Table 3.
Conditions increasing sensitivity and constraining adaptive capacity of Aboriginal heath systems to climate change.
| Determinant | Sensitivity | Adaptive capacity |
|---|---|---|
| Economic poverty | • Individual/household level: unhealthy activities, habitation in hazardous locations, poor nutrition | • Individual/household level: constrained access to finical resources, weakening of sharing networks |
| Low household income, income disparity, high unemployment | • Institutional level: limited resources, other policy priorities | |
| Technological capacity | • Constraints to access to information on existing and new health risks limited | • Ability to identify emerging risks, provide early warning, and develop proactive adaptation constrained |
| Constraints to health care access, limited early warning/surveillance, high turnover of health personnel | • Reluctance to seek medical advice | • Reduced trust in medical system |
| Socio-political values and inequality | • Cultural activities (traditional foods, camps etc) sensitive to climatic conditions | • Reduced ability to effect needed change |
| Marginalization, house overcrowding, food insecurity, cultural links to the land, history of oppression through medical system | • High burden of ill-health | • Directs political attention to other, non-climate related, issues |
| • Reluctance to seek medical advice | • Adaptation may not be possible to cultural impacts which imply irreversible loss | |
| Constrained institutional capacity | • Constrained ability of heath systems to identify emerging risks | • Limited long term strategic planning |
| Jurisdictional conflict over health care provision, human and financial resource limits | • Local understaffing | • Limited institutional memory |
| • Lack of trust creates reluctance to seek medical advice | • Jurisdictional ‘turf wars’ | |
| • Local capacity hampered by high staff turnover | ||
| Information deficit | • Limited understanding of climate change-related health risks | • Lack of knowledge on what to adapt to, available options, and how they would be developed and implemented |
| Limited number of vulnerability assessments specifically at local levels | ||