Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples

Summary

This video delves into the health inequities faced by the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander populations in Australia. It highlights a significantly lower life expectancy and higher rates of diseases such as kidney and respiratory illnesses among Indigenous Australians compared to non-Indigenous Australians. Socio-cultural, socio-economic, and environmental factors, including domestic violence, poor educational attainment, and remote living, are attributed to these disparities. Efforts by individuals, communities, and governments to address these issues through health promotion and support services are discussed.

Highlights

• Indigenous Australians have a life expectancy nearly ten years lower than non-Indigenous Australians.😲
• Higher rates of infant mortality and various diseases like cancer and kidney disease are prevalent in Indigenous populations.👶
• Detrimental socio-economic factors include lower educational attainment and higher unemployment rates among Indigenous Australians.
• Remote living conditions and lack of healthcare access contribute to poor health outcomes for Indigenous communities. 🏥
• Health promotion and community involvement are keys to addressing these inequities.
• Government and organizations are actively working to close the health gap through funding and targeted programs.💪

Key Takeaways

• Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples face significant health inequities compared to non-Indigenous Australians as a priority in improving Australia's health.
• Life expectancy for Indigenous Australians is roughly ten years lower than their non-Indigenous counterparts, with higher rates of diseases like kidney and respiratory illnesses.📊
• Social, cultural, and economic factors contribute to these health disparities, such as higher rates of domestic violence, drug use, and lower educational attainment.
• Environmental factors like remote living conditions limit access to healthcare, exacerbate health issues, and increase mortality rates.🏡
• Efforts to empower individuals and communities through health promotion are crucial in bridging the health gap, alongside funding and support from government initiatives.
• Organizations like the Australian Indigenous Doctors' Association play a significant role in health promotion and advocacy.🌟

Overview

The video provides a comprehensive overview of health disparities affecting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in Australia. By illuminating a ten-year life expectancy gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians, it underscores the urgency to address these inequalities. Various diseases, such as cancers and respiratory issues, disproportionately affect Indigenous populations, highlighting the challenging journey toward health equality.

Socio-economic and environmental determinants are core to understanding these health inequities. Indigenous Australians often face dire socio-economic conditions, including limited job opportunities and lower educational achievements. Compounded by social determinants such as high rates of domestic violence and drug use, these factors severely impact Indigenous health outcomes. Moreover, with many residing in remote areas, access to essential healthcare services is limited, exacerbating existing health issues and making it harder for these communities to thrive.

Collective efforts by individuals, communities, and the government form the backbone of initiatives aimed at bridging these health gaps. Through health promotion, education, and support programs, strides are being made towards empowering Indigenous communities. Community organizations and government agencies work in tandem, employing culturally sensitive and inclusive strategies that hold promise for a healthier future for Indigenous Australians.

Chapters

• 00:00 - 00:30: Introduction to AXI Population Group This chapter serves as an introduction to the AXI population group, focusing on health inequities they experience in Australia. It highlights the significance of addressing these inequities as a priority health issue in the country. The chapter sets the stage for exploring these challenges and emphasizes the importance of conducting further research on other groups experiencing similar health disparities, encouraging self-directed learning and exploration beyond this initial focus.
• 00:30 - 01:00: Health Inequities Overview The chapter titled 'Health Inequities Overview' discusses the necessary steps and knowledge required to understand health inequities affecting certain populations. It emphasizes analyzing and researching active people groups to investigate the nature and extent of these inequities. Key points include identifying social, cultural, socio-economic, and environmental determinants of health inequities. Additionally, the roles of individuals, communities, and governments in addressing these issues are explored, with a specific focus on indigenous populations.
• 01:00 - 01:30: Life Expectancy and Mortality Rates The chapter titled 'Life Expectancy and Mortality Rates' discusses the disparity in life expectancy between indigenous and non-indigenous populations in Australia. The speaker highlights that although life expectancy is increasing for indigenous Australians, it still falls significantly short of the life expectancy for non-indigenous Australians. Specifically, non-indigenous Australian women are expected to live to around 83 years old, whereas indigenous Australian women are projected to live to about 73 years. This data underscores a notable 10-year gap between the two groups.
• 01:30 - 02:00: Infant and General Mortality Causes The chapter discusses the rates and causes of infant and general mortality, focusing on the differences between indigenous and non-indigenous populations in Australia. While overall infant mortality has been decreasing, the indigenous population still experiences approximately double the mortality rate compared to the non-indigenous population. Circulatory diseases are highlighted as a significant cause of mortality.
• 02:00 - 02:30: Morbidity and Cancer Incidence The chapter discusses the morbidity and cancer incidence, highlighting that while individuals with cancer are at a greater risk of dying from the disease itself, they also face increased mortality risks from other health conditions such as infectious diseases, kidney disease, respiratory diseases, endocrine, and metabolic disorders. Specifically, the transcript mentions that cancer patients are seven times more likely to suffer from end-stage kidney disease and three times more likely to experience diabetes-related hospitalizations.
• 02:30 - 03:00: Respiratory and Other Diseases The chapter discusses the prevalence and impact of various diseases, particularly cancer, on indigenous populations. It highlights how individuals with certain conditions are significantly more likely to be hospitalized and overweight. Moreover, it emphasizes that while overall cancer rates might not always be higher, indigenous populations see a higher incidence of specific cancers like lung and digestive system cancers, with lung cancer being particularly lethal.
• 03:00 - 04:00: Social and Cultural Determinants The chapter titled 'Social and Cultural Determinants' discusses the prevalence of respiratory diseases, noting that certain groups have higher rates. It examines leading causes of hospitalization, focusing on injury and poisoning due to higher rates of violence, especially domestic violence. Additionally, the chapter highlights major challenges in pregnancy and childbirth, linking these to higher infant mortality rates among certain populations.
• 04:00 - 05:00: Socio-economic Determinants The chapter titled "Socio-economic Determinants" delves into how social and cultural factors can influence health outcomes. It points out that individuals with certain socio-economic backgrounds may experience a higher likelihood of various health issues such as mental and behavioral problems, circulatory issues, infectious diseases, and endocrine disorders. The discussion emphasizes the importance of understanding these determinants to grasp the disparities in health status between different populations.
• 05:00 - 06:00: Environmental Determinants The chapter discusses the impact of environmental determinants on health, particularly within indigenous populations. It highlights issues such as high rates of domestic violence and child abuse, leading to poorer health outcomes. Additionally, it mentions the elevated rates of imprisonment and single-parent families, which contribute to stress among parents who lack support while raising children. The chapter also notes the prevalence of smoking during pregnancy as a significant concern.
• 06:00 - 07:00: Addressing Health Inequities: Individuals The chapter discusses health inequities faced by indigenous populations, particularly focusing on drug use. It highlights an increase in drug use among indigenous people, although a large majority (70%) do not use drugs. Marijuana emerges as the primary drug used across Australia, closely followed by non-medically prescribed painkillers and analgesics being used recreationally. The chapter underscores the concern about rising drug use in indigenous communities as a significant health issue.
• 07:00 - 08:00: Community Involvement in Health Promotion The chapter discusses the involvement of communities, particularly focusing on the challenges faced by indigenous populations in engaging with Western health promotion systems. It describes the socio-economic disparities including employment and income, highlighting the mistrust towards Western systems and authority figures. The chapter uses graphical data to illustrate the extent of disadvantage experienced by these communities.
• 08:00 - 09:00: Government Role in Health Promotion The chapter discusses the disparities in socioeconomic status between the indigenous and non-indigenous populations in Australia, specifically in terms of living conditions and education completion rates. The graph mentioned illustrates that a large proportion of the indigenous population resides in highly disadvantaged areas, whereas the non-indigenous population has a more even spread across different socioeconomic levels. Additionally, it highlights the differences in education attainment, with non-indigenous individuals more frequently completing their schooling up to year 12.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples Transcription

• 00:00 - 00:30 [Music] [Music] okay it is our first video for one of the priority issues for improving Australia's health we are looking at groups experiencing health inequities and particularly we're going to be looking at the AXI population group we are not going to do a video for any of the other ones that is for you to go and do some research for because that's what you'll learn to tell you to do so let's
• 00:30 - 01:00 have a look quickly I want to learn too it does ask you to do and what you need to know about the actual health population so you need to research and analyze the active people group by investigating the things like the nature and extent of health inequities you need to know the social cultural socio-economic and environmental determinants of those health inequities and the roles of individuals communities and governments in addressing these health inequities so let's get right at it we're looking at the nature and the extent of health inequities that actually population or our indigenous
• 01:00 - 01:30 population they have a much shorter life expectancy than our non-indigenous population so you can see on this graph right here that even though the rate for the indigenous Australian is going up it is still a long way from the expectations of our non-indigenous so women in Australia are expected to live to around 83 years of age whereas if they're indigenous they're actually expecting them to about 73 that's a 10-year gap and you can see the same
• 01:30 - 02:00 ten-year gap for the men as well plus a look at this graph here on infant mortality you can see inter mortality across Australia has been going down particularly in the active population however when you compare the light blue and the dark blue we still have roughly double the number of infant mortalities in our indigenous population than we do in our non-indigenous population when we think of mortality rates and we're looking at the different causes of these mortalities they're more likely to die from circulatory diseases they're more
• 02:00 - 02:30 likely to die some cancers they're more likely to die from infectious diseases they're more likely to die from kidney disease they're more likely to die from respiratory diseases or endocrine or metabolic disorders so not just a molesting get it actually more likely to die as a result of getting that now when we shift some morbidity here we're going to scroll down you can see here the end-stage kidney disease it's seven times more likely to have in stage kidney disease that three times more likely to have diabetes hospitalization for respiratory
• 02:30 - 03:00 conditions they are three times more likely to go to hospital then one the half times more likely to be overweight so look at this graph here on cancer you can see that the incidence of cancer is not always higher for our indigenous population that it is for the non-indigenous population but you can see they have higher rates particularly of lung cancer and of cancer of the digestive system and those two particular lung cancer is one of the ones that you're less likely to survive from this one here looks at the
• 03:00 - 03:30 prevalence of respiratory disease and you can see that they have a higher rate of respiratory disease and we're going to also look at the leading causes of hospitalization here and the leading causes here particularly looking at injury and poisoning less because they have higher rates of violence of particularly domestic violence and stuff we're going to have major issues here with our pregnancy and childbirth they are way more likely to have issues that that we saw that already with our infant mortality rates then more likely to have
• 03:30 - 04:00 mental and behavioral issues and more likely to have circulatory issues and they're also more likely to have infectious diseases or endocrine issues so you can see their leading causes of hospitalization they are higher for active people than they are for non arching now we're going to think about some of those determinants that are causing are these differences in health status and so one of the major causes and the major determinants is our social cultural determinants now this is
• 04:00 - 04:30 looking at our family our friends and stuff that's around the person directly and so here the high rate of domestic violence and child abuse amongst our indigenous population is going to contribute towards our poorer health they have higher rates of imprisonment they also have higher single-parent families that means that parents are more stressed because they're looking after multiple children by themselves don't have someone supporting them in that you also going to see here they have graduates of smoking during pregnancy they're also going to have
• 04:30 - 05:00 greater rates of drug use here you can actually see that drug use is going up in our indigenous population which is quite a worrying time almost 70% of indigenous people do not use drugs and the main drug that they do use up here is marijuana and so marijuana is actually the main drivers use across all of Australia and then you can see that the other main one that they're using is painkillers and analgesics but this is when they are non medically prescribed so they're using them recreationally
• 05:00 - 05:30 we also think of the fact that our active people our indigenous populations have been majorly disempowered and have a large mistrust to Western systems and a lot of Western people particularly Western people in power when it come to our socio-economic things so our socio-economic stuff we're looking at employment we're looking at income and we're looking at how they work so let's have a look at a few graphs here you can see straight away the right at the top here the most disadvantaged you'll see that blue light is huge right that light
• 05:30 - 06:00 blue line our indigenous population most of them live in a most disadvantaged level in Australia and you can see it clearly drops off as we get to the more advantaged Australians whereas across the non-indigenous population it's roughly a 10% spread evenly across each of those different that advantage levels of des îles in this graph we can see the highest level of school completed and again you'll see that the non-indigenous population are completing year 12 we're
• 06:00 - 06:30 digitisation are dropping out of school a bit earlier when you remove beyond that you'll see that that then means that the indigenous are less likely to find employment so although the employment rate has gone up slightly since 2012 to 2014 there still is a big gap between the indigenous and non-indigenous in terms of employment are you looking at Emilia it's a 20 percent gap and so almost one in two Indigenous Australians don't have
• 06:30 - 07:00 a job you can think of the Domitia the stress that causes people and also what that's going to do in terms of their choices that they have they can't afford things within shift to the environmental determinants that say our environmental determines we're looking at what the person is living in and what's around them and also where they're living with a straight away we have a higher percentage of indigenous Australian who are living in rural remote and very remote areas and that
• 07:00 - 07:30 means that things like cardiovascular is more likely to kill them rather than just cause a chronic disease for the rest of their life because it's going to take them longer to get to a hospital stay there longer to get to health services and facilities the technology that these needed for things like treating cancer is not really out there at the same rate that it is in a city and so it's harder for them to get access to technology to health services to healthcare we have higher rates of homelessness in our indigenous population which makes it harder for
• 07:30 - 08:00 them to get a job and means that they can't get things payments with Centrelink and stuff they can't get the support that they need to get because they don't actually have an address you need an address in order to receive all of that support so we also think about households who are lacking in facilities so we have a look here at this graph and you'll see that the percentage of indigenous people who are living in households with our facilities that support healthy living practices that's
• 08:00 - 08:30 like things like running water and plumbing that we're looking at just over three percent of them are living in houses that don't have that that's third-world condition housing that they're living in essentially and so their health is going to be affected by that environment they're also going to be affected by overcrowded housing and you can see this has gone down over the years but it's still 20% of Indigenous Australians are living in crowded houses when we now shift to what we're going to do about what people are doing about it when we come to the individual the individual
• 08:30 - 09:00 needs to be empowered through health promotion to make healthy choices for themselves and also to have some knowledge for themselves so that help make great good choices and help promote health with their friends and family I tell you if you think particularly of a parent they need to have empowerment know what they're doing make good healthy choices and then make good choices for their children and then help their friends and family around them as well when we look here the community the community is involved in the promotion of health by providing
• 09:00 - 09:30 input for health promotions and helping carry them out so they're involved in research they can be things like cancer research it can be like a heart rate can be things like cardiovascular disease research it can be research into new ways of doing surgery whatever it is often that a community that is involved in that research often also communities are involving providing feedback to government organizations and stuff to help them to come up with the health
• 09:30 - 10:00 promotions and then involved in actually physically running out of those health promotions so that might be our local community like that I have at my work the National Center of indigenous excellence they have a gym they also do a lot of promotion of health for the indigenous population in Redfern and they help them to find work they help them to have better health in terms of their mental health and I see signs everywhere that tell them I encourage them to talk about their issues that provide them information about what they
• 10:00 - 10:30 should be eating and what they should be doing in terms of community life having a social connections and providing information for these people in their languages and also helping to address a lot of that mistrust that exists so if we have our local indigenous people providing the health promotion then that improves the trust and the choices and the empowerment of the individual to really engage in that there's also a lot larger groups such as the australian indigenous doctors Association the
• 10:30 - 11:00 National Aboriginal community controlled health organisations Aboriginal community controlled health services and things like the aboriginal medical services so they're also community groups who are involved in health promotion in their areas and also involved in talking to the government about what's going on so what does the government do well they provide a lot of the fundings for most of the health promotions and they do closing the gap I had a lot of funding to go towards it and it gets monitored and researched and reports get sent back to the Prime Minister every year about how that is going and they also are going to use
• 11:00 - 11:30 research that's done by the local communities they're also going to talk to the local communities to help develop the health promotions that are using the Ottawa Charter as their framework [Music]