HSC318 Rural and Remote Health Online Tutoring

Rural and Remote Health

Executive Summary

Malnutrition is a major concern for people living in rural and remote areas of Australia, motivating them to eat healthy foods to avoid eating disorders. The health of the Indigenous peoples of the Northern Territory is worse than that of their non-Indigenous counterparts. In remote Aboriginal communities, foods high in calories and low in nutrients are often the main cause of malnutrition, and traditional foods are still an important part of the diet of some communities. Poor nutrition is a problem for many people. A poor diet can contribute to obesity, malnutrition, cardiovascular disease, type2 diabetes, and tooth decay in these communities.

The Australian government, primarily through the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) and health services, provides advice on catering services through nutrition and nutrition policies, nutrition guidelines, and national food selection guides. Enable NHMRC to build pathways to a healthier future by funding research, health guidelines, and ethical standards. A high-quality program must engage stakeholders to help accomplish goals, participate in information sessions, be part of advisory groups, offer to fund, and agree to the compilation of their data.

The health program is specifically located in the Kintore area of North West Australia with a population of approximately 410 people, of whom 376 have been identified as Aboriginal Australians. The government funding model is to ensure a fair and transparent distribution of primary care funds to achieve better health outcomes for people living in these rural and remote areas. The evaluation of this program can be done by carefully monitoring the activities of the people consulted, or by conducting a research program after a counseling time so that we can find out whether or not people have changed their diet plans after a counseling session and this session was beneficial or not.

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Key Outcome

The main objective of this program is to identify rural and remote areas of Australia and promote healthy eating in these areas to avoid nutritional deficiencies and raise awareness of the importance of nutrition to achieve a healthy lifestyle and protect against dietary abnormalities.

Key Outcome

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Target group

The main targets of this project are the inhabitants of Kintore, who face serious food deficits; the main reason for this may lie in the low level of literacy among them. As it is a rural and remote area, the people of this community are not very conscious of their health and nutrition. The target ages for awareness include young people over the age of 20, as they can better understand the importance of nutrition for healthy living and reduce nutritional abnormalities in gestational women, newborns, and children of growing age (Cusick & Georgieff, 2016; Smith, 2016). This health program will help encourage people to better adapt to the environment without nutritional abnormalities.

Stakeholders

Stakeholders are vital to the success of the health program, helping to understand the needs of the target group, offering expert advice and resources to help the program shape the planning through to the implementation stage (Handley & McAllister, 2017). Regional Plan (2019-2020) of the MacDonnell Regional Council’s initiatives focused on working with community stakeholders to improve health outcomes and well-being in the community by supporting an active and healthy lifestyle.

The main stakeholders involved in the creation of this health program include; health organizations, agencies, and individuals interested in this program. In health facilities, the main stakeholders are employers, employees, unions, company insurance funds, workers, and ministries of health. The involvement of other stakeholders is also necessary, including private sector organizations, especially those related to the healthcare industry, food producers and retailers, as well as all governmental and non-governmental organizations interested in the program (Navi et al., 2017). All the stakeholders mentioned above are significant to the continuance of this healthy eating program, but in them, some key stakeholders are exceptionally crucial to the extent that without them, the program cannot be implemented (Handley & McAllister, 2017).

Program Activity

Eating healthy is very important to maintain normal body function. In rural and remote areas there is a lack of adequate nutrition, which is why the people who live there suffer from nutritional deficiencies. Newborns in this area have hereditary defects because their mother has not received the proper nutrition necessary for the gestation period. In the same way, children also suffer from nutritional deficiencies, so they could not grow properly. The main idea of this program is to educate the inhabitants of this area so that they can do something better for themselves and adopt a healthy diet.

This program will sensitize young people in this field, who in turn will take care of their families and provide them with adequate nutrition (Brolan et al., 2019). The target population includes in particular malnourished residents and this deficiency can be easily seen by their appearance. Educating such people will help a lot with the achievement of the results. This program will focus on women who are expecting, but due to lack of knowledge, do not know what to eat to have a healthy baby. This program also includes the awareness of the elderly population, since ageing causes significant deficiencies in the functions of daily life. The achievement of successful ageing also requires adequate nutrition for the maintenance of strong bones and muscles (Davis & Bartlett, 2008; Gardiner et al., 2019; Van Gaan & Dent, 2018). It is very important to educate these people since this is a rural and remote area, so the people who live here have a high level of illiteracy. That is why consulting with these people and raising their awareness is a bit difficult and challenging. Therefore, expert counselors are needed who can understand their psychological state and advise them according to the conditions (Mills et al., 2019; Vagvolgyi et al., 2016).

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