OBJECTIVE: To examine the elements of the Aboriginal tea ceremony and its relevance to psychiatric practice. CONCLUSIONS: Through the Aboriginal tea ceremony, the mental health professional is able to convey that care and concern balance experience and expertise. These underpinning principles have wide application. ...

Australia has embarked on a National Aboriginal Health Strategy that aims to give aboriginals equal access to health services by 2001. Although the harmful effects of colonization are now recognized, it is not possible to eradicate overnight the health problems resulting from 200 years of ...

Western health professionals often experience difficulties in service delivery to Aboriginal people because of the disparity between Aboriginal and Western health belief systems. This article reviews the literature which considers 'traditional' Aboriginal health beliefs and ...

For demographic reasons and as a result of a number of high profile health incidents in recent years, much of the health research and policy focus is on the younger cohorts of Aboriginal peoples in Canada. A critical examination of recent demographic trends reveals, however, that older cohorts of the Aboriginal ...

In this paper I will describe some of the sentinel events in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health policy and strategy during 2003 and the early part of 2004. This will involve discussion on the:� National Strategic Framework in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health� National Strategic Framework ...

in Aboriginal culture and identity, and there- by in the Aboriginal healing journey. ABORIGINAL PROGRAM and technology are all set for each teaching activity. We hope this service will improve your teaching experience a glimpse of how Aboriginal people used to take care of their ...

Story-telling, an oral tradition of the indigenous peoples of Australia, was recorded on video as a vehicle for conveying health promotion messages in several urban Aboriginal (Koori) communities in Sydney, Australia. The video was made by a group of Koori women Elders and two female Aboriginal academics. The Elders integrated their ...

Despite some recognition that Aboriginal women who have experienced breast cancer may have unique health needs, little research has documented the experiences of Aboriginal women from their perspective. Our main objective was to explore and to begin to make visible Aboriginal women's experiences with breast cancer ...

Abstract In Queensland, Aboriginal nurses are limited in number in comparison to the mainstream nursing workforce. More Aboriginal registered nurses are needed to cater for Aboriginal patients in our Australian healthcare system in view of today's burgeoning Indigenous health crisis. It is a foregone conclusion ...

OBJECTIVE: To determine whether Canadian family medicine residency programs currently have objectives, staff, and clinical experiences for adequately exposing residents to aboriginal health issues. DESIGN: A one-page questionnaire was developed to survey the details of teaching about and exposure to aboriginal ...

Evidence shows that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have the highest national percentage of morbidity in relation to diabetes. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people also suffer the greatest risk of amputation as a complication of diabetes. This participatory action research project sought to discover the opinions of a range of people, ...

There is evidence that Australia is not meeting its obligations to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples for their right to the "highest attainable standard" of health, required under the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR). Poor access to primary health care for ...

This paper focuses on the complexities of health care in Coober Pedy (South Australia) and the nearby Umoona Aboriginal community, and highlights the vital role of Aboriginal health workers in the implementation of primary health care principles. The ...

Internet-based discussion forums provide access to health information and social support, and serve as a resource for others. This investigation analyzed health-oriented Aboriginal Internet discussion forum (Forum A; Forum B) conversations. The findings were framed with Nutbeam's model of health literacy. ...

Resource accounting principles provide more effective planning for Aboriginal healthcare delivery through driving best management practices, efficacious techniques for long-term resource allocation, transparency of information and performance measurement. Major improvements to Aboriginal health in New Zealand and Australia were ...

Objective: The study aim was to identify the process underlying the performance of agency for urban-dwelling Aboriginal women in contemporary Australian society with a view to promoting social change for Aboriginal people. Method: Grounded theory methods were used in the conduct of 20 life history narrative interviews with Aboriginal ...

The major purpose of this paper is to examine how 'race' and racialization operate in health care. To do so, we draw upon data from an ethnographic study that examines the complex issues surrounding health care access for Aboriginal people in an urban center in Canada. In our analysis, we ...

Canada does not have enough aboriginal nurses and aboriginal nursing faculty. Consequently, there is an inadequate number of nurses to meet both on- and off-reserve and community health care staffing needs. In 2002, Health Canada asked the Canadian Association of University Schools of Nursing ...

BackgroundCollaborative, culturally safe services that integrate clinical approaches with traditional Aboriginal healing have been hailed as promising approaches to ameliorate the high rates of mental health problems in Aboriginal communities in Canada. Overcoming significant financial and human resources barriers, a mental ...

In the 1930s, sanatorium directors and medical bureaucrats warned of the threat to Canadian society of "Indian tuberculosis." Long-standing government policy aimed to isolate Aboriginal people on reserves and in residential schools, while their access to medical care was limited by government parsimony and community prejudice. Characterized as "racially ...

The authors critically examine the relevance of postcolonial theoretical perspectives to nursing research in the area of Aboriginal health. They discuss key theoretical underpinnings of postcolonial theory, citing differences and commonalities in postcolonial theory, postcolonial indigenous thinking, and other forms of critical theory. Drawing on insights ...

This paper discusses the methodological framework and perspectives that were used in a larger study aiming at examining the experience of working life among female Aboriginal health care workers. Currently, the voice of Aboriginal women who work in the Australian health system has not received ...

The Regional Aboriginal Integrated Social and Emotional (RAISE) Wellbeing program commenced in February 2003 as an Aboriginal mental health service partnership between one Aboriginal Health Service and three mainstream services: a community mental health team, a hospital ...

This paper reports on the first wave of results from a study exploring the views and experiences of community-based stakeholders on improving care for pregnant and parenting Aboriginal people in Canada. The issue of poor access to prenatal care by Aboriginal women and families is viewed through a post-colonial lens ...

Abstract This paper reports on research examining how service providers' perceptions of Aboriginal women's identities contributes to their experiences of accessing preventive care during pregnancy and parenting in an urban setting. An intersectionality paradigm was adopted to conduct a secondary analysis of purposively selected transcripts of exploratory ...

The plight of Aboriginal health and the question of Aboriginal health care in a remote rural community came into focus when I realised that "the system" was peppered with in-built racist beliefs and values that discriminate against and disadvantage minority groups. Cyborg theory assists the ...

Despite a growing body of critical scholarship in nursing, the concept of culture continues to be applied in ways that diminish the significance of power relations and structural constraints on health and health care. In this paper, we take a critical look at how assumptions and ideas underpinning conceptualizations of culture and ...

This article identifies significant historical and contemporary issues, programs, and progress to better understand the current policy in Australia relating to Aboriginal child health and well-being. A legislative perspective gives context to contemporary issues based on legally sanctioned historical practices specifically designed to make ...

The evident and unresolved health disparity between Aboriginal and other Australians is testament to a history of systematic disenfranchisement. Stigma, lack of appropriate services and the expense of delivering services in remote settings make it impossible to adequately address mental health needs, including suicide, solely using a ...

in liaising with Primary Health Care (PHC) professionals (e.g. GPs, Aboriginal Health Workers, Allied Health with the University's Occupational Health and Safety and Equal Opportunity Policies. ADDITIONAL REQUIREMENTS Care practitioner (e.g. GP, nurse, ...

Between 1945 and the early 1970s, both Indian Health Services in Canada (IHS), and the Alaska Native Health Service (ANS) initiated programs and activities aimed at recruiting and training nurses/nurses aides from Canadian and Alaskan Native communities. In Alaska, the Mt. Edgecumbe Hospital in Sitka acted as a training facility for Alaska Native nurses' ...

Within contemporary health care, increases in chronic disease have necessitated a disease management focus. Given that chronic disease is managed, more so than cured, there are increased demands for greater participation by health care consumers and they are expectated to take on increased responsibility for ...

BackgroundLittle is known about the use of bush medicine and traditional healing among Aboriginal Australians for their treatment of cancer and the meanings attached to it. A qualitative study that explored Aboriginal Australians' perspectives and experiences of cancer and cancer services in Western Australia provided an opportunity to analyse the ...

Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) is a serious social and health problem for the child welfare, health and education systems in North America and other parts of the world. This article describes the population of children in care of the child welfare system in Manitoba. Also this article will highlight the relevance of these ...

This paper describes theories from various disciplines that are useful in conceptualizing and reflecting on the mental health of Aboriginal women. Critical social theory (sociology), Parse's human becoming theory (nursing) and ecological systems theory (developmental psychology) are considered valuable theories that aid in nursing praxis. These papers ...

Cultural awareness is a concept that is gaining much attention in health and education settings across North America. This article describes how the concepts of cultural awareness shaped the process and the curriculum of an online health education project called Interprofessional Collaboration: Culturally-informed Aboriginal ...

To recruit doctors to rural areas, an Australian scholarship program enables undergraduate medical students to spend 2 weeks each year for 4 years at the same rural location. Case studies illustrate how four such students' participation in trichiasis and diabetic retinopathy screening benefitted the Aboriginal communities in which they worked and gave them positive experiences ...

Aboriginal youth is one of the fastest growing of all populations in Saskatchewan today. This is a prime group to target for training in the health care professions. The need for strategies to support recruitment and retention in these programs is critical for maintaining our present standard and increasing demands of quality ...

OBJECTIVE: to examine the transition of care in the postnatal period from a regional hospital to a remote health service and describe the quality and safety implications for remote dwelling Aboriginal mothers and infants. DESIGN: a retrospective cohort study of maternal health service utilisation and birth ...

BackgroundAboriginal people in Australia experience higher mortality from cancer compared with non-Aboriginal Australians, despite an overall lower incidence. A notable contributor to this disparity is that many Aboriginal people do not take up or continue with cancer treatment which almost always occurs within major hospitals.Thirty ...

A resource manual on cardiac rehabilitation education was developed for health workers providing patient education in rural and remote Queensland (Australia). A process evaluation of the manual received feedback from 5 key informants and 31 rural health care workers following a 3-month trial. Overall, feedback was positive. Recommended ...

Cross-Cultural Awareness Training has been seen as a way to improve nurses' knowledge and understanding of Indigenous peoples in Australia (Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders) and to therefore improve service delivery and therapeutic care to them. Nurses may have undertaken this type of training in their workplace or as part of nurse education in an ...

A rural and remote international clinical exchange permits the senior nursing student to experience another culture and to develop a feel for daily life and nursing practice abroad. In a student exchange between Australia and Canada, similarities exist with regard to life and work for nurses who live in these developed countries. Similarities extend to a growing population base of original ...

BackgroundDespite a lower overall incidence, Aboriginal Australians experience poorer outcomes from cancer compared with the non-Aboriginal population as manifested by higher mortality and lower 5-year survival rates. Lower participation in screening, later diagnosis of cancer, poor continuity of care, and poorer compliance with ...

Over the past 20 years, the prevalence of dental disease in Western Australian children has diminished. The causes of this significant improvement in health are associated with better care models, water fluoridation and changes in lifestyle. In this study, the authors examine the reasons for hospitalization for oral health conditions ...

Objective:? To report Aboriginal communities' views of how prolonged drought in rural NSW has affected their social and emotional well-being, and of possible adaptive strategies. Design:? Content analysis of issues, priorities and adaptive strategies raised in semistructured community forums. Setting:? Rural centres across NSW. Participants:? Aboriginal ...

Canada has an unprecedented need to increase the number of Aboriginal peoples who undertake and complete postsecondary programs. Endorsing postsecondary education for Aboriginal peoples advocates an invigorating, fortifying future for Aboriginal peoples, their families, and their communities. Additionally, the postsecondary educational ...

OBJECTIVETo understand some of the cross-cultural issues in providing palliative care to aboriginal patients.SOURCES OF INFORMATIONMEDLINE (1966 to 2005), CINAHL, PsycINFO, Google Scholar, and the Aboriginal Health Collection at the University of Manitoba were searched. Studies were selected based on their focus on ...

Murray and Ian Wronski n the city of tomorrow, the health workforce is likely to have characteristics already familiar to the bush. In much of rural and remote Australia, the medical generalist is a jack-of-alltrades; specialists function as true consultants; the clinical roles of other health care workers are extended (eg, nurses, ...

Abstract While smoking rates among Australians in general have declined over the past two decades, rates for Aboriginal Australians have remained high and continue to contribute to the overall poor health of Aboriginal people. Aboriginal health workers are proposed as one way to help reduce ...

OBJECTIVE: the Malabar Community Midwifery Link Service was developed to meet the needs of women from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities in suburban Sydney, Australia. This paper reports the evaluation from the perspective of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women who accessed the service. METHODS: a descriptive study using ...

Previous research on Aboriginal [Native American] spirituality has demonstrated that some of its dimensions have significant, positive effects on health and healing. This review will explore and highlight some important spiritual domains and characteristics of Aboriginal life that are significant factors in both the prevention of and ...

BackgroundCardiovascular disease (CVD) is the single greatest contributor to the gap in life expectancy between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians. Our objective is to determine if holistic CVD risk assessment, introduced as part of the new Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Adult Health Check (AHC), results in better identification of elevated ...

Indian reserves are the most visible reminder of the separation of aboriginal people from the rest of Canada and other Canadians. Illness patterns and social conditions in Native communities closely parallel those in developing nations. While they continue to have a large burden of infectious diseases, these groups also have an increased incidence of chronic and lifestyle ...

When participating in health care in northern Native communities, physician-teachers are challenged to understand community development, treat diverse manifestations of illness and socio-cultural strain, and provide opportunities for students and residents to learn the skills, knowledge, and attitudes that will promote the health of ...

The Tsawout First Nation and the University of Victoria entered into an innovative reciprocal partnership to seek ways to increase the number of aboriginal health care professionals, particularly nurses, and to develop a nursing curriculum that is culturally safe. This article describes the pilot project as it unfolded and demonstrates ...

Background:? The Winnunga Nimmityjah Aboriginal Health Service Aboriginal Midwifery Access Program (AMAP) was established in 2001 to provide antenatal care, birth support and postnatal care to clients in the Australian Capital Territory (ACT). Aim:? To describe the uptake and impact of AMAP ...

Poor access to prenatal care for Aboriginal people is well documented, and is explicated as an unethical barrier to care resulting from colonial and neocolonial values, attitudes, and practices. A postcolonial standpoint, participatory research principles, and a case study design were used to investigate 2 ...

1. The health of Aboriginal people in the Northern Territory of Australia is among the worst in the world, with mortality rates increased in every 'disease-specific' category and averaging overall approximately five-fold those of non-Aboriginal Australians. Health services, which in most regions are rudimentary, ...

This is a summary report of the Aboriginal content of the Language and Culture theme at the Canadian Public Health Association's Second Canadian Conference on Literacy and Health. Our key premise is that Indigenous conceptualizations of literacy need to build on Indigenous understandings and perspectives. We support this premise ...

The Australian Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission visited over 50 communities throughout Australia to assess the state of human rights in rural, regional, and remote Australia. Education and health services predominated the discussions. Rural children, especially Aboriginal children, have lower school attendance and completion rates than urban ...

Impaired vision and blindness are two serious health problems in Australian Aboriginals. In an initiative known as the Visual Impairment Prevention Program (VIPP) commonwealth funding was made available to each state/territory to improve eye status of the Aboriginal population. The South Australian Department of Human Services selected ...

Objectives: Traditionally, First Nations maternity care was provided by community-based midwives trained through apprenticeship. Obstetrical practices and beliefs were integrated to provide holistic care. The Sioux Lookout Meno Ya Win Health Centre has a mandate to be a centre of excellence for Aboriginal ...

The health problems of Aboriginal Australians, like those of many indigenous peoples, resemble those of the developing world, yet they are dealt with using the tools, techniques, and high-technology medical solutions of first-world health. Such approaches ignore the social components of health and illness, ...

Although international agreements set the framework for research ethics, countries vary in their interpretation and execution. The Government of Canada guidelines are based on the Tri-council policy statement: ethical conduct for research involving humans (2005) and the new CIHR guidelines for health research involving Aboriginal people (2007). In this ...

The number of rural hospitals offering maternity care in British Columbia has significantly declined since 2000, mirroring trends of closures and service reductions across Canada. The impact on Aboriginal women is significant, contributing to negative maternal and newborn health and social outcomes. The present qualitative case study ...

Recent literature has highlighted issues of racial discrimination in medicine. In order to explore the sometimes subtle influence of racial determinants in decisions about resource allocation, we present the case of a 53-year-old Australian Aboriginal woman with end-stage renal failure. The epidemiology of renal failure in the Australian Aboriginal ...

Increasing evidence demonstrates that the Aboriginal population experience greater health disparities and receive a lower quality of health care services. The Canadian Nurses Association (CNA) code of ethics states that nurses are required to incorporate culture into all domains of their nursing practice and ...

Using the evidence of articles on Native and Inuit health in Canadian medical and public health periodicals, this paper will show that medical professionals defined Aboriginal health in terms of isolation. Notions of isolation influenced how Aboriginal bodies were depicted as "primitive" and ...

Promoting cultural competency in health care was examined from the Canadian perspective, and explored practice environments and educational programs for future health professionals that foster cultural awareness and support culturally sensitive care. Many of the issues raised are generic and likely to occur ...

intended us is for non-commercial purposes, written permission is obtained from Cancer Care Ontario, and full acknowledgement is given to the publisher.

Health was a prominent policy issue in the 1972 Australian federal government elections, and the policy of the new Labor Government at that time emphasised the regional approach to health service delivery, including community-based services and preventive health programs, in close cooperation with the states. The Hospitals and ...

Persistent perceptions of deficit and conflict have characterised and constrained the history of relations between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Australians since contact. The success of their saturation is apparent in a continuing approach that presents the response to Aboriginal needs in terms of health and ...

This paper analyses recent health reform agenda in Canada. From 1988 until 1997, the first phase of reforms focused on service integration through regionalisation and a rebalancing of services from illness care to prevention and wellness. The second phase, which has been layered onto the ongoing first phase, is concerned with fiscal sustainability from a ...