Comparative Analysis of Australian Aboriginals, Torres Strait Islanders, and the First Nations of Canada :: Equality Health Human Development Essays

Comparative Analysis of Australian Aboriginals, Torres Strait Islanders, and the initiative Nations of CanadaINTRODUCTION E character reference in health implies that ide anyy everyone should pass water a fair opportunity to attain his or her full health potential and, more reasonably, that no one should be disadvantaged from achieving this potential. Based on this definition, the aim of policy for equity and health is not to eliminate all health differences so that everyone has the same level and quality of health, but preferably to reduce or eliminate those which result from factors which are considered to be evitable and unfair. To appreciate the importance of striving for equity in relation to health, it is inevitable to be aware of just how extensive are the differences in health found in the world today. In every part of the region, and in every type of political and social system, differences in health have been noted between different social groups and between diff erent geographical areas in the same country (Whitehead 2000). There is consistent evidence that inequalities in health result in disadvantaged groups having poorer survival chances, suffering a heavier burden of illness, and sharing a similar rule of low quality of purportspan The poor health of the Australian Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islanders is well known. Since the 1970s, fatality rate rates have been declining, but life expectancy has not changed and the bedspread between the Aboriginal population and the total Australian population has widened. This pattern contrasts with that of the Indigenous population of Canada where marked improvements in health have occurred. From that standpoint, this newsprint will discuss the important issues of health care inequalities that exist with the Aboriginals in Australia and compare them to those which subsist in the First Nations of Canada. POPULATION OF AUSTRALIAAustralians have among the highest life expectancy in the world a nd most have ready assenting to comprehensive health care of high quality. In the 1995 National wellness Survey, 83% of Australians aged 15 or over reported their general health as excellent, very good or good (ABS 1997). The total life expectancy in 2000 was high for both men and women be 76 years and 82 years respectively. In terms of disability-adjusted life expectancy (DALE), Australia ranks in 2nd place after 191 countries (WHO 2000). In 1998, males at birth could expect to rest for 63.3 years without experiencing major disability and women could live for 57.