Measuring the social and emotional wellbeing of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples

Measuring the social and emotional wellbeing of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples provides a picture of the social and emotional wellbeing of Indigenous Australians using data from the 2005-05 National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Survey (NATSIHS) and a range of administrative datasets.

The report also assesses the interim module that was developed to measure social and emotional wellbeing used in the 2004-05 NATSIHS, and makes a number of recommendations to improve measures of social and emotional well-being.

This report is a useful resource for policy makers, administrators of programs and researchers with an interest in issues affecting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

Key findings from the 2004–05 NATSIHS were:

• Over one-quarter (27%) of Indigenous adults reported high or very high levels of psychological distress.

• Indigenous Australians were twice as likely to report high or very high levels of psychological distress as non-Indigenous Australians.

• Almost one in 10 Indigenous Australians had visited a doctor or health professional in the 4 weeks prior to interview due to feelings of psychological distress.

• In relation to life stressors, four in 10 Indigenous adults indicated that they or their family or friends had experienced the death of a family member or close friend in the previous year, 28% reported serious illness or disability and 20% reported alcohol related problems.

On the other hand:

• Over half of Indigenous adults reported feeling calm and peaceful (51%) and/or full of life (55%) all or most of the time.

• Nearly three-quarters (71%) reported being happy in the last 4 weeks.

• Other data sources also indicated that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders have poorer social and emotional wellbeing than non-Indigenous Australians:

• The rate of community mental health service contacts for Indigenous people was more than twice that for non-Indigenous people.

• Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people were twice as likely to be hospitalised for intentional self-harm as non-Indigenous people.

Follow this link to download the full report (384KB PDF).

Visit the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare website.

Source: communityNet