This study, led by Indigenous scholars at the University of Queensland, examines the health and social outcomes of Indigenous peoples and health workers during pandemics in urban settings. The study incorporates systems thinking, emphasising new approaches to complex problems. The research highlighted systemic challenges in pandemic responses, emphasising the need for policy reform, particularly in areas like housing.
This paper examines the persistent health and socioeconomic disparities experienced by Indigenous and Pacific Islander populations in the U.S. and New Zealand, highlighting how structural racism underpins these inequities despite differing healthcare systems. By situating Native Hawaiians, Pacific Islanders, and Māori within their shared cultural and historical contexts, the study underscores the need to address systemic racialized barriers to improve health outcomes for these minoritized groups.
The authors find that urposefully including insights of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultural ways of being and doing and a specific focus on the structural drivers of inequity in access, health and social outcomes burdened by this population group may contribute to effectively caring for the additional unique social and emotional wellbeing needs of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander consumers of aged care.
The findings contribute to a deeper understanding of the unique social and emotional wellbeing needs of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples accessing home-based aged care services and have significant implications for current and future aged care reforms in Australia.
