Australian Historical Studies, 51(1), pp.19-37.

Henrich, E., 2019. Constructing the “New Australian Patient”: Assimilation as Preventative Medicine in Postwar Australia. Histoire sociale. Social history, 52(105), p.109.

Jackson, P.A., 2020. Multicultural queer: Australian narratives. Routledge.

Kent-Wilkinson, A.E., 2019. Indigenous Mental Health and Addictions in Canada With Comparisons to Australia and Globally.

Martin, J.I., 2020. The migrant presence: Australian responses 1947-1977. Routledge.

McGrath, A. ed., 2020. Contested ground: Australian Aborigines under the British crown. Routledge.

Osmond, G., 2019. The view from the office, the view from the field: sport in Queensland Aboriginal reserves. The International Journal of the History of Sport, 36(6), pp.532-550.

Price, K. and Rogers, J. eds., 2019. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander education. Cambridge University Press.

Sheppard, L.K., Rynne, S.B. and Willis, J.M., 2019. Sport as a cultural offset in Aboriginal Australia?. Annals of Leisure Research, pp.1-22.

White, I., Barwick, D. and Meehan, B. eds., 2020. Fighters and singers: the lives of some Australian Aboriginal women. Routledge.

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