Cultural and Social Diversity in Healthcare

Questions: The assessment require to construct an essay that compares two culturally diverse groups, one of which needs to be Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in Australia. And the other group, I would like to choose Pakistanis in Hong Kong. The essay is required to consider the following in comparing and critically analyzing the two groups: i. Current and historical events and how they have impacted on known risk factors in each cultural group ii. How health care policies and service provision have influenced health outcomes for each cultural group Answers: This essay aims to compare and critically analyze two culturally diverse groups. It will discuss the current and historical past and the way they have affected their risk factors. In addition, it will also discuss the health care policies, service provision, and the way they have affected the health outcomes for these culturally diverse groups. The comparison will be made between the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander in Australia and the Pakistanis living in Hong Kong. Both of these groups are facing the similar issues post and pre-colonization. Several steps have been taken by the governments of these two counties to stop the social issues, which they are facing. They continue to face issues related to social discrimination, social violence and social exclusion. Colonization had a powerful impact on the Indigenous Australians. Around 10,000 years ago, the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples migrated to Australia through South Asia. At the time of settlement, it was estimated that around 315000 and 750000 indigenous people lived in Australia. Then before British establishment, the population was around 1.6 billion (Gunew, 2013).The very first colonization by James Cook happened in Sydney, 1788. During the colonization, most of the indigenous population of the coastal areas was depleted, absorbed or were forced to leave their native lands along with their traditional rituals and lifestyles. The British made their establishment in Tasmania, Brisbane, Melbourne and much more. Post-colonization in the period between 1788 and 1900, the Indigenous people were reduced by 90%. (Hunter Carmody, 2015). Similar to the history of Australians, Hong Kong has also gone through the phases of colonization. The only difference is that, this place was not seen as a part of an unclaimed land by the British invaders. The British exercised the oppressive policy here instead of assimilation policy to have the control over the Chinese. The British gained power over Hong Kong through opium war, and they have unequal treaties. The discrimination, which Hong Kong suffered, was not very much similar to the Australians but they suffered the racial discrimination. The Pakistanis were mostly the helpers who were working in Hong Kong and the Chinese used to rule them (Crabtree Wong 2013). The very first and immediate result of the British settlement was seen within the initial days of the arrival, and that was the wave of epidemic disease of European nature. These diseases were small pox, chickenpox, influenza, and measles. These diseases spread more rapidly that the settlers. The majority who got affected from this were those communities where there were a large number of populations. Thus, it could be said that disease was one of the principal reason for the decline in population. The second consequence was that British took over the land and water resources of the Indigenous people of Australia. The concept behind this was that the settlers thought these people were nomads who do not have any idea about the land ownership and thus they could easily be driven off anywhere. The third consequence was that the indigenous people were spiritually and culturally connected to their lands, and when their lands were taken off from them, and then they could not bear this (You ng, 2016). By the middle of 1800, the violence and the dispossession from the colonization caused a drop in the population of Indigenous people because their survival was very difficult in such situations because they lost their family, land, culture, language and independence just in the name of colonization. Therefore, keeping this in view, the government drafted some policies for the Aboriginal people nut these were implemented by the people of non- Aboriginal. The justification given to this was that these policies were made for their own benefit (Anheier, 2014). In the first half of the 20th century, somewhere in the 1960s, the government of Australia sought to create the culture where the uniformity of white Australians could be maintained. This was pursued through the policies of assimilation which in return had adverse effects on the Indigenous people. This policy ensured that each and every indigenous could enjoy the same identity and rights as the white Australians if they absorb the European culture. In actual, the implementation of this policy further ruined the lives of indigenous people as their children were separated from their parents as the white Australians thought that the children are more acceptable in the society. This process leads to a new concept known as "Stolen Generations." (Douglas Walsh 2013). The Health care policies and service provision have influenced the outcomes of health for both the culturally diverse groups. Though the government has made many improvements for the indigenous Australians yet, there have been significant gaps in the health expectancy between the Indigenous and non-indigenous Australians. After the colonization, the indigenous Australians had the higher number of child mortality rates and fertility problems due to their exposure to the large number of diseases like measles, influenza. The people living in the remote area of the indigenous community suffer from cardiovascular activity and diabetes problem. Equity of access to healthcare services could be made better to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. In 2008, 26% of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in non-remote areas were reported to have difficulty in accessing health services, compared to only 2.6% of the general population. With the government policies and programs on dea dly choices which cover the following areas, the life of the indigenous people has improved far better and the gap has been bridged (Cotter et al.,2012). In addition, the Australian government has implemented many programs to improve the health better by focusing on alcohol and drug abuse, nutrition, smoking, hygiene and physical activity. Even the psychological effects on the people due to the lost of their land and traditional cultures, many psychological programs have also been initiated for them. The Pakistanis were among the many ethnic groups present in Hong Kong. This place also colonized by the British like the Australians. The problems face by the ethnic group could be categorized into the following categories after the colonization. The ethnic minority especially the Pakistanis had great difficulty in finding a job in Hong Kong because they were on Chinese and discrimination starts from here. They were rejected on the two bases. Firstly, they were rejected on their races and secondly they were rejected on the basis that they have not learned the language of Chinese. The same agenda was followed in the terms of their salaries (Erni Leung 2014).This was another problem with the ethnic minority because they were not given accommodation based on the racial discrimination. The reason given for not giving the accommodation to the Pakistanis was that they were poor and could not afford to pay the rent. The people living there for many years were not given also the citizenship right. They could not also go to their native places also because they dint had much of money and also the resources. This also became another problem in Hong Kong where the student was separated on the grounds of racial discrimination (Wan, 2013). There were separate schools for the ethnic and non- ethnic people. As per the number of the ethnic student present, there are not enough schools for them. When the student does not get admission in their respective school, then they are forced to turn into the vocational school. The government had not introduced any policy for them. To deal with such problems prevailing in Hong Kong, the policy of SAR government was initiated for the racial discrimination (Wan, 2013). The fact that racial discrimination was a major issue in this place and the officials had done nothing to eradicate it the SAR policy thought to eliminate it through education. The SAR government made education as the platform for eliminating the racial discrimination from the place (Erni Leung 2014). With the implementation of the policy, the government has arranged for the housing of the ethnic people and they have given the privilege that they could apply for the citizenships. They have majorly contributed to the education system where they have introduced the program known as induction program for all the new children. They also decided to pay scholarships of some amount to the ethnic student. Regarding employment, there has been the little contribution from the government side as they have just made an increment in their wages so that their family could afford the living (Liu et al., 2013). Since colonization, the healthcare policies and service provision have a deep and long-standing impact on the lives of the Indigenous individuals living in Australia (Al Amer et al.,2015). A number of the policies and service provisions had a detrimental effect on the health, emotional and social welfare together with the survival of these populations. It also has restricted their abilities to manage and direct the development in future. Several inquiries, evaluations, and commissions have inspected the impact of the former policies that were intended for these communities. A number of them have influenced the response of to the health inequalities between the Indigenous and the non-Indigenous populations (Anheier, 2014). It is very contradictory that Hong Kong is known for the world-class health care public system, yet the ethnic group struggles to access the facility due to the racial discrimination by culture and language. To have information on the health care services and facilities they always have to rely on their friends and near ones to know them about it. At times, these people cannot provide them with the accurate information, and this adversely affects their health (Liu et al., 2013). The government has also ensured that in running the centers, the quality of the system should not Detroit. The government has also introduced Hong Kong TransLingual Services (HKTS), which is a social enterprise that provides translational and interpretation services in 20 languages for the ethnic people to access the health care systems (Al Amer et al.,2015). The comparative study for the two groups is drawn, and then both similarities and differences could be seen. With respect to the impact of post-colonization, it could be inferred that both the groups were very concerned about their culture and social status, but they were deprived of both. The existing policies were different between the two groups: for example, the education system of Hong Kong was improved after post colonization but the Australians did not showed any change. The Australians faced the social problems where as the Hong Kong faced the racial discrimination (Anheier, 2014). The comaprative study has been drawn between the two groups, and the similarities and differences could be seen. With respect to healthcare policies, it could be said these policies have not been fruitful for both the communities as they dint improve their life further. The government of Aboriginal and Torres Strait realized that they have not done anything to improve their conditions. On the other hand, the government of Hong Kong accepted that the ethnics did suffered from racial discrimination, but they also dint do much to improve this but they did tried to make their situation better (Liu et al., 2013). The governments have identified that they have not been successful in the past to tackle the issues of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander concerning the provision of the health services. However, in Hong Kong it has been confessed by the Government that the issue of racial discrimination still exists. The administrators have not done a lot to legitimate the service provisi ons and the policies against the issue of racial discrimination (Erni Leung 2014). To conclude, the analysis of the current and historical events and their impact on the factors of risk in both of these culturally diverse groups have revealed the health outcomes and socio-economic of these two countries, which have not improved regardless of the several efforts made by the government. 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