Australia's closing the gap safe communities policy for indigenous people

Introduction Closing the gap is a government strategy that is aimed at reducing disadvantage among the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. This is a commitment that has been made by all Australian governments to achieve among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health equality in 25 years. Closing the gap has 7 building blocks namely early childhood, economic participation, governance and leadership, health, healthy homes, safe communities, and schooling. We will analyze and critique safe communities within this paper. The safe community building blocks focus on ensuring that indigenous people live in a safe home and community. The indigenous people are highly disadvantaged and it is vital to address the underlying factors to ensure that indigenous people live in a safe community away from violence, abuse, and neglect (Minuzzo, 2016, p. 1). Safe communities in indigenous health are defined as reducing the number of hospital cases that are related to violence. In a safe community, violence is not allowed and people live harmoniously with each other. This ensures that people are understanding and accepting of one another, which will eliminate the injuries people suffer due to violence. The general health of people will also improve since there will be a reduction of mental health cases and children will not be traumatized due to the violence they experience when they are young. Violence is part and parcel of many communities and not just the indigenous communities. However, the level of violence seen in indigenous communities is alarming and this causes an increased number of hospitalizations especially for women. There is a need to ensure that all indigenous people live without violence and fear. Without a stable and safe community, any investment in areas like housing and education will fail to have the desired impact on the community. Without safe communities, the number of people who visit health facilities will continue to increase and the health of the indigenous people will deteriorate (Higgins & Al-Yaman, 2011, p. 8). There is a trickle effect that is caused by violent communities, especially on children. Mental health problems and a lack of proper care will result in the individual being imprisoned for crimes related to substance abuse and family violence (Rowley et al., 2008, p. 285).

Purpose of Safe Communities Policy Literature has shown that indigenous Australians are more likely to experience child abuse and neglect, other forms of violent crime and family violence, and be incarcerated than is the case with non-indigenous Australians (Krieg, 2006, p. 535). This is the major reason that has led the Australian Government to push for safe communities and it has prioritized this building block. The safe community policy aims at addressing the high rates of violence that also include family violence in indigenous communities, reducing the high rates of indigenous incarcerations, and focusing on child safety in the early years. Who is the policy solution aimed at? The safe communities’ policy is aimed at Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. Indigenous people are highly likely to be hospitalized due to family violence than the wider community. The cases of hospitalization for indigenous females have been 32 times higher than those of non-indigenous females. This indicates that there is a considerable amount of family violence that occurs within the indigenous communities.
The proposed solution is safe communities and it aims at engaging the communities and offering them services like counseling services to assist in reducing the cases of violence in the community. Without a safe community, it will not be possible to improve the health outcomes of indigenous people. Family violence has considerable effects on the family and could result in other mental conditions. Safehouses have been created where victims of violence can seek shelter and support. There are also preventative approaches that are aimed at preventing the occurrence of violence within the community.
Reducing the incarceration rates amongst the indigenous people will benefit the community mainly because a majority of the crimes that they are incarcerated are due to the continued marginalization that has occurred from the colonization times. The social disadvantage that is compounded by most of the indigenous people having substance abuse and mental health issues cannot be rectified using the prison system. Indigenous people have a different culture than the one of non-indigenous people. Therefore, the safe communities’ policy should be geared towards solving the underlying issues faced by indigenous people from their perspective and not from the perspective of non-indigenous people.
The problem implied is that Indigenous communities have been shown to live in crowded conditions that have been associated with poorer self-reported mental health (Bailie & Wayte, 2006, p. 179). The high rates of domestic violence are contributed towards by the social stress associated with overcrowding, which in turn results in the poor mental health of the victims of violence and the children. According to Marmot (2011, p. 512) the rates of drug and alcohol abuse amongst the indigenous people are alarming and there is a need to address the key drivers of increasing youth and young adults being involved in substance abuse. This will assist in reducing the increasing incarceration rates. The policy aims at looking at these problems and identifying solutions that are culturally based and will be in line with the culture of the indigenous people. Using this model will allow the indigenous people to embrace the policy and make the necessary changes to reduce the cases of substance abuse.
To ensure that indigenous people do not come into contact with the child protection or justice systems the safety of children must be focused on especially in the early years. This will strengthen the indigenous families and they will understand the importance of offering their children the care the child needs. This is also linked to violence within the family since a violent home is not considered to be a haven for a child. What is missing from this version of the problem is the policy fails to consider that women who experience violence on a daily basis are not likely to offer the requisite care for their children. The first step should be to train the women and offer them the care they need so they can in turn be able to care for their children in a non-violent manner. Therefore, without a safe community or home, most indigenous parents will come into contact with child protection services since the child will have been neglected or the child will be facing abuse at home. Available Literature According to literature, it is not surprising to establish that the majority of cases that result in incarceration amongst the indigenous people are violence-related offences. The Australian Bureau of Statistics (2017d, p. 1) has indicated that 11,307 prisoners identified themselves as being indigenous, which represented 27% of the total prison population in Australia. These high rates could be associated with the fact that most of the prisoners are re-offenders. The rates of reoffending amongst the indigenous prisoners are 76% compared to 49% of non-indigenous prisoners (Martin, 2015, p. 2). Considering that the most common cases are violence-related, then it is vital that the safe community policy is implemented. This will assist in reducing the cases of family violence and will train young people on strategies for avoiding violence (Weatherburn & Ramsey, 2016, p. 3). Violence does rob indigenous children of their futures since it creates an intergenerational cycle of violence that engulfs the communities. This cycle results in more and more indigenous people being imprisoned for violence-related cases denying them a bright future (Shepherd, Ogloff, & Thomas, 2016, p. 9). Therapeutic services for indigenous children who have been affected by family violence will assist the children to break the cycle of intergenerational violence. These services are offered within the community in safe places where the children can be comfortable. Having a trained professional to offer the services ensures that the therapy sessions are fruitful and beneficial to the children.
There is a high rate of smoking and drinking among indigenous Australians (Al-Yaman, 2017, p. 2). Numerous reports have been published indicating the increasing number of indigenous Australians who take up drinking and smoking (Lovett, Thurber, & Maddox, 2017, p. 2). The negative habits are passed on to children who are also likely to take up the same habits when they are mature or even in some cases before they attain 18 years. The mental health of indigenous Australians has always been questioned and this could be due to the marginalization effects and lack of jobs for the indigenous people. Most are left with no choice but to take up drinking and substance abuse. Effectiveness of Safe Communities Policy The policy has been quite effective in delivering what was intended. To prevent family violence, the government has established the Building Better Lives for Ourselves (BBLFO) program that empowers indigenous women to address and stop the effects of intergenerational trauma and violence within their communities. This program has already trained about 150 indigenous women and it has transformed the lives of the women who have participated in it. These women now can apply the new skills they have learned and address the issues of importance in their regions. Since the launch of the policy it is surprising to discover that it has only reached a small number of women. Women are the backbone of the community and the policy should have focused on the women since they are the ones who experience violence the most. Looking for ways to incorporate women should have been the first step to enable the policy to be effective. Most studies that have been looking at the causes of violence in the indigenous communities have found that women who smoke and drink are more likely to be violent on their children. The policy should look for ways to reach to these women to break the intergenerational cycle of violence.
The government has been working to ensure that children are kept at home and out of the child protection system. The Intensive Family Support Service (IFSS) program aims at reducing child neglect by working with vulnerable families to improve parenting capability, which in turn keeps children safe, at home, and in their communities. This program has been successful in reducing the number of children who are in the child protection system. There have been improvements in the areas of physical care and emotional development. Parental supervision in providing health care to the child has also improved. Since the inception of the program, there have been increases in school attendance, respect between parents, and better communication. Program Success The programs and strategies that have been employed by the government for safe communities have been successful so far and they seem to be quite sustainable (Holzinger & Biddle, 2018, p. 11). The major aim of the government is to ensure that it can train and educate the indigenous people so that they can make changes in their lifestyles. Involving the local community and having a culturally sensitive approach has made the approaches sustainable since the people who are trained can train others in the community. Supporting parents and encouraging them to take their children to school will ensure that the cycle intergenerational violence is broken and children can focus on their studies and their future (Jorgensen et al., 2017, p. 2). Educated children are less likely to participate in criminal activities or are involved with substance abuse (Biddle, 2015, p. 4). This is vital since the children will not fall into the same trap that their parents have found themselves in and the community will experience changes.
The current policy is lacking in that it has only managed to make slight improvements, which means that the policy should be restructured with a focus on strategies that are acceptable to the indigenous people. The policy should focus on being culturally acceptable and not merely focus on the problem being solved. This way it will be adopted and accepted by the community. The policy is restricted in terms of indigenous people seeking health services. The number of violent victims who visit a health facility is few and this makes the policy less effective not unless it can be targeted to people who are also not visiting health care facilities. Barriers The policy if followed and implemented properly will bring about considerable changes within the indigenous communities. However, there are challenges to implementation and the most common is lack of support from local leaders. The indigenous leaders might not understand the aims of the policy and they can dissuade their communities to ignore the policy, which will result in the policy implementation failing. Lack of proper housing is another barrier to safe communities. Indigenous people have no access to proper housing and this makes it hard for them to focus on government policies. There is a need to give to ensure that indigenous people have access to quality housing for the policy to be effective. The lack of housing contributes to increased crimes and reoffending among indigenous people. This is because they have no source of money and they need to have shelter, so they are forced to participate in substance abuse or crime. Overcrowding increases tensions and stress making the communities prime areas for violence due to minor things.
The assumption made by this policy is that indigenous people need assistance to overcome their challenges. The policy assumes that it understands the issues at hand, while the underlying issues are that the indigenous people have been marginalized and forced to adopt western cultures that are no in line with their culture. This has made it hard for them and they are forced to participate in activities that are not favorable for their health. The problem should be analyzed from the perspective of the indigenous people. Policy Improvements To improve on the policy, it is vital to get the community leaders on board. These leaders will then communicate and encourage their members to participate int eh activities and programs, which will make them effective. Cultural barriers to access should be eliminated and the programs should be designed with the indigenous people in mind. Failure to make the programs culturally appropriate will discriminate against most of the community members and they will not be willing to participate. Housing has been a great issue, and to reduce the stress families face, the government should look for ways to make housing available to the people and reduce the overcrowding. This will reduce the cases of violence and released prisoners will have a place to go once they are out of prison.