Indigenous People in Australia: Health Services by NACCHO
NATIONAL ABORIGINALCOMMUNITY CONTROLLED HEALTH ORGANISATION (NACCHO)
The Indigenous and Aboriginal people in Australia are neglected and are discriminated. Racism has affected them, and this has resulted due to arrogance and ignorance. The Indigenous people have encountered racism in the systematic and the institutional ways. The National Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation (NACCHO) is an organisation for the Aboriginal people and helps them to overcome the challenges and the struggle encountered by them. The report would evaluate the health and the well-being services by NACCHO. The report would assess personal opinion on the impression of the organisation and assess specific issues and challenges for the domestic health service.
Overview of National Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation (NACCHO)Brief History
NACCHO is an association that offers supports to the Aboriginal Communities for their tussle for self-determination. The organisation represents 143 Aboriginal Community Controlled Health (ACCHSs). NACCHO was developed in the year 1997 after Federal Government Funded NACCHO for establishing Secretariat in Canberra that helped to increase the capacity of Aboriginal Peoples included in ACCHSs for participating in the national policy development. The ACCHSs developed under NACCHO developed a primary health care model that considered the holistic view of health from the viewpoint of Aboriginal people’s philosophy towards health (NACCHO Aboriginal Health News Alerts, 2018).
NACCHO was developed with the aim to represent the local Indigenous community like the Torres Strait Islanders in the national level of Australia with a broader perspective of providing adequate healthcare facilities all across Australia. NACCHO has been able to offer a holistic response from the community sector and brings out the welfare of the ordinary people (NACCHO Aboriginal Health News Alerts, 2018).
Vision and objectives
The vision of NACCHO is to evaluate the need and the interest of Aboriginal health in place of the members in the national area. NACCHO has focused on the delivery of the essential health care.
The main objectives are:
- To overcome poverty in the Indigenous Aboriginal community
- To focus on spirituality of the Indigenous Aboriginal population
- To offer educational curriculums to the members of Indigenous Community like the Torres Strait Islanders
- To offer holistic and suitable health service to Aboriginal and Indigenous community
Health service provided NACCHO:
The ten health services that are offered by NACCHO are listed below:
- Monitoring of the health services for community health program identification
- Inspecting different health related problems faced by the Aboriginalcommunity (Green et al., 2014).
- Informing, creating awareness, educating people as well as empowering them regarding different health related threats
- Community partnerships development for the identification and development towards solutions of health problems.
- Development of different policies for supporting the individuals and the community health efforts.
- Enforcing new laws and regulations that help in the safeguarding of the individual and the community health efforts.
- Connecting people for the health services and offering assurance for the provision of the healthcare (Green et al. 2014).
- Assurance of offering effective public as well as personal health services
- Assessment of the effectiveness of convenience and the excellence quality of the population-based services.
- Carrying out research related to the development of the strategies for the health issues.
The leading members of NACCHO include the Local Health Department and their staffs. The other members include students, former local health officials and the other individuals who are associated with the public health actively in shaping in public health policy. For being a member of Individual Membership, an individual must exhibit the history of active NACCHO membership and involvement with a local health department. Associate members of Affiliates are not the members NACCHO (Naccho.org, 2018).
The National Continuous Quality Improvement (CQI) Framework is for the development of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Primarly. For attaining the quality improvement for the direct clinical service and policies for Aboriginal people.
Th eact which is developed for this organization is Winnunga Nimmityjah Aboriginal Health Service. There are different healthcare organizations who are the members of NACCHO from different states like New South Wales, Northern Territory, Queensland, Tasmania. SA and Victoria.
Contacts and location
Telephone: 02 6246 9300
Fax: 02 6248 0644
Media/NACCHO NEWS telephone: 0401 331 251
Level 5 East Tower, 2 Constitution Avenue, Canberra City ACT 2601
PO Box 130, Civic Square ACT 2608
Issues and challenges
NACCHO encounter the problems and problems related to the provision of the healthcare and the support for the local community. One of the significant challenges is related to the obtaining of the fund for Indigenous funding for providing community services with non-Indigenous services. The team of NACCHO encounters issues related to the development of capacity and at the same time implementing and sustaining efforts for the creation of the healthy communities (Couzos & Thiele, 2016).
The organisation also encountered issues related to the prevention of racism in the organisation. The development of the strong anti-racism policies and leadership has increased the incidence of anti-immigration and far-right populism which has become a significant issue.
Personal Reflection on NACCHO
I can reflect on the NACCHO as I have been fortunate enough to obtain review from the Aboriginal people in the primary health and aged care services provided by NACCHO although I have not personally worked with them. I have come across several instances of NACCHO for which I can provide an overview and review of the functions of NACCHO. I have researched and attained information about the organization which helped to provide information in the topic. For instance, I have seen that the participants in develop a list of the issues encountered by the community.
I have seen that there are two different committees and they are Core Support Team and the Steering Committee. The former is engaged in complying with the result of the list and arranges committee for meeting while the later reviews the effect. While exploring the internet, I came across an interview with the Aboriginal patient who has lived in the aged care facility and have evaluated the divisional activities that included support and cultural activities for preventing racism and offering support.
The information gathered from the internet and from the opinion of several users has helped to provide the impression that NACCHO has focused on the fulfilment of the mission and offering culturally safe care plan to the patient. The organisation values community and works in improving the health outcome.
General issues or challenges of NACCHO
The Indigenous and Aboriginal people are highly neglected and have suffered from racism. Racial discrimination has become one of the significant problems for NACCHO and the lack of the understanding of the Aboriginal culture. The implementation of the abstract human rights norms has turned out to be a considerable challenge to the international human rights system. Another significant problem in this case include is the creation of the self-determination approach which is still not perspective enough (Davis, 2013). Self-determination on the part of the Aboriginal people would help them to different challenges and create and develop strategies for them. The two significant issues that are encountered by NACCHO are:
- Determining the control, pace and shape and bringing change and undertaking decisions often face challenges.
- Undertaking locally driven decisions also become a significant challenge in this case.
- Making the Aboriginalpeople understand about the importance of the self-determination is also a primary challenge.
- Challenges are also encountered while meeting the obligations of the state.
Australia also encounter different paradoxes related to Aboriginal people who makes up about 2.4% of the population in the country. Reports have made it evident that the Aboriginal people have undergone several disadvantages. Working with the Aboriginalpeople and offering them the best service has become a challenge (Arabena et al.2016).
The present report provides an overview of the work done by NACCHO. This organisation works for offering support related to the health and emotion to Aboriginal people of Australia. The team of NACCHO encounters issues associated with the development of capacity and at the same time implementing and sustaining efforts for the creation of the healthy communities. The organization has developed strategies for the Indigenous Aboriginal people for offering them emotional support. NACCHO has specific objectives that promoted the development of the Aboriginal people by offering adequate support and health service and fostering cooperative partnerships. NACCHO has encountered different challenges related to the provision of the service to Indigenous Aboriginal people. The different activities have benefitted them and engaging in the Indigenous learning process has helped in the understanding the Aboriginal culture. The final section of the report provides an overview of the challenges that NACCHO has encountered. Furthermore, the organization forms a vivacious and the most significant part of the Australian culture.