Indigenous Health and Wellbeing
Student’s name
University Affiliation
Self and Cultural Reflection
Self-reflection is the ability, in which one can develop their perception of who they are, why they act or feel the way they do, and what their values are. Self-reflection goes hand in hand with self-awareness because self-reflection is exercising of thoughts attached with the readiness to learn about one ’s self to help attain self-awareness.
One of the strategies that I would use as a health professional to deliver this 58-year-old Aboriginal man culturally safe care would be reflecting on one’s feelings, culture, and viewpoints about other people. Cultural safety in the healthcare environment implies planning and giving services that assemble the requirements of patients throughout the process of cultural biases awareness, self-awareness, and methods of keenly responding to patients that will, in turn, benefit their well-being and health.
The steps involved to achieve safe cultural practice in the hospital environment for the patient include cultural safety, whereby it considered as a security practice that is received by the patient and his family since the patient got admitted to the short stay unit. For us to be able to practice cultural safety as the health facility, it would require that there be acceptance, honesty, reflection, openness, respect, and commitment from the staff and the patients. It would be able to help both parties feel comfortable during the treatment and recovery time until the patient gets discharged from the hospital. Improvement in partnership report with Indigenous or Aboriginal people recognizes that a person can only speak with authority when he or she has lived this experience. With the causes of discriminatory health, being many, the connection between culture and language in Aboriginal health settings forms a critical component in delivering cultural safety. Thus Aboriginal patients would be able to preserve his rights of determining whether the process or outcome of his experience at the inner city Melbourne hospital is culturally safe and right.
Communication Barrier
Aboriginal health points out not only the physical well-being of an individual but also the emotional, social, and cultural well-being of the whole society. Every individual can maximize their full potential as human beings, thus enhancing the total well-being of the community. An Aboriginal person is an offspring of an indigenous resident of Australia and an individual or associate of Australia’s Aboriginal race.
A barrier is a substance that acts as a stumbling block between people or things and also averts growth or communication. The communication barrier is that prevents us from understanding, receiving, and sending messages conveyed. One of the strategies that I would use as a health professional to deliver this 58-year-old Aboriginal man culturally safe care would be distinguishing and evading stereotypical barriers. The achievement through the center of attention for cultural safety in institutional care is visualized and delivered. Literature in cultural safety is scarce but on the rise. It makes communication difficult hence making racism and communication as obstacles not only when the patient is entering but also when he is received.
However, at the inner-city Melbourne hospital, the Aboriginal man can receive the best treatment and care because of the information acquired by the health facility. Thus they can prepare for Aboriginal patients through the hiring of the Aboriginal people and non-Aboriginal people. They can speak the same language so that if the patient is an Aboriginal, he can be taken care of by them without having racism or communication barrier. Cultural safety would result where there is no involuntary demoralization of the beneficiary but where the Aboriginal group is involved in the management and being part of the team’s effort to take advantage by exploiting the success of the care. By pursuing all this, through communication, the patient can know the meaning of safety by being aware of decolonizing, difference, consideration of power relationships, and implementation of reflective practices at the health facility.
Culture Shock
A person may feel disoriented or experience culture shock when he or she moves to an environment that has a different culture and an unfamiliar way of life that they are not used to or made aware of. You can only experience this when one goes for a vacation or starts living in a new country, moves between social environments, and transitions to another type of life. One can only get over culture shock by accepting and adapting to change. Some of the common problems that one goes through in culture shock are Language barriers that come about when you don’t know how to communicate in the same language as the people in that environment.
There is a generational gap in terms of the people in that environment having more experience than you. There is Information overload, which is having more information about the people and in that environment. Technology gap which is not being equipped with enough technological information or having a hole or bridge about the technical knowledge or skills that you have as compared to the people in that environment. It can bring about homesickness and boredom.
The Aboriginal group mostly experiences this when they decide to change their setting. It is because they are used to do things traditionally. They are, therefore, facing a lot of difficulties when they move either to the city or any social environment. Thus due to the Aboriginal patient being 58 years old, he may have been used to treating himself with the traditional herbs like the olden days because of his age. Therefore as a health facility, it is our responsibility to educate him about his illness. Show how to treat it when he is at home so that he can have the information at hand in case of an emergency. The health facility should be able to understand the culture shock that the 58-year-old Aboriginal patient may go through in terms of the information overload. My duty as a health facilitator is to give him the information slowly so that it may not overwhelm him, and at the same time, he may be able to understand.
Developing Trust
Trust is the ability to be able to rely upon or have faith in the truthfulness or integrity of an individual. Another strategy that I would use as a health professional to deliver this 58-year-old Aboriginal man culturally safe care is through developing trust. For trust to be able to grow, one has to be sensitive to another person’s culture. Cultural sensitivity is the ability to be able to study and become knowledgeable about people who are different from ourselves to be ready to serve them well in the society. Therefore, to achieve safe cultural practice in the hospital environment is cultural sensitivity. It is all about validating this discrepancy through respecting, understanding, accepting, and legalizing cultural differences. It all starts from the moment the patient has entered the hospital.
The life expectancy or cause of death for Aboriginal males if they are sick or have diseases and don’t have access to an excellent healthcare facility usually is from 56 years. Since he is a 58-year-old Aboriginal man, has access to a healthcare facility, and he has uncontrolled diabetes, he gets admitted for treatment. Therefore we can practice cultural sensitivity by not becoming prejudice, and getting him admitted him in a bad and secluded room or not attending to his needs and treatment. Due to cultural sensitivity, the health facility can attend to his needs by giving him the best services in terms of his room and his treatment.
For the health providers to be culturally sensitive, they are required to go through the course of introspection, personal transformation, and self-exploration so that they can understand how they formed their viewpoints and standards. It will be able to help in curbing out racism and prejudice in the health sector. As health providers, this process can be able to help us see our life understanding and its impact on others either positively or negatively due to our own beliefs, values, and attitudes. It will help in developing trust with Aboriginal patients.
Reference
Taylor, K., & Guerin, P. (2019). Health care and Indigenous Australians: cultural safety in practice. Macmillan International Higher Education.