Health Priorities in Australia examines Australia’s health care system and the health status of Australians, investigating, in depth, the current health priority issues for Australians.
Post written by Clare Faulkner (1st in the state PDHPE and 3rd in the state Ancient History). See all articles first and personally get in touch with our state rankers here
It’s no lie that mostly everyone who studies PDHPE would find Health Priorities one of the more boring modules. It’s got heavy and quite dry content, and there’s no way around how much memorisation it requires.
However, if you understand the purpose of the module, it is much easier to achieve better marks. In this module, what they want you to learn is how to evaluate our current health system and the different ways we are trying to improve to become a healthier nation. It is important to have this evaluative perspective when approaching Health Priorities.
Being Critical
It is important to develop an understanding of both the positives and negatives of different facets of the health care system in order to better answer questions. Some examples of past questions that need this knowledge are:
Describe how the use of epidemiology can be limiting when measuring the health status of Australians? (4 marks)
If you had simply studied what epidemiology was and what it offered for health care, this would seem like an impossible question. But if you fill your notes for this section with tables that contain the positives and negatives of epidemiology as a health measure, the question is a lot easier.
Here’s another question:
To what extent is access to health care facilities and services equitable for all Australians (8 marks).
- This is a holistic part of the syllabus that looks at a whole lot of dot points all in one question.
- Need to analyse the equitable parts of our health care system in comparison to the current problems in health care access.
- Health care services and facilities are moderately equitable for all Australians due to subsidy screens and an increased focus on fair allocation of resources. However, specific issues that remain in the health system reduce equity.
Priority Health Groups
A crucial part of the syllabus is evaluating the issues of Priority Population Groups, and how these issues are being addressed. Because these often come up as 5–8 markers, it is important you have a solid understanding of the following points for both ATSI and one other group (low SES is a good one).
- The circumstances of their living and an overview of the group.
- Health inequalities — list of their main health issues and the rates of morbidity/mortality/life expectancy in comparison to typical Australian statistics. Also include rates of injury, smoking, risk taking etc.
- Determinants — be specific, if possible give examples of the pay gap, rates of unemployment, etc. Have solid points for each of the subsections: sociocultural, socioeconomic, and geographical.
- Role of individuals, communities and government — what structures and programs are in place, and what the responsibility of each group SHOULD be. I.e. analyse what exists, and what could improve. For example, a government program I always discussed for ATSI was Close the Gap as it addressed multiple determinants.
The Ottawa Charter
The Ottawa Charter is the backbone of the Health Priorities unit as it underscores Australia’s approach to health promotion, services and treatments. It is crucial to evaluate how it informs our approach to, and success in, various health strategies.
The basic strategies for health promotion are prioritized as:
- Advocate: The dimensions that affect factors of health must be changed to encourage health.
- Enable: Health equity must be reached where individuals must become empowered to control the determinants that affect their health, so they can reach the highest attainable quality of life.
- Mediate: Health promotion cannot be achieved by the health sector alone; rather its success will depend on the collaboration of all sectors of government (social, economic, etc.) as well as independent organizations (media, industry, etc.).
A fantastic website for understanding the Ottawa charter and evaluating its success is: http://www.who.int/healthpromotion/conferences/previous/ottawa/en/index1.html
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Below is a list of health promotions to look up which can help your Ottawa charter answers, and how the Ottawa charter addresses the social justice principles:
- National Tobacco Strategy
- McGrath Foundation — Curve Lurve — breast cancer and body positivity
- Mandatory PDHPE/government curriculum
- Close the Gap
- National Aboriginal community Controlled Health service — e.g. mobile breast screen initiative
- Royal flying doctor service
- Go for 2&5
- Meals on wheels
- Support groups, e.g. alcoholics anonymous
- Breast screens, pap smears, prostate cancer checks
- NSW multicultural health communication services
Please leave any questions you have about specific sections of the health priorities syllabus in the comments section!
Post written by Clare Faulkner (1st in the state PDHPE and 3rd in the state Ancient History)
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