Marlene Drysdale
The health of Indigenous Australians continues to highlight the appalling high statistics in areas that clearly have been declining for non-Indigenous people. Mainstream health organizations and some professionals have neglected to provide the services or the training to deal with the complexities of Indigenous health. As a result, Aboriginal clients who have experienced reluctant service and negative attitudes towards them often feel alienated by a system developed and mandated to provide quality service for the health of all who use its' services.Aboriginal health has long term illnesses in their communities such as mortality, morbidity rates, respiratory diseases, diabetes, cardiovascular disease and communicable diseases that have been a cause for concern in Indigenous communities for decades with very few favourable outcomes from highly skilled medical teams, health professionals and researchers.Today, youth in our communities are contributing to the levels of poor health by the overuse of substances that often lead to early death, brain damage and other health problems.