Essay on "English Settlement"

Essay 5 pages (1431 words) Sources: 7 Style: APA

[EXCERPT] . . . .

English Settlement

Social Marginalization and Healthcare Inequality for the Aboriginals of Australia

The quality of public healthcare is typically widely variant, with a wide array of economic and sociological factors directly implicated in a tendency in every national healthcare system toward some form of inequality. For reasons often associated with ethnic disparity, socioeconomic hierarchy and geographical disadvantage, a social phenomenon called marginalization will tend to place a specific demographic at a lesser opportunity to access proper care, education on health issues or protection from certain factors increasing individual health risk. In Australia, this is a condition which is well-known to impact the Aboriginal populations native to the continent and must displaced and exploited since the initiation of English settlement over two centuries ago. The result is that today, Aboriginals suffer both a higher health risk than do Australians and have a far lesser access to proper treatment opportunities.

The disparity between Aboriginal and Australian populations in terms of health is both severe and significantly telling of the longstanding inequality to which this former group has been subjected, even to present day. Marmot's (2005) article underscores the currency of this issue and the potentially devastating outcome of such marginalization. Marmot contends that "a particularly telling example of health inequalities within countries is the 20-year gap in life expectancy between Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples -- life expectancy is 56 3 years for men and 62 8 years for women -- and the Australian average. The men in this population would look unhealthy in India (male life expectancy 60 1 years) whereas Australian life expectancy is among the highest in the world, marginally behind Iceland, Sweden, and Japan." (Marmot, 1100)

This is a troubling gap that denotes the living conditions distinguishing two separate experiences in the same nation. And unfortunately, this condition has remained thusly even as Australian policy has begun to be adopted toward a change. This is to suggest that beyond the longstanding failure of the federal healthcare system to recognize the needs of the indigenous populations throughout Australia, more recently the subject has been a matter of failed access instead. Though there have been policy steps made toward resolving the serious imbalance between indigenous and English-speaking populations, the obstruction to successful actualization of such policy demonstrates the long-term impact of marginalization. In this context, it has made it particularly difficult to penetrate historical inequalities produced by cultural, geographical and linguistic biases resultant from English settlement during the 18th century.

Indeed, as indicated by Ring & Brown, "In the 10 years 1990 -- 2000, despite improvements in some conditions, there has been little or no overall progress in the health of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander populations of Australia. This is in stark contrast to the gains made in Indigenous health in other countries. The issue is one of lack of commitment to and implementation of already existing policies." (Ring & Brown, 629) Though policy initiative has changed to address these needs in recent years, it is also clear that a fair amount of resistance still permeates a nation where ethnic prejudices had initially produced this condition of marginalization. Today, the persistence of these conditions suggests that such marginalization comes inbuilt with entrenched behaviors, practices and political inclinations which must be overcome if improvements are to be achieved.

At present, the outcome of this set of conditions is a severely lacking public health situation for Aboriginals. Accordingly, McIntyre & Menzies (2005) that "the inferior health status of Indigenous Australians has been extensively reported and is linked inextricably to their ongoing social and economic disadvantage. Measures to decrease this health inequity are best focused on prevention and primary care as early in life as possible." (McIntyre & Menzies, 207)

This latter point is a useful one in point the way to contending with the health disparities that afflict these specifically excluded ethnic groups. Namely, that there is a need to begin outreach by creating more open lines of knowledge and communication between Aboriginal communities and healthcare professionals. One crucial way which the McIntyre & Menzies study asks us to consider is through the improvement of vaccination for youths. The article endorses this as an approach which is appropriate for responding to the types of conditions which are endemic to the Aboriginal populations and,… READ MORE

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