News Archive > Aboriginal Health Book Released

Aboriginal Health Book Released

30 June 2007

The experience of racism and its effects on health, government processes which can make people sick and improved health by aboriginal people from living on or managing their own lands are among the subjects covered in a new Aboriginal Health Book.

The book is authored by Bronwyn Carson, Richard Chenhall and Ross Bailie from the Menzies School of Health Research in Darwin and Terry Dunbar, an Iwaidjan person from the north-west Arnham region and a Senior Research Fellow in the Faculty of Education, Health and Science at Charles Darwin University with contributions from writers throughout Australia.

It gives a systematic overview of the impact of social and political factors on the health of Australia’s Indigenous population.

The book examines why Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander groups suffer Fourth World standards of health and the causes for such poor health outcomes.

It was launched by Aboriginal health advocate and the Director of the Central Australian Aboriginal Health Congress Stephanie Bell.(pictured right)

She told Private Hospital the book is an important resource particularly in classrooms that will contribute to the understanding, recognition and debate about the underlying causes of the poor health status of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

“I think it’s a resource beyond just students and is for the general public to see what the underlying causes of our poor health status are and that people will start to recognise that it’s complex and it’s multi-sectorial.

“The book gives people an understanding of racism within a systemic system, what that means and how racism contributes to the lack of access for people.

“I think it also gets people to understand, I think, that health disparities experienced by us is everybody’s business and if we all understand what are the complexities you all have a role, wherever you work, to break down those barriers” she said.

Ms Bell said the way health professionals communicate and provide a service to people becomes critical in terms of their engagement in the system.

“If there is an appreciation of where the population you’re dealing with comes from then they are treated as if they are the same as everyone else when in fact that is not the case for the majority of aboriginal people.

“Their social standing in society is part of why we are still at a level of poor health status is the way in which the broader society engages with us, I think that’s what people need to understand, racism comes in different shapes and forms.

“If we can understand our role within the sector we work and break down those barriers then the access for people will become much greater and their health will improve even on the basis of that” she said.

The book also examines why government policy processes can make people sick, how health services can influence policy on Aboriginal housing, employment and education while it outlines a framework for effective health interventions which takes social factors into consideration.

It also looks at the positive health aspects to aboriginal people from living on and managing their own lands which Ms Bell said is backed up by a recent study through Melbourne University.

“It showed that people living on their land, maintaining a semi-traditional lifestyle, at this point in their life are not suffering chronic disease so I think on the basis of that study and other evidence, does prove that people living in the right circumstances can enhance their life expectancy” she said.

Further details on the book can be found at:
www.allenandunwin.com/Shopping/ProductDetails.aspx?ISBN=9781741751420

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