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Reflection 4

The document discusses the importance for healthcare practitioners, such as chiropractors, to understand how Aboriginal Australians view health and healthcare differently than Western cultures. It notes that past healthcare programs have failed because they did not incorporate Aboriginal perspectives and decision-making into the programs. The document advocates that practitioners must learn about Aboriginal holistic views of health, which include social, environmental, and cultural factors, to provide appropriate care. It also stresses the need to accommodate different patient beliefs and understand their perspectives on health topics.

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41 views

Reflection 4

The document discusses the importance for healthcare practitioners, such as chiropractors, to understand how Aboriginal Australians view health and healthcare differently than Western cultures. It notes that past healthcare programs have failed because they did not incorporate Aboriginal perspectives and decision-making into the programs. The document advocates that practitioners must learn about Aboriginal holistic views of health, which include social, environmental, and cultural factors, to provide appropriate care. It also stresses the need to accommodate different patient beliefs and understand their perspectives on health topics.

Uploaded by

api-479716004
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Aboriginals and different views on Health Care: understanding the

importance of the differences in cultural perceptions of health care

While It may yet be some time till I come into contact with an indigenous Australia when I
am practising chiropractic. It is important for me to understand how they view health care
and how it would differ from my own views.

The best place for me to see how indigenous Australians differ in their views on health care
and see where western medicine has failed in the past concerning integrating Aboriginals
views on health into our current health care system would be online literature. Combining
what has been supplied on Moodle with what else I can find through the library resources.

To ensure I understand the differences in how western culture views health care and how
aboriginals do I must first see where we have failed in the past to understand how
indigenous Australians view their health. A study by Thomson, N 1984, found that “the key
to Aboriginal self-determination is power. In terms of medical and health programs, this
means significant decision-making power in the planning and implementation of specific
programs. For, despite their possible worth from a medical viewpoint, those programs
which deny Aborigines decision-making power are, in the current climate, doomed.” This
suggests that in the past we have pushed health care programs that did not take into
account the views or beliefs of Aboriginals but rather how we as a western culture view
health. A report in the Open Medical Education Journal, detailed that, “A culturally diverse
patient population requires that medical educators modify their teaching and learning
approaches and philosophies in order to take into account cultural health attributions,
beliefs, and practices of patients who medical learners will encounter” (Vaughn, L, M et al
2009). This advocates that to be successful in understanding Aboriginal health or the health
of a different culture we must take into account all factors of what that population believes
to be factors of their health. In the case of Indigenous Australians, this would include
understanding that they follow a more holistic view on health so things such as Social,
environmental, cultural factors need to be accounted for.

Once I become a practising Chiropractor I will need to ensure that when I come into contact
with a new patient of a different background whether they are indigenous Australians or
from another ethnicity, that I accommodate to their beliefs and to my best ability
understand what they require. As it seems clear that when the views and beliefs on things
such as health care are forced onto others without first understanding how the patient
views that topic, it is ultimately destined to fail.
References:

Thomson, N. (1984). Australian Aboriginal health and health-care. Social Science and
Medicine, 18(11), 939-948. Retrieved from https://www-sciencedirect
com.ezproxy.cqu.edu.au/search/advanced?docId=10.1016/0277-9536(84)90264-8

Vaughn, L, M., Jacque, F., Baker, R, C. (2009). Cultural health attributes , beliefs and
practices: Effects on healthcare and medical education. The Open Medical Education
Journal, 2, 64-74. Retrieved from chrome
extension://oemmndcbldboiebfnladdacbdfmadadm/https://pdfs.semanticscholar.o
g/33fa/8f655bbb2b64b68916686ab20b5a21c66a9c.pdf

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