PCL 07 - Cultural factors affecting Aboriginal access - Fern

From the 2008 Global Health Conference Indigenous Health workshop, stream 2 manual:

“Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander populations experience serious and persistent disadvantage across a range of areas resulting in poorer health and nutrition status than the general population, including higher rates of poverty and unemployment, lower attendance at school, serious maternal and child health problems, inadequate living conditions, and high levels of incarceration, discrimination and experiences of racism. The impact of historical and social factors such as colonisation, loss of land, removal of children from families, community dislocation and high levels of trauma and grief, has been devastating and pervasive on many levels.”

2008 GHC manual, referencing the Social Justice Report, 2006, ATSI Social Justice Commissioner, report no. 1/2007.
“Reasons for under-utilisation of services in urban areas [relative to the non-Indigenous population]:
- Some mainstream services are planned and delivered so as to meet the requirement of the most common users (therefore do not allow for the special needs of Indigenous peoples)
- Some requirements for accessing services do not take into consideration the lifestyle of Indigenous people
- Financial barriers can constrain access to some services
- People living in the outer suburban fringes of urban centres with limited public transport infrastructure can experience difficulties in gaining physical access to services
- Workforce issues experienced by service providers can restrict Indigenous peoples’ access to services, i.e. staff are not always trained to work in a cross-cultural context or in an environment where they experience the complex problems Indigenous people can often face
- Legacies of history and unpleasant previous experiences with mainstream services can reduce Indigenous use of facilities
- Some services are not delivered in a culturally-safe manner and can make Indigenous people feel uncomfortable when they access them
- There may be poor links between complementary services”

Strategies to combat this:
- Aboriginal Healthcare Workers
- Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Services
- Cultural Safety Training