1). Explanation of Professional Standpoint as it Applies to Cultural Competence
According to the new statistics that was carried out, it is clear that the life expectancy between the indigenous Australians and the nonindigenous Australians remains around one decade (Singer, et.al, 2015). Filling the gap that exist in life expectancy between the indigenous and the nonindigenous Australians is very important as it helps in ending the disparities on the life expectancy of the Australians. Between the years 2009 and 2013, more than eighty percent of the indigenous deaths were of people below the age of seventy-five (Singer, et.al, 2015). This means that it was twice the rate of the nonindigenous Australians. It has been so hard to close the gap between the indigenous and the nonindigenous people because of the following three reasons. To begin with, the laudable policy ambition failed to match with the radical change in the way business is carried out in the indigenous affairs. Secondly, the stated policy goals that have been by the government failed to match with the policy actions of the indigenous people. Lastly, the measures that were intended to achieve targets have not been evaluated and revised well. It is beneficial that we already know why it has been so difficult to fill the gap that exists in life expectancy between the indigenous Australians and the non-Indigenous Australians. Given the opportunity of leading this initiative, I will make sure that the health workers who will be employed will be highly skilled in interacting with members of the community. The skills of the health workers will be very important as it will make it easier for them to develop and maintain the good relationship with the people in the community. This will help in improving the health outcomes of those people in that community. I believe by engaging the local community; we shall be able to carry out the project.
2). Factors Relevant to the Project
Firstly, when it comes to employing the indigenous community workers, their level of education will be considered. This is a social factor. The health workers who will be recruited should be well educated, and they should have the ability to interact with people from different cultures. This is because the employment will be on targeted locations across Australia and hence, those employed should be able to work with different people. Cultures are different and hence, people from different cultures are being handled differently (Moran, 2009). The second social factor is we shall target the youths. This is because we need people who will be very flexible and able to move from different places. Unlike committed parents, the youths will have all their time in carrying out the project. Institutional factors deal with routines, norms, and rules that guide the behaviour of a person (Moore, 2017).
The institutional factors related to this project are as follows. First and foremost, those people who are willing to be employed should be willing to follow our rules and regulations. They should at all time adhere to the code of conduct of the employees. This is because rules and regulations are the key factors that make an organization stand and achieve its goals and objectives. Failing to adhere to the code of conduct that will be given, the employee will stand the chance of losing the job opportunity. In summary, the social factors that have been discussed in this paper are; education level and age.
Once the health care workers have been recruited, there will be ethics governing them. Ethics means the body that is responsible for the behaviour of individuals in a workplace (Singer, et.al, 2015). The three ethical issues that will govern the healthcare employees are; the privacy and the confidentiality of the people of the local community. As mentioned above, a community consists of different people, and hence, they have different issues. It is important for the health workers to maintain the privacy of the people and their confidentiality. Secondly, sexual relationships between the recruited health workers and the people of the local community are highly prohibited especially during the project. Sexual harassment will, of course, be considered a crime (Gale " Bolzan, 2013). This is because it is harmful to both the parties involved. The code of ethics is explicit about this because it is a very sensitive matter that may affect the project. As it has been mentioned, the health care workers who are going to be recruited should be of sound mind so that the rules, regulations, and norms that are given to them can be able to be helpful to them. Thirdly, honestly is another code of ethics that will be used by the recruited healthcare workers. Honesty is a very important virtue. This is because it can jeopardize the success of the project. This is a project that requires crucial information and therefore, for the project to be successful, those people who are involved in the project should be honest people. Another ethical issue is fairness. If I get the chance of leading this initiative, I will make sure that I use the fairest mode of recruiting the employees. I know the employees who will be interested will be very many, but I will go for the most qualified regarding education level and age. I will make sure that I am not biased. Recruiting employees fairly will help the project to be successful.
3). Principles of Building a Collaborative Partnership
Collaboration is a key factor in the success of any projects especially this project that needs the ideas of the people of the local community. People are usually successful in the environments which they are free to work together and communicate well. When a project has its focus on collaboration, the involved members will be able to communicate freely and work together and that way, it will be easier for the organization to achieve its goals and objectives. The principles that will be applied in building and establishing collaborative partnership with the indigenous community representatives when carrying out the project of closing the gap in life expectancy between the indigenous Australians and the non-indigenous Australians are as follows; creation of clear and compelling cause, giving the communication expectations, establishing relevant goals and leveraging the strength of the people of the local community. Firstly, when the compelling and clear cause has been created, the representatives of the indigenous people will have a convincing reason to be part of the project. This will make it easier for the representatives of the indigenous group to be inspired (Carlson, 2013). What is expected of the representatives of the indigenous people should be communicated to them for them to know what they are supposed to do for the project to be successful. Establishment of goals and objectives will also be the strategy that will be used. Aforementioned is important as it will guide the health workers and the representatives of the indigenous group. The last principle that will be used is leveraging the strengths of the health care workers and the representatives of the indigenous people. This will empower the two parties to always work on their strengths and not on their weaknesses. Once the four mentioned above have been used, there will be a collaborative partnership between the health workers and the representative of the indigenous people.
References
Carlson, B. (2013). The "new frontier": Emergent Indigenous identities and social media. In M. Harris, M. Nakata " B. Carlson (Eds.), The Politics of Identity: Emerging Indigeneity (pp. 147-168). Sydney: University of Technology Sydney E-Press.
Gale, F., " Bolzan, N. (2013). Social resilience: challenging neo-colonial thinking and practices around "risk." Journal of Youth Studies, 16(2), 257-271.
Moore, R. (2017, June 12). History textbooks still imply that Australians are white. The Conversation. Retrieved September 10, 2018, from https://theconversation.com/history-textbooks-still-imply-thataustralians-are-white-72796
Moran, A. (2009). What settler Australians talk about when they talk about Aborigines: reflections on an in-depth interview study. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 32(5), 781-801.
Singer, J., Bennett-Levy, J., " Rotumah, D. (2015). "You didn't just consult the community; you involved us": the transformation of a ‘top-down' Aboriginal mental health project into a ‘bottom-up' community-driven process. Australasian Psychiatry, 23(6), 614-619.
