Aboriginal health '100 years behind' ...

[apathy maybe]

Originally posted by The Guardian
The standard of health of Aborigines lags almost 100 years behind that of other Australians, with some indigenous people still suffering from leprosy, rheumatic heart disease and tuberculosis, according to a report for the World Health Organisation.

The report said that Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders, which make up about 2.5% of Australia's population, have an average life expectancy 17 years below their fellow countrymen. The average age of death for Aboriginal men in some parts of New South Wales is 33.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/australia/story/0,,2069606,00.html

I can't actually find the report mentioned on the WHO website.


Anyway, this is partly because many Aboriginal people live in remote parts of the country and no doubt partly because of fucked up racism. What do you think?

[Black Dagger]

You're right about many Aboriginal people living in remote areas, but i dont think that explains this short-fall - after all the majority of Indigenous people live in urban areas, not remote communities - and plenty of non-Indigenous people live in rural/remote areas but yet have a distinct advantage in health (among other areas).

[apathy maybe]

So, what do you think accounts for the difference in health then? "White privilege" or similar?

Access to the means of travel (for those Aboriginal people in rural/remote areas)?

The significant income cap between Aboriginal people and other Australians?

[RebelDog]

I think you'll find that that Aboriginal people are much more likely to live in poverty and thus be more likely to suffer ill health. Poverty and ill health are two sides of the same coin and the fate of the Aboriginal people in Australia today is very upsetting. Living in rural areas shouldn't be that big a factor as it can benefit health in its own way. What is the current situation with health care provision in Australia? I know that here in the UK the NHS is basically in crisis and its hitting the poorest the hardest.

[Black Dagger]

Originally posted by apathy [email protected] 02, 2007 08:06 pm
So, what do you think accounts for the difference in health then? "White privilege" or similar?

Access to the means of travel (for those Aboriginal people in rural/remote areas)?

The significant income cap between Aboriginal people and other Australians?
A combination really.

Ultimately? Decades of neglect across a broad range of areas - health and education, as well as obviously the legacy of dispossession, the stolen generations, disproptionate contact with the judicial system/racist policing etc. It's not one thing but a whole bunch of things built on top of one another, but health and education are key crises.

It's a complete myth that the government just pumps billions of dollars into Aboriginal australia - in reality services and funding is much lower than were it should be at. The AMA for example reckons that the gap between what the government currently spends per year on Indigenous health and what NEEDS to be spent to close the 20 year gap in life expectancy is aprox. $460 million per year!

If the govt should be spending 460 million a year MORE than they currently spend (and they're not), what does that say about the dire state of the health system as far as its delivery to Indigenous people? And it's obviously not just health, but education as well - like i said, neglect - i mean its not like the gap between non-Indigenous people and Indigenous people has just crept up overnight, it's been this way for 200+ years!

The governments policy of 'mainstreaming' (abolishing) Indigenous-specifc services is hardly helping. You know? Coz if there is a specialised health service dedicated to delivering good healthcare to remote Indigenous communities... that's 'special' treatment. Well by Indigenous standards its non-Indigenous australia thats getting the fucking special treatment - but for some reason when the govt trys to scrape the bottom of where they need to be at in terms of funding and services for remote Aboriginal communities, what they're really doing is struggling to provide the benefits that are STANDARD for everyone else, it's ridiculous.

Also, as Dissenter says, poverty (usually) = poor health. Many remote Aboriginal communities essentially function with 'third world' living standards (infact many people in so-called 'third world' countries have higher life expectancies :(), i mean - there are Aboriginal children dying every year from diseases of poverty that have been non-existant in non-Indigenous australia since the 19th century, infant mortality is 2.5 times higher than for non-Indigenous people, NT's rate is 4 times the national average etc. etc.

It's a fucking mess and all the government seems to be is interested in at the moment is coercing remote communities into signing away communal title in favour of private ownership and promises of 'investment' and making things like a 'normal suburb' - can you imagine if the state tried to pull that shit with a non-Indigenous community?

'Eh, y'all really lack basic healths services and infrastructure... but we're not gonna provide any of that shit until you sign away your rights to the land where you live!'

[Rage Against Right]

i live in a highly aboriginally populated town on the mid-north coast of NSW. Also highly redneck. The town has been identified as one of the six most disadvantaged in NSW. Aborignals suffer from lack of work, because they can only be employed in the government sector because no private bodies will employ them, but considering many of them have had stints in jail have ever short are unable to work in these sectors due to criminal records, this leads to no work, no insentitve,already poor education and all in all a poor lifestyle and health conditions. The aboriginals in this town despite redneck opinion has not been helped to succeed let alone survive, except for the mandatory "ab study" and other indigenous so called "privelleges", they fall into a visciiuos cycle of drugs, alcohol poor health and teenage pregnancy.