scholarly journals Improving Indigenous health through better medication management: an overview

2005 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 17 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charlotte de Crespigny ◽  
Inge Kowanko ◽  
Helen Murray ◽  
Carolyn Emden ◽  
Scott Wilson
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health Problems ◽  
Service Providers ◽  
Aboriginal People ◽  
Indigenous Health ◽  
Medication Management ◽  
Indigenous Australians ◽  
Emotional Wellbeing ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Social And Emotional ◽  
Department Of Health

This paper provides an overview of a major South Australian research project with implications for the health of all Indigenous Australians. The researchers set out to explore the medication needs of Aboriginal people with mental health problems and found that most Aboriginal people have to deal with profound challenges to social and emotional wellbeing with significant medication implications. No previous research had investigated the problem of medication use by Aboriginal people in metropolitan, rural and remote locations to the depth and extent of this project. The research therefore is of widespread relevance and holds interest for many Indigenous and non-Indigenous individuals and groups, consumers, service providers and policy-makers. As a research team comprising Indigenous and non-Indigenous members, we were committed to implementing strategies in the course of the project with immediate benefit to project participants as well as longer-term impact on improved use of medications. The design of the project enabled these strategic interventions and we are pleased to promote this model to other researchers. Recommendations from the project concern services, coordination of care, carers and family members, workforce education, and community development. Readers are advised where the project report and other published papers can be accessed. The project was funded by the Commonwealth Department of Health and Ageing.

scholarly journals Better medication management for Indigenous Australians: findings from the field

2005 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 80 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carolyn Emden ◽  
Inge Kowanko ◽  
Charlotte de Crespigny ◽  
Helen Murray
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Health Services ◽  
Living Arrangements ◽  
Mental Health Problems ◽  
Aboriginal People ◽  
Medication Management ◽  
Aboriginal Health ◽  
Health Problems ◽  
Indigenous Australians ◽  
Drug Problems

This paper reports findings from interviews and focus groups conducted within a multi-dimensional action research project concerning medication management among Indigenous Australians. Participants were Aboriginal people with mental health problems, carers and family members, and health and social service workers from different regions in South Australia. A meta-analysis of findings from each regional project component was conducted, and major themes conceptualised and developed into a coherent summary. The findings revealed problems of a magnitude not previously realised - mental health problems (including alcohol and drug problems) and medication management among Aboriginal people clearly are major issues requiring immediate and sustained attention if the health and welfare of the Australian Indigenous population are to be improved. Findings concerned eight major areas: social and emotional wellbeing issues; stressors on Aboriginal health services and providers; training for the Aboriginal health workforce; mainstream health services for Aboriginal people; trust and confidentiality within Aboriginal health services; English language literacy and numeracy skills of Aboriginal clients; remote living arrangements for many Aboriginal people; problems with alcohol use; and institutionalised and individual racism in the community at large.

scholarly journals A scoping review about social and emotional wellbeing programs and services targeting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young people in Australia: understanding the principles guiding promising practice

2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Himanshu Gupta ◽  
Noemi Tari-Keresztes ◽  
Donna Stephens ◽  
James A. Smith ◽  
Emrhan Sultan ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Young People ◽  
Torres Strait Islander ◽  
Aboriginal People ◽  
Program Planning ◽  
Promising Practices ◽  
Emotional Wellbeing ◽  
Social And Emotional ◽  
Torres Strait ◽  
Social And Emotional Wellbeing

Abstract Background Multiple culturally-oriented programs, services, and frameworks have emerged in recent decades to support the social and emotional wellbeing (SEWB) of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander (Aboriginal) people in Australia. Although there are some common elements, principles, and methods, few attempts have been made to integrate them into a set of guidelines for policy and practice settings. This review aims to identify key practices adopted by programs and services that align with the principles of the National Strategic Framework for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples’ Mental Health and Social and Emotional Wellbeing 2017–2023. Methods A comprehensive review of electronic databases and organisational websites was conducted to retrieve studies of relevance. Twenty-seven publications were included in the review. Next, we identified promising practices through a collaborative review process. We then used the principles articulated in the above-mentioned framework as the basis to complete a framework analysis. This enabled us to explore the alignment between current scholarship about SEWB programs and services with respect to the principles of the framework. Results We found there was a strong alignment, with selected principles being effectively incorporated into most SEWB program and service delivery contexts. However, only one study incorporated all nine principles, using them as conceptual framework. Additionally, ‘capacity building’, ‘individual skill development’, and ‘development of maladaptive coping mechanisms’ were identified as common factors in SEWB program planning and delivery for Aboriginal people. Conclusion We argue the selective application of nationally agreed principles in SEWB programs and services, alongside a paucity of scholarship relating to promising practices in young people-oriented SEWB programs and services, are two areas that need the urgent attention of commissioners and service providers tasked with funding, planning, and implementing SEWB programs and services for Aboriginal people. Embedding robust participatory action research and evaluation approaches into the design of such services and programs will help to build the necessary evidence-base to achieve improved SEWB health outcomes among Aboriginal people, particularly young people with severe and complex mental health needs.

scholarly journals The role of the oral microbiota in chronic non-communicable disease and its relevance to the Indigenous health gap in Australia

2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Matilda Handsley-Davis ◽  
Lisa Jamieson ◽  
Kostas Kapellas ◽  
Joanne Hedges ◽  
Laura S. Weyrich
Keyword(s):  
Oral Health ◽  
Indigenous Health ◽  
Communicable Disease ◽  
Indigenous Communities ◽  
Indigenous Australians ◽  
Oral Microbiota ◽  
Oral Diseases ◽  
Emotional Wellbeing ◽  
Health Gap ◽  
Systemic Health

Abstract Background Aboriginal Australians and Torres Strait Islanders (hereafter respectfully referred to as Indigenous Australians) experience disproportionately poor health and low life expectancy compared to non-Indigenous Australians. Poor oral health is a critical, but understudied, contributor to this health gap. A considerable body of evidence links poor oral health to increased risks of other chronic non-communicable conditions, such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease, chronic kidney disease, and poor emotional wellbeing.  Main The oral microbiota is indisputably associated with several oral diseases that disproportionately affect Indigenous Australians. Furthermore, a growing literature suggests direct and indirect links between the oral microbiota and systemic chronic non-communicable diseases that underpin much of the Indigenous health gap in Australia. Recent research indicates that oral microbial communities are shaped by a combination of cultural and lifestyle factors and are inherited from caregivers to children. Systematic differences in oral microbiota diversity and composition have been identified between Indigenous and non-Indigenous individuals in Australia and elsewhere, suggesting that microbiota-related diseases may be distinct in Indigenous Australians.  Conclusion Oral microbiota research involving Indigenous Australians is a promising new area that could benefit Indigenous communities in numerous ways. These potential benefits include: (1) ensuring equity and access for Indigenous Australians in microbiota-related therapies; (2) opportunities for knowledge-sharing and collaborative research between scientists and Indigenous communities; and (3) using knowledge about the oral microbiota and chronic disease to help close the gaps in Indigenous oral and systemic health.

Anthropologists & Sudanese Refugees: Cultural Exchange in the Heartland

2003 ◽  
Vol 25 (4) ◽  
pp. 3-8
Author(s):  
Mary Willis ◽  
Robert Hitchcock
Keyword(s):  
Service Providers ◽  
Refugee Resettlement ◽  
Community Members ◽  
Social Service Agencies ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Department Of Health ◽  
University Of Nebraska Lincoln ◽  
The University ◽  
Sudanese Refugees ◽  
Resettlement Programs

For nearly two decades, Lincoln, Nebraska has served as a refugee resettlement site for programs administered by the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR), a division of the Administration for Children and Families, within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). Recently, anthropologists from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL) have begun collaborations with (1) Nebraska HHS, (2) social service agencies, (3) resettlement programs, (4) health departments and service providers, (5) churches, (6) policy makers, and (7) Sudanese refugee community members to increase mutual understanding of US and African cultures and to highlight the relevant skills, ideologies and needs each brings to the domestic resettlement process. This paper describes some of the ongoing applied research among Sudanese refugees and emphasizes the need for, and appropriateness of, development anthropologists working within domestic resettlement programs and systems.

scholarly journals Does Australia have the appropriate health reform agenda to close the gap in Indigenous health?

2013 ◽  
Vol 37 (2) ◽  
pp. 232 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ronald Donato ◽  
Leonie Segal
Keyword(s):  
Healthcare System ◽  
Primary Healthcare ◽  
System Performance ◽  
Health Reform ◽  
Aboriginal People ◽  
Indigenous Health ◽  
Indigenous Australians ◽  
Reform Agenda ◽  
Reform Strategy ◽  
Performance Gains

This paper provides an analysis of the national Indigenous reform strategy – known as Closing the Gap – in the context of broader health system reforms underway to assess whether current attempts at addressing Indigenous disadvantage are likely to be successful. Drawing upon economic theory and empirical evidence, the paper analyses key structural features necessary for securing system performance gains capable of reducing health disparities. Conceptual and empirical attention is given to the features of comprehensive primary healthcare, which encompasses the social determinants impacting on Indigenous health. An important structural prerequisite for securing genuine improvements in health outcomes is the unifying of all funding and policy responsibilities for comprehensive primary healthcare for Indigenous Australians within a single jurisdictional framework. This would provide the basis for implementing several key mutually reinforcing components necessary for enhancing primary healthcare system performance. The announcement to introduce a long-term health equality plan in partnership with Aboriginal people represents a promising development and may provide the window of opportunity needed for implementing structural reforms to primary healthcare. What is known about the topic? Notwithstanding the intention of previous policies, considerable health disparity exists between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians. Australia has now embarked on its most ambitious national Indigenous health reform strategy, but there has been little academic analysis of whether such reforms are capable of eliminating health disadvantage for Aboriginal people. What does the paper add? This paper provides a critical analysis of Indigenous health reforms to assess whether such policy initiatives are likely to be successful and outlines key structural changes to primary healthcare system arrangements that are necessary to secure genuine system performance gains and improve health outcomes for Indigenous Australians. What are the implications for practitioners? For policymakers, the need to establish genuine partnership and engagement between Aboriginal people and the Australian government in pursuing a national Indigenous reform agenda is of critical importance. The establishment of the National Congress of Australia’s First Peoples provides the opportunity for policymakers to give special status to Indigenous Australians in health policy development and create the institutional breakthrough necessary for effecting primary healthcare system change.

scholarly journals Ngara Dyin

2017 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-16
Author(s):  
Mary Goslett ◽  
Vanessa Beavan
Keyword(s):  
Black Women ◽  
Cultural Identity ◽  
Aboriginal People ◽  
Direct Consequence ◽  
Growing Up ◽  
Emotional Wellbeing ◽  
Remote Areas ◽  
Social And Emotional ◽  
Aboriginal Women ◽  
Senior Women

The marginalised position and unequal health status of Aboriginal people in Australia are a direct consequence of the trauma and dispossession of colonisation. Aboriginal women experience even greater levels of distress and ill health than Aboriginal men, and are more disadvantaged than any other group of women in Australia. While strength of cultural identity leads to increased social and emotional wellbeing (SEWB) and reduced socioeconomic hardship, Aboriginal people in urban and regional areas suffer greater discrimination and resultant psychological stress than those in remote areas; they are additionally subjected to accusations of inauthenticity. Improving Aboriginal women’s SEWB is pivotal in advancing Aboriginal SEWB overall. This research has explored nine regional Aboriginal women’s experiences of culture and identity by a process of deeply listening to each woman: Ngara Dyin (Dharawal language). The aim was to discern means to strengthen cultural attachment and enhance positive cultural identity for this group of women, and consequently their community. Through the process of interpretive phenomenological analysis, seven interdependent overarching themes were developed: walking and talking black; it’s not easy growing up in a white society; we sit down and listen; connection to Country; strong black women; the way forward; and, wanting that magic. Decolonising approaches to increasing Aboriginal women’s SEWB dictate that understandings of culture and identity must be informed and guided by the very people whose experience is being sought, and these women clearly indicate the need for strengthened cultural connection through funded gatherings and connections with senior women from remote areas.

scholarly journals “We Are Not Stray Leaves Blowing About In The Wind”: Summing Up The Impact of Family Wellbeing Empowerment Research, 1998-2021

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nirukshi Perera ◽  
Komla Tsey ◽  
Marion Heyeres ◽  
Mary Whiteside ◽  
Leslie Baird ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Research Impact ◽  
Theory Of Change ◽  
Indigenous Australians ◽  
Research Translation ◽  
Emotional Wellbeing ◽  
Social And Emotional ◽  
Scoping Reviews ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Social And Emotional Wellbeing ◽  
Family Wellbeing

Abstract Background: An Aboriginal-developed empowerment and social and emotional wellbeing program, known as Family Wellbeing (FWB), has been found to strengthen the protective factors that help Indigenous Australians to deal with the devastating legacy of colonisation and intergenerational trauma. This article reviews the research that has accompanied the implementation of FWB over a 23 year period to assess the long-term impact of FWB research and the strengths and limitations of the impact data. This will inform more comprehensive monitoring of research impact.Methods: The study took a theory of change approach, following the steps of a research program logic, to assess impact. A mixed methods evaluation of publicly available research outputs was conducted. We analysed FWB participation data and research funding using descriptive statistics. We conducted systematic scoping reviews of: 1) nine evaluative studies to show reported social and emotional wellbeing benefits of FWB; and 2) seven FWB research translation-related resources to show impact of research outputs on further reach and uptake. Results: The investment of $2.3 million in research-related activities over 23 years resulted in a range of research outputs that evidenced social and emotional wellbeing benefits arising from participation in FWB. This evidence, in part, facilitated more demand for FWB. Overall the FWB program, and accompanying research, had a direct positive impact on the social and emotional wellbeing of approximately 7,500 participants.Conclusions: The study raised a range of issues relevant to demonstrating research impact in the context of Indigenous health research including the value of a logic model that is informed by Indigenous research principles; the need to take a longer-term incremental approach to building evidence when dealing with complex or messy social health interventions; and the importance of collecting evidence, especially from the point of view of end users, about the extent to which research influenced their decisions and actions regarding the program. This lesson, and the impact logic, highlight that researchers need to create appropriate databases from the beginning and collect data well beyond the life of the project, even though we acknowledge that such endeavours are rarely funded.

On country: Identity, place and digital place

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 111-123
Author(s):  
Kit Devine
Keyword(s):  
Digital Media ◽  
Aboriginal People ◽  
Emotional Health ◽  
Ice Age ◽  
Indigenous Australians ◽  
Truth Telling ◽  
Social And Emotional ◽  
The North ◽  
Western Shore ◽  
History Of

Place is central to the identity of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. The Narrabeen Camp Project explores the use of immersive technologies to offer opportunities to engage with Indigenous histories, Storytelling and cultural heritage in ways that privilege place. While nothing can replace being ‘on Country’, the XR technologies of AR and VR support different modalities of engagement with real, and virtual, place. The project documents the Stories, Language and Lore associated with the Gai-mariagal clan and, in particular, with the Aboriginal Camp that existed on the north-western shore of Narrabeen Lakes from the end of the last ice age to 1959 when it was demolished to make way for the Sydney Academy of Sports and Recreation. The project will investigate evolving Aboriginal Storytelling dynamics when using immersive digital media to teach culture and to document a historically important site that existed for thousands of years prior to its demolition in the mid-twentieth century. It expects to generate new knowledge about Aboriginal Storytelling and about the history of urban Aboriginals. Expected outcomes include a schema connecting Aboriginal Storytelling with immersive digital technologies, and truth-telling that advances understanding of modern Australia and urban Aboriginal people. The research should promote better mental, social and emotional health and wellbeing for Indigenous Australians and benefit all Australians culturally, socially and economically.

scholarly journals From Digital Mental Health to Digital Social and Emotional Wellbeing: How Indigenous Community-Based Participatory Research Influenced the Australian Government’s Digital Mental Health Agenda

2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (18) ◽  
pp. 9757
Author(s):  
James Bennett-Levy ◽  
Judy Singer ◽  
Darlene Rotumah ◽  
Sarah Bernays ◽  
David Edwards
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Participatory Research ◽  
Indigenous Health ◽  
Community Based Participatory Research ◽  
Indigenous Community ◽  
Emotional Wellbeing ◽  
Community Based ◽  
Community Partners ◽  
Social And Emotional ◽  
Social And Emotional Wellbeing

This paper describes the first six years of a government-initiated project to train Indigenous health professionals in digital mental health (d-MH). It illustrates how community-based participatory research (CBPR) methods were used to enable this “top-down” project to be transformed into a ‘ground-up’ community-guided process; and how, in turn, the guidance from the local Indigenous community partners went on to influence the national government’s d-MH agenda. The CBPR partnership between five community partners and a university rural health department is described, with illustrations of how CBPR harnessed the community’s voice in making the project relevant to their wellbeing needs. The local Indigenous community’s involvement led to a number of unexpected outcomes, which impacted locally and nationally. At an early stage, the conceptual framework of the project was changed from d-MH to the culturally-relevant Indigenous framework of digital social and emotional wellbeing (d-SEWB). This led to a significant expansion of the range and type of digital resources; and to other notable outcomes such as successful advocacy for an Aboriginal-specific online therapy program and for a dedicated “one-stop-shop” d-SEWB website, Wellmob, which was funded by the Australian government in 2019–2021. Some of the implications of this project for future Indigenous CBPR projects are discussed.

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