Child Mortality Rates of Indigenous Populations

Question: Discuss about the Child Mortality Rates of Indigenous Populations. Answer: Attacks by groups of Westerners on Australia began in 1788. The alien invaders destroyed the social and the economic structured of the indigenous people, the first natives of Australia. That was soon followed by dispossession of land, suppression of culture of these indigenous people along with their language and religion and destruction of families and other social network (Alford and Muir, 2004). Australia today however is a sprawling nation with an advanced economy but not everyone is able to reap the befits such a society allow, specially the indigenous people who have been subjugated and ignored for long and have been held back through legal and social institutions set up by the invaders in this country. The government of Australia is committed to bring the opportunities and scope for the indigenous people to be able to succeed and provide a better livelihood for them, at par with what the non-indigenous people are used to. The results of help in these areas have yielded mixed r esults and significant amount of work to help bring the First Australians remain to be done. Here the focus is on the child mortality rate among non indigenous populations which have been targeted to be halved by 2018. The plans that are undertaken by the government to make this a reality will be discussed along with a few personal proposals that might be taken into account to make this easier to achieve and bring about extensive and inclusive improvement to indigenous infants and children. Though there have been significant progress made regarding decreasing the child mortality rate and the infant mortality rate, between 2010 and 2014 there have been 611 deaths of indigenous children (Closing the Gap Prime Ministers Report 2016, 2016). The child death rates have also decreased by about thirty three percent and the gap between the indigenous and non indigenous people have decreased by about thirty four percent from 1998 to 2014. One of the things which might have helped achieve this has been the increase in immunisation rates among the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children, who have higher rates of immunisation compared to other Australian children. Though there have been some progress made and much more hopefully on its way, here still remains an unacceptable difference between the child mortality rate of indigenous and non indigenous populations as the rate of child deaths among the former still remains about double of the former (Ong, 2015). A few causes of this might be identified. Firstly is that poor healthcare is often available to the non indigenous population. Since a lot for these people live in isolated colonies in the rural areas it might not be possible for the care to reach them. Antenatal, prenatal and post birth care for the mothers, which are a must among most expectant women, are slowly starting to reach all for the indigenous population. The rates of babies born with low harm rates have remained the same and have not decreased. One of the biggest reasons for this is smoking during pregnancy. Smoking is often common among such pregnant women though the rates of that too are slowly decreasing and would probably lead to a decrease in the stats of babies with low birth weights. There are also drugs and other negative influences which might be harming the child. Various organisations are supported by the government or work in collaboration with the government to keep on track for the target. Studies found that the largest im provements in the decrease in mortality occurred due to improvements of hospitals and medical home care and due to increased care during post natal, pre natal and antenatal stages. According to the healthcare framework, Government has devoted $94 million over three years to different Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander maternal and child health programmes, such as New Directions: Mothers and Babies Services which will make available more support and help for families including antenatal, postnatal and child health services. The Australian Nurse-Family Partnership Program will spread to thirteen sites from three by 2018 which will lead to more nurse led home visits during pregnancy. Also there is the Stronger Communities for Children which are for early intervention and prevention services for indigenous children. Some others are Children and Parenting Support and Communities for Children Facilitating Partners (Australian Health Ministers Advisory Council, 2015). One of the best ways to assess the strength of the solutions for a specific target is through the capabilities approach suggested by Amartya Sen. In line with the Cape York reform agenda, based on this view, work had been done to form economically viable societies. This is something which has worked previously and current plans of action may be judged based on this. A society might be thought of to be economically viable if the economy produces an acceptable level of wellbeing across a lot of capabilities and with an acceptable level of outside support. Capabilities maybe seen as those avenues which let people pursue opportunities in their life (Can Cape York communities be economically viable?, 2005). This includes education, health, employment, income, security and safety. Wellbeing of a community can be thought of to be the sum of the capabilities of all its members. However how to measure this wellbeing or capabilities for this matter has not been solved yet and that is one of th e main problems with the Closing the Gap targets. Then there is the possibility that these targets may have unplanned consequences like large scale migration out of the land and also there is no prioritising among the targets so as to determine which is most important (Biddle, 2011). To further carry on these efforts and have better results, the government should take care so as to provide better prenatal and postnatal care and try to reach as much ground as possible. Supporting not only the children, but also the parents such that they have the careers and the capability to make sure that their children thrive is a must. It has been found that supporting education as a child is better than remedial intervention later on. It has been found that welfare, if not just given as a short term measure does actually present some problems (Altman, 2006). Statistics also show that those who among the indigenous people are employed are better off than their welfare recipient counterparts but again, these people are better off than the unemployed and non welfare receiving people. With better employment and better education, comes a whole range benefits not limited to better income and thus better healthcare. This would directly lead to the decrease in the child and infant mo rtality. Also the government should carry on with their plan to provide better medical help for pregnant women and infants and children and support the all round development of the children through its support of various agencies already mentioned above. This would help in building capabilities of the children and not be limited to a mere welfare handout. The approach for the entire essay was of an urban non indigenous Australian who lives in a metropolis. One would hope to know and sympathise with all the problems and grievances of the indigenous people, especially those who live in isolated communities in rural areas but it would be impossible for someone like me to fully grasp those aspects. To conclude, it would be meaningless to not acknowledge that the solutions come from a place of relative privilege and might not reflect fully the reality of the situation. References Alford, K. and Muir, J. (2004). Dealing with unfinished Indigenous business: The need for historical reflection. Australian Journal of Public Administration, 63(4), pp.101-107. Altman, J. (2006). The Future of Indigenous Australia: Is there a path beyond the free market or welfare dependency?. Canberra: Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy Research, Australian National University. Australian Health Ministers Advisory Council, (2015). Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Performance Framework Report 2014. Canberra: AHMAC. Biddle, N. (2011). Definitions of wellbeing and their applicability to Indigenous policy in Australia, Lecture 1, Measures of Indigenous Wellbeing and Their Determinants Across the Lifecourse, 2011 CAEPRLecture Series, Canberra: CAEPR, ANU. Can Cape York communities be economically viable?. (2005). Viewpoint. The Cape York Institute for Policy and Leadership. Closing the Gap Prime Ministers Report 2016. (2016). Commonwealth of Australia, Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet. Ong, T. (2015). Rate of Indigenous child deaths double that of non-Indigenous: report. [online] ABC News. Available at: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-10-30/indigenous-children-two-times-as-likely-to-die-as-non-indigenous/6898046 [Accessed 3 Mar. 2017].