Australian Health Priorities
Health priorities in Australia
Australia’s health care systems are designed in a way that majority of funds and resources are used on curative services and facilities such as pharmaceuticals and hospitals. Health promotion is embracing a new preventative approach by using the effectiveness of the Ottawa charter.
The role of Australian health systems is to achieve a balance between resources of prevention and resources of treatment. There has been a changing emphasis from cure to prevention.
Australian health care systems involve complex interrelationships between: commonwealth, state and local governments. Health insurance funds, public and private providers of services: for example doctors, institutions e.g. hospitals and other organisations …show more content…
such as community health services.
This system is extensive and diverse in nature, originally it’s provided: diagnosis, treatment, rehabilitation and care for people with long term illness or disability.
The role of health care systems in Australia is to provide quality health facilities and meet the needs of all Australian’s. Health care within Australia is mostly about clinical diagnosis, treatment and rehabilitation and lacks with a preventative approach.
The Australian health care systems can be divided into two types institutional and non-institutional. Institutional care includes the facilities that are used to provide health care e.g. hospitals (public and private), nursing homes and psychiatric hospitals. Non-institutional care includes the services (medical practitioners and specialists) health related services (pharmaceutical) and health promotion and illness prevention services.
Accidents and illness can cost an individual significant amount of money. The Commonwealth government is committed to provide equity within all health services to individuals, through a basic health insurance Medicare. Medicare is Australia’s universal system of health care that provides services that are accessible to all Australians. Medicare provides Australians to free treatment as a public patient in a public hospital and free or subsidised treatment by a medical practitioner, including GPs, specialists and some specified services of optometrists and dentists.
Some individuals choose to pay for private health insurance, which allows people to cover private hospitals and ancillary expenses such as: dental, physiotherapy, and chiropractic services and aids and appliances such as glasses. Individuals choose private health insurance for multiple reasons such as shorter waiting times for treatment, own choice of staying in hospitals, own choice of doctor, ancillary benefits e.g. dental care, (security, protection peace of mind) private rooms and insurance cover while overseas.
Throughout Medicare and private health insurance the government wants to provide equity to all Australians.
Currently there are five different levels of responsibility for Australian health care.
Commonwealth government which is in control of the formation of national health policies and the control of health systems financing through the collection of taxes. It provides funds to the state and territory governments for health care. State and Territory governments have the responsibility for providing health and community services e.g. hospital services, mental health programs and dental health services. They also distribute funds to the community health services, public hospitals and health activities. The private sector provides a wide range of services such as private hospitals, dentists and alternate health services e.g. chiropractors. The private sector gains funds from the commonwealth and state for organisations such as the National Heart Foundation. The local governments varies health responsibility from state to state but mainly focuses on environmental control and a range of personal preventative and home care services which includes sanitation and hygiene standards, waste disposal and immunisation. Community groups are formed to address local needs and problems specific to an area. Some groups also promote health, some communities groups, are national and are highly structured and linked nationally e.g. cancer council and support …show more content…
groups.
Expenditure on health care against expenditure on early intervention has always been a debate through the governments as it is difficult determining what proportions of money is spent on health care or treatment compared to early intervention and prevention e.g. cardiovascular disease if not caught early medical treatment costs the government a great amount of money whereas regular physical activity and a healthy diet or intervene early so the impact on the health care systems is reduced.
Health care is currently changing from curative to preventative. The health care systems support curative but health promotion supports the approach of preventative health.
Health promotion is the process of enabling people to increase control over and to improve their health.
Health promotion is based on a holistic view on health which focuses on the preventative way of health care e.g. the Ottawa Charter.
The levels of responsibility in health promotion are individual and families, groups in the community and industry such as schools, workplaces and the media, all levels of government – local state and commonwealth, and non-government organisations both Australian and international. Governments recognised that if all individual, groups, governments and other organisations share the responsibility and join action to improve health outcomes for Australia, then the health promotion will be most successful.
Partnerships within health care benefit health promotion. The Ottawa charter can be used as a checklist for health promoting agencies, both government and non-government. The five areas of the Ottawa charter are developing skills, strengthening community action, reorienting health services, creating supportive environments and building healthy public policy. If all of these elements of the Ottawa charter are adopted then the risk of people or populations adopting poor health behaviours in the first place are vastly reduced and these people engaged In poor health behaviours are encouraged to reduce or eliminate these actions, resulting in improvement of their health and a decreased burden on the health care
systems.
Enabling these elements to be carried through allows participation which contributes better health outcomes by empowering individuals and communities to take action to improve their health. There are a range of strategies for empowering people and communities to identify problems and work together to develop solutions to things that affect their health e.g. consultative community meetings, surveys and the analysis of local health data.
Government and non-government must work with the community to identify priorities to build structure of the individuals within the community. The need to know what’s happening, find out what people know and what they think is important, also share information with other agencies to assist with research and information collection. This prevents ad hoc health promotion initiative’s which also allows full potential of an approach as providers are connected and integrated. E.g. the National Tobacco Strategy relies on mediation with partners for the delivery of most of its initiatives, government departments, community groups, health and non-health non-government organisations, schools and media organisations are actively involved in the prevention and reduction of tobacco use in the community.
Throughout the use of health promotion (preventative health) there are reductions in the prevalence of behaviours risk factors e.g. tobacco smoking, high risk alcohol consumption, physical inactivity and inadequate fruit and vegetable consumption, these will then turn into substantial health status , economic and financial benefits.
Health promotion is supported by the Ottawa charter and the preventative approach it has.
The Ottawa Charter for health promotion was developed at the first international conference on health promotion held in Ottawa, Canada in 1896. It still represents the general agreement on good health promotion. The National Tobacco Strategy is a very successful example of the Ottawa Charter at work. The National Tobacco Strategy is a five year action plan endorsed by the ministerial council on drug safety. It is a preventative approach that follows the principles of the Ottawa Charter.
The Ottawa Charter identifies prerequisites for health, methods to achieve health promotion through advocacy, enabling and mediation. There are 5 element areas. These actions are building healthy public
Policy which is about putting health on the agenda of policy makers at all levels legislation, economic measures and taxation. E.g. the national tobacco strategy (NTS) continues to influence policy. High levels of taxation on tobacco ensure that cigarettes are less affordable reducing access to young people. This is an effective way as preventative approach will decrease the rate of smoking due to these policies.
Creating supportive environments refers to living and working conditions that are safe and provides a positive benefit to health e.g. the NTS continues to use frightening media campaigns like ‘every cigarette is doing you damage’ as it has maintained a powerful anti-smoking attitude in the community, it is effective as it educates the community on how the tobacco smoke can affect an individual and the wider community through passive smoking.
Strengthening community action deals with empowering communities to apply ownership, control and action over their own endeavours e.g. the NTS provides local educational strategies like peer support and mentoring programs which improve self-esteem and sense of worth among students which can protect factors against harm from tobacco use. Through this strategy the community gains education/knowledge about tobacco and the consequences it has upon an individual, which is greatly effective towards the community.
Developing personal skills covers providing information; education for health and improving life skills e.g. self-help materials In print or online and tailored advice delivered electronically or by post, its effectiveness allows smokers to have access to information they can use to help themselves to quit irrespective of their location.
The last element is reorienting health services which acknowledge that health services need to focus more on prevention than simply treatment and cure. The responsibility for health is shared amongst individuals, the community, government institutions, and other organisations e.g. the inclusion of smoking cessations modules in VETAB courses has increased access to the knowledge and skills required for quitting nationally. This is effective as smokers are supported by health professionals to give up smoking in order to improve existing health conditions that are a result of tobacco smoking.
The principles of social justice, equity, diversity and supportive environments are an essential part of effective health promotion it is imperative that these principles are strongly addressed across all health promotion initiatives. Inevitably health promotion based on the Ottawa Charter will promote social justice. The National Tobacco Strategy is eliminating inequity, the promotion of inclusiveness of diversity and providing supportive environments to all people. This preventative approach is effective due to health promotion and the Ottawa charter.
The National Tobacco Strategy aims to decrease the mortality and morbidity rates of smoking, for every Australian who dies in a motor vehicle accident more than 10 people die prematurely due to tobacco. Each year more than 4000 Australians aged between 35-64 years die due to tobacco smoking. More than 19000 Australians will die over the next year from illness caused by tobacco. Due to the preventative health approach the tobacco strategy death rates are decreasing. Between 2001 to 2008 the current male smokers have decreased from 27% to 22% aged 18 and over also the current women smokers has decreased from 22% to 18% aged 18 and over.
The death rates are also decreasing; the Australian health care systems are saving more lives due to the preventative approach on tobacco smoking.
The goal of the national tobacco strategy is to significantly improve health and reduce social costs caused by and inequity made worse by tobacco in all its forms. This preventative strategy is effectively working overtime, as the statics above show the decrease in smoking, which proves the preventative approach effective.
By embracing a new preventative approach to all health needs, Australian death rates would decrease as you seen the National Tobacco Strategy in action, due to the five principles of the Ottawa charter smoking death rates are slowly decreasing. If governments used this approach for all health needs, Australia would be a healthier nation due to they are not waiting for people to get sick or injured before they treat them. Health care is currently trying to embrace the preventative approach as it is more effective.
Australia’s health care systems are designed in a way that majority of funds and resources are used on curative services and facilities such as pharmaceuticals and hospitals. Health promotion is embracing a new preventative approach by using the effectiveness of the Ottawa charter.
The role of Australian health systems is to achieve a balance between resources of prevention and resources of treatment. There has been a changing emphasis from cure to prevention.
Australian health care systems involve complex interrelationships between: commonwealth, state and local governments. Health insurance funds, public and private providers of services: for example doctors, institutions e.g. hospitals and other organisations …show more content…
such as community health services.
This system is extensive and diverse in nature, originally it’s provided: diagnosis, treatment, rehabilitation and care for people with long term illness or disability.
The role of health care systems in Australia is to provide quality health facilities and meet the needs of all Australian’s. Health care within Australia is mostly about clinical diagnosis, treatment and rehabilitation and lacks with a preventative approach.
The Australian health care systems can be divided into two types institutional and non-institutional. Institutional care includes the facilities that are used to provide health care e.g. hospitals (public and private), nursing homes and psychiatric hospitals. Non-institutional care includes the services (medical practitioners and specialists) health related services (pharmaceutical) and health promotion and illness prevention services.
Accidents and illness can cost an individual significant amount of money. The Commonwealth government is committed to provide equity within all health services to individuals, through a basic health insurance Medicare. Medicare is Australia’s universal system of health care that provides services that are accessible to all Australians. Medicare provides Australians to free treatment as a public patient in a public hospital and free or subsidised treatment by a medical practitioner, including GPs, specialists and some specified services of optometrists and dentists.
Some individuals choose to pay for private health insurance, which allows people to cover private hospitals and ancillary expenses such as: dental, physiotherapy, and chiropractic services and aids and appliances such as glasses. Individuals choose private health insurance for multiple reasons such as shorter waiting times for treatment, own choice of staying in hospitals, own choice of doctor, ancillary benefits e.g. dental care, (security, protection peace of mind) private rooms and insurance cover while overseas.
Throughout Medicare and private health insurance the government wants to provide equity to all Australians.
Currently there are five different levels of responsibility for Australian health care.
Commonwealth government which is in control of the formation of national health policies and the control of health systems financing through the collection of taxes. It provides funds to the state and territory governments for health care. State and Territory governments have the responsibility for providing health and community services e.g. hospital services, mental health programs and dental health services. They also distribute funds to the community health services, public hospitals and health activities. The private sector provides a wide range of services such as private hospitals, dentists and alternate health services e.g. chiropractors. The private sector gains funds from the commonwealth and state for organisations such as the National Heart Foundation. The local governments varies health responsibility from state to state but mainly focuses on environmental control and a range of personal preventative and home care services which includes sanitation and hygiene standards, waste disposal and immunisation. Community groups are formed to address local needs and problems specific to an area. Some groups also promote health, some communities groups, are national and are highly structured and linked nationally e.g. cancer council and support …show more content…
groups.
Expenditure on health care against expenditure on early intervention has always been a debate through the governments as it is difficult determining what proportions of money is spent on health care or treatment compared to early intervention and prevention e.g. cardiovascular disease if not caught early medical treatment costs the government a great amount of money whereas regular physical activity and a healthy diet or intervene early so the impact on the health care systems is reduced.
Health care is currently changing from curative to preventative. The health care systems support curative but health promotion supports the approach of preventative health.
Health promotion is the process of enabling people to increase control over and to improve their health.
Health promotion is based on a holistic view on health which focuses on the preventative way of health care e.g. the Ottawa Charter.
The levels of responsibility in health promotion are individual and families, groups in the community and industry such as schools, workplaces and the media, all levels of government – local state and commonwealth, and non-government organisations both Australian and international. Governments recognised that if all individual, groups, governments and other organisations share the responsibility and join action to improve health outcomes for Australia, then the health promotion will be most successful.
Partnerships within health care benefit health promotion. The Ottawa charter can be used as a checklist for health promoting agencies, both government and non-government. The five areas of the Ottawa charter are developing skills, strengthening community action, reorienting health services, creating supportive environments and building healthy public policy. If all of these elements of the Ottawa charter are adopted then the risk of people or populations adopting poor health behaviours in the first place are vastly reduced and these people engaged In poor health behaviours are encouraged to reduce or eliminate these actions, resulting in improvement of their health and a decreased burden on the health care
systems.
Enabling these elements to be carried through allows participation which contributes better health outcomes by empowering individuals and communities to take action to improve their health. There are a range of strategies for empowering people and communities to identify problems and work together to develop solutions to things that affect their health e.g. consultative community meetings, surveys and the analysis of local health data.
Government and non-government must work with the community to identify priorities to build structure of the individuals within the community. The need to know what’s happening, find out what people know and what they think is important, also share information with other agencies to assist with research and information collection. This prevents ad hoc health promotion initiative’s which also allows full potential of an approach as providers are connected and integrated. E.g. the National Tobacco Strategy relies on mediation with partners for the delivery of most of its initiatives, government departments, community groups, health and non-health non-government organisations, schools and media organisations are actively involved in the prevention and reduction of tobacco use in the community.
Throughout the use of health promotion (preventative health) there are reductions in the prevalence of behaviours risk factors e.g. tobacco smoking, high risk alcohol consumption, physical inactivity and inadequate fruit and vegetable consumption, these will then turn into substantial health status , economic and financial benefits.
Health promotion is supported by the Ottawa charter and the preventative approach it has.
The Ottawa Charter for health promotion was developed at the first international conference on health promotion held in Ottawa, Canada in 1896. It still represents the general agreement on good health promotion. The National Tobacco Strategy is a very successful example of the Ottawa Charter at work. The National Tobacco Strategy is a five year action plan endorsed by the ministerial council on drug safety. It is a preventative approach that follows the principles of the Ottawa Charter.
The Ottawa Charter identifies prerequisites for health, methods to achieve health promotion through advocacy, enabling and mediation. There are 5 element areas. These actions are building healthy public
Policy which is about putting health on the agenda of policy makers at all levels legislation, economic measures and taxation. E.g. the national tobacco strategy (NTS) continues to influence policy. High levels of taxation on tobacco ensure that cigarettes are less affordable reducing access to young people. This is an effective way as preventative approach will decrease the rate of smoking due to these policies.
Creating supportive environments refers to living and working conditions that are safe and provides a positive benefit to health e.g. the NTS continues to use frightening media campaigns like ‘every cigarette is doing you damage’ as it has maintained a powerful anti-smoking attitude in the community, it is effective as it educates the community on how the tobacco smoke can affect an individual and the wider community through passive smoking.
Strengthening community action deals with empowering communities to apply ownership, control and action over their own endeavours e.g. the NTS provides local educational strategies like peer support and mentoring programs which improve self-esteem and sense of worth among students which can protect factors against harm from tobacco use. Through this strategy the community gains education/knowledge about tobacco and the consequences it has upon an individual, which is greatly effective towards the community.
Developing personal skills covers providing information; education for health and improving life skills e.g. self-help materials In print or online and tailored advice delivered electronically or by post, its effectiveness allows smokers to have access to information they can use to help themselves to quit irrespective of their location.
The last element is reorienting health services which acknowledge that health services need to focus more on prevention than simply treatment and cure. The responsibility for health is shared amongst individuals, the community, government institutions, and other organisations e.g. the inclusion of smoking cessations modules in VETAB courses has increased access to the knowledge and skills required for quitting nationally. This is effective as smokers are supported by health professionals to give up smoking in order to improve existing health conditions that are a result of tobacco smoking.
The principles of social justice, equity, diversity and supportive environments are an essential part of effective health promotion it is imperative that these principles are strongly addressed across all health promotion initiatives. Inevitably health promotion based on the Ottawa Charter will promote social justice. The National Tobacco Strategy is eliminating inequity, the promotion of inclusiveness of diversity and providing supportive environments to all people. This preventative approach is effective due to health promotion and the Ottawa charter.
The National Tobacco Strategy aims to decrease the mortality and morbidity rates of smoking, for every Australian who dies in a motor vehicle accident more than 10 people die prematurely due to tobacco. Each year more than 4000 Australians aged between 35-64 years die due to tobacco smoking. More than 19000 Australians will die over the next year from illness caused by tobacco. Due to the preventative health approach the tobacco strategy death rates are decreasing. Between 2001 to 2008 the current male smokers have decreased from 27% to 22% aged 18 and over also the current women smokers has decreased from 22% to 18% aged 18 and over.
The death rates are also decreasing; the Australian health care systems are saving more lives due to the preventative approach on tobacco smoking.
The goal of the national tobacco strategy is to significantly improve health and reduce social costs caused by and inequity made worse by tobacco in all its forms. This preventative strategy is effectively working overtime, as the statics above show the decrease in smoking, which proves the preventative approach effective.
By embracing a new preventative approach to all health needs, Australian death rates would decrease as you seen the National Tobacco Strategy in action, due to the five principles of the Ottawa charter smoking death rates are slowly decreasing. If governments used this approach for all health needs, Australia would be a healthier nation due to they are not waiting for people to get sick or injured before they treat them. Health care is currently trying to embrace the preventative approach as it is more effective.