What does disadvantage look like in Queensland

In our previous post, we talked about social disadvantage as a 'wicked problem' and made the point that the most vulnerable and disadvantaged in our community experience life in a vastly different way from the least disadvantaged.  

This post needn’t be overly depressing or disempowering. Rather, it aims to give insight and reasoning as to why investing in the most disadvantaged populations is the right thing to do whilst also contributing to both social and economic opportunity.

What situations correspond to ‘disadvantage’?

In Queensland, if you fall into the most disadvantaged population category (quintile of socioeconomic disadvantage) you are:

1. More likely to reproduce at a higher rate

2. More likely to give birth to a low birth weight baby

3. More likely to smoke during pregnancy

4. More likely to be developmentally delayed as a child

5. More likely to die as an infant

6. More likely to die as a child

7. More likely to live in a single-parent household

8. More likely to be in a welfare-dependant family

9. Less likely to be participating in education at 16

10. More likely to drop out of school at grade 10, or not attend school

11. Less likely to be earning or learning between 15 and 19

12. More likely to experience rental stress

13. More likely to be unemployed

14. More likely to experience psychological distress

15. More likely to have poorer self-reported health

16. More likely to be obese

17. More likely to smoke

18. More likely to have diabetes

19. More likely to have a profound or severe disability

20. More likely to die from an avoidable death

21. More likely to die from a preventable death

What needs to happen to create change?

The good news is that we likely already have the money in our system to ensure everyone has an equal footing in life and opportunities to thrive. The bad news is that it is tied up in hospitals, corrections, emergency services and other downstream services that are doing the best they can to meet the demand created by policy decisions and societal factors that restrict people from breaking the shackles of social disadvantage.

The questions we should be asking ourselves:

• Can downstream money be repurposed toward upstream approaches focused on the foundations necessary to enable people to thrive?

• Do we have to rely on government funding to make a sustainable change or do other opportunities to capitalise exist?

• What is the smallest investment and effort needed to get the best outcomes?

• Where do we invest across the life course to ensure positive intergenerational progress?

*This data was compiled by the Public Health Information Development Unit (PHIDU) and encompasses a range of data indicators by quintiles of disadvantage. More information on the specifics of this data can be found at http://www.adelaide.edu.au/phidu/maps-data/data/

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