Aboriginal Health Care Issues

The Aboriginal people have been put at a disadvantage for years now dating back to the 1700s when the Europeans settled and repossessed their land through a loop hole in the Terra Nullius. In those days the Aboriginal people were not considered to be “people” by the European standards and were therefore treated as such. With no consideration to how their presence would affect the original Indigenous settlers of the country, the Europeans brought disease, infections, and other health issues that these people had never encountered before. Health has been a major issue for the Aboriginal people since this time and still has not been solved. Because of this, many Australian Indigenous people face shorter life expectancies, mental illnesses, pregnancy
Researchers have found that Indigenous people are one-third less likely to receive health care than people from non-Indigenous societies (Paradies, 2008). Racism plays a significant role in the care taken for Indigenous individuals. Many times Aboriginal people are slighted in their search for justice including health services. Researcher Paradies (2008) states that Indigenous people are three times less likely to receive a kidney transplant that non-Indigenous Australians in the same level of need (Paradies, 2008). This clear racism points back to the original European opinion of Aboriginals. Because of this systemic racism that has been passed down from family to family in the non-Indigenous society, Aboriginal people are still being denied equality in the fight for health care and benefits. Because of the commonly poor living conditions among the Aboriginal population, skin infections are the most common infection in this group of people. This can be seen in the observed 50 percent of babies presenting to medical care 23 times or more within their first year of life (Andrews, 2008). Clearly the disease rate is excessively high. Again because of the systemic racism seen in health care, Indigenous people suffer far more risks than the rest of the population. For example, while non-Indigenous Australians are safe from vaccine treatable diseases, a tremendous number of Indigenous Australians are not. This leads to a rampant spread of measles, mumps, tetanus, and other usually preventable diseases (Gracey and King, 2009). Of the available skin infections, scabies is seen to be the most common case presented among Aboriginal children under the age of one (Andrews, 2008). Among other issues associated with Indigenous health