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Centre for Research Excellence:
Strengthening Systems for Indigenous
Health Care Equity
Indigenous Health Strider's Scoop
 
Issue #13
July 2021

Dear STRIDErs,

We have news to celebrate!  After much yarning with primary care services and their needs for an effective patient experience reporting tool, we have received funding for our VOICE project!  Thanks to Emma Walke and Megan Passey for facilitating the successful grant with leadership from eight Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander PHC services located in diverse geographies across four states/ territories.


Connection to Country is a fundamental determinant of our wellbeing.  STRIDE has partnered with the Healthy Environment and Lives (HEAL) Network to develop over the next few months a discussion paper for the Lowitja Institute on Climate and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health.  This will lead into a roundtable discussion in late September with the National Health Leaders Forum and the Climate and Health Alliance from which key policy recommendations will be made.  We hope this will be the start of a growing body of work within STRIDE focused on intersectoral connections to strengthen cultural determinants.

Many thanks to Rox Smith for her leadership during the early days of STRIDE.  Rox has moved on to lead the development of policy for improved sustainable housing outcomes for community with the New South Wales Aboriginal Land Council.  We will remain connected with Rox to continue our shared learning… healthy and sustainable housing being crucial to health and wellbeing.  Recruitment is underway for a new STRIDE Manager.

In addition to the Manager position, we have in the job pipeline four other STRIDE roles: one to lead the developmental evaluation; and three to lead development of research programs in health promotion and prevention (at UTS), community engagement (at JCU) and strengthening health systems (at USyd, UCRH).  While the positions are aligned to specific work areas of STIRDE, we expect the roles to work together to further build our holistic, integrated work program.  The JCU position is out now (see below for further information).  More positions will hit the airwaves soon to support the VOICE project.

Continued impact from the COVID pandemic has slowed our plans for a return to face-to-face meetings.  Our thoughts are with the communities currently experiencing lockdowns and with the front-line staff working tirelessly to keep our communities safe.  Amongst all this uncertainty, we are working towards holding regional STRIDE meetings where it’s safe to do so.  We will provide updates as progress continues.

In the meantime, tune into our monthly webinars.  The next two are focused on healthy minds and spirit.  Next month, Dave Edward and Talah Laurie from the deadly WellMob crew will yarn about digital wellbeing resources and in September, Uncle Terry Donovan and Louise Lavrencic from NeURA present Ngarraanga Giinganay (‘thinking peacefully’): A culturally-grounded mindfulness-based stress reduction program co-designed with older Aboriginal people.

Speaking of wellbeing, our Deadly Poets group is flourishing.  We meet fortnightly for half hour on a Friday morning over a cuppa to reflect and share.  It’s a safe, encouraging space to de-stress and unwind in a creative way.  This Deadly Poets ‘living anthology’ will be published on our website which is coming soon.  As a taster, see below a poem from Raekeeta Smallwood created during our reflections on Healing Country for NAIDOC week.  Everyone is welcome, please join us by letting us know via the STRIDE email.

Take care and keep connected.

Warm regards,
Veronica and Ross

Great news for VOICE!
In exciting news, the VOICE project team were successful in their application to the MRFF for funding! The VOICE project grew out of discussions between services, researchers and other stakeholders over quite a number of years, with many, many people contributing to its development. These groups identified a need to develop a validated Patient Reported Experience Measure (PREM) to capture Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples’ experience of primary health care. This is just what the VOICE project aims to achieve!

This four-year project is co-led by Emma Walke and Megan Passey (UCRH), together with a great team of researchers, service and policy partners:

Chief Investigators:

Roxanne Bainbridge (CQU), Ross Bailie (UCRH), Bronwyn Silver (Congress), Sarah Larkins (JCU), Catrina Felton-Busch (JCU), Paul Burgess (NT Gov), Veronica Matthews (USyd), Erika Langham

Associate Investigators:

Sean Taylor (NT Gov), Ellaina Wingate (CWAATSICH), Rahul Bhoyroo (NTPHN), Girish Swaminathan (ACSQHC), Samantha Smorgon (RACGP), Kaley Butten (QAIHC), Marni Tuala (NCPHN), Deb Askew (UQ), Shana Quayle (AH&MRC), Louise Patel (AMSANT).

Service Partners:


Central Australian Aboriginal Congress (NT), CWAATSICH (Charleville and Western Areas Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Community Health) (Qld), Minjilang Community Health Centre (NT), Gunbalanya Community Health Centre (NT), Nunkuwarrin Yunti (SA), Inala Indigenous Health Service (Qld), Bullinah Aboriginal Health Service, Bila Muuji Aboriginal Corporation Health Service.

Successful application:
Lowitja Discussion Paper on Climate and Health

Veronica Matthews, alongside other STRIDErs (Kris Vine & Ross Bailie), led a successful application for CRE-STRIDE and the Healthy Environments And Lives (HEAL) Network to develop a discussion paper on climate and health for the Lowitja Institute.  Outlining the complex environmental and climate change processes impacting both directly and indirectly on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples health and wellbeing, this paper will be used to inform discussions and provide recommendations for policymakers at the upcoming Climate and Health Roundtable in September, hosted by the National Health Leadership Forum and the Climate and Health Alliance.

Working to some tight timeframes, the project team has expertise in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health and cultural determinants of health, climate change science, the impact of environmental changes on human health, and the social, economic and policy context of climate change adaptation and mitigation in Australia. 

In recognition that connection to Country is an integral part of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander identity, beliefs, knowledge systems and cultural practices, this is a welcome opportunity in an area of urgent need.

Position Vacant: JCU/STRIDE Research Officer/
Senior Research Officer (Identified)

Come and join the STRIDE team!  Applications are now open for a Research Officer/Senior Research Officer with James Cook University.

The role will contribute to the development of the STRIDE research program and eventually lead research projects, with a particular focus on community engagement in strengthening PHC systems (including governance/workforce) via quality improvement.


This is an identified position for Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander people, and will be based in Townsville, Cairns, Mt Isa or Lismore.

Applications close on 12th August 2021.

For more information, visit the JCU Academic Jobs site, here, or download the position description below.

download position description
Deadly Poets Society: Guni Ma Calls
by Reakeeta Smallwood

Guni ma calls,
Can you hear?
Can you listen?
Guni ma calls
Can you hear
Can you listen
Guni ma calls, it’s time.
Time to return to her sacred place, dance upon the sacred ground
Guni ma calls
Can you hear?

Can you Listen?
Her drum echoes through spaces in time
In spaces they can not listen
Guni ma calls
Can you hear?

Can you listen?


Reakeeta Smallwood, one of STRIDE Deadly Poets Society members, is a proud Calala (Tamworth) Murri yinaar from the Gamilaroi nation.  She is a recipient of a University of Technology Sydney Indigenous Jumbunna Postgraduate Research Scholarship and PhD Candidate in the Indigenous research paradigm.  Reakeeta utilises Indigenous Storywork to understand Aboriginal young peoples narratives of historical trauma and its impact on their lives, families, communities and how they see individual/collectives ways to overcome such trauma.  She is a new poet – but loves the freedom of expanding and creating thought through words and patterns.

Research Capacity Strengthening Webinar:
WellMob - 19th August 2021

Please join us on Thursday, 19th August 2021, for our next Research Capacity Strengthening webinar: 'Keeping our mob well in the digital space: WellMob website', presented by UCRH researchers David Edwards and Talah Laurie.

The WellMob website is this country’s first online library of over 200 videos, apps, podcasts and other websites on Indigenous social and emotional wellbeing (SEWB). It’s been designed to help our diverse health and wellbeing workforce to find and share online wellbeing resources with our mob. This includes school counsellors, youth workers, family support, D&A and NDIS workers, GPs, psychologists and other allied health professionals.

The webinar will cover how and why WellMob was co-developed with our Indigenous health and wellbeing workforce. Based on a broader Indigenous SEWB framework, learn about the types of online wellbeing resources that have been linked to WellMob that are culturally responsive and broader than just mental health. Find out how to navigate the WellMob website and discuss ways you think our deadly workforce can implement dSEWB tools in their work and in their client-centred practice.

Talah Laurie and David Edwards work part time at the University Centre for Rural Health (a part of University of Sydney) and helped develop the website under the national eMHPrac (e-mental health in practice) project in collaboration with the Australian Indigenous HealthInfoNet.

CRE-STRIDE Research Capacity Strengthening Webinars are free of cost and open to all. Please feel free to share this through your networks.

To register, click on the link below.

For more information, please contact STRIDE Project Officer, Kerryn Harkin.

register here
download flyer
New STRIDE publications

Congratulations to co-lead authors Michelle Redman-MacLaren and Nalita Nungarrayi Turner and the LEAP project team co-authors for their new publication, 'Respect Is Central: A Critical Review of Implementation Frameworks for Continuous Quality Improvement in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Primary Health Care Services'.

Congratulations also to Jodie Bailie, Alison Laycock, Veronica Matthews and Ross Bailie for their recent publication, 'Increasing health assessments for people living with an intellectual disability: lessons from experience of Indigenous-specific health assessments'.

You can also read their Viewpoint article, 'Intellectual disability: a path to better care', published in MJA Insight.

Please feel free to share these new publications through your network.  All are open access.   

Publications
STRIDE Publications

Redman-MacLaren, M., Turner, N., Taylor, J., Laycock, A., Vine, K., Thompson, Q., Larkins, S., Carlisle, K., Thompson, S., Bailie, R., Matthews, V. (2021). Respect Is Central: A Critical Review of Implementation Frameworks for Continuous Quality Improvement in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Primary Health Care Services.  Frontiers in Public Health. 9, 926.  

Bailie, J., Laycock, A., Matthews, V., Bailie, R. (2021) Intellectual disability: a path to better care. Medical Journal of Australia, Insight (5th July 2021).

Bailie, J., Laycock, A., Matthews, V., Bailie R. (2021) Increasing health assessments for people living with an intellectual disability: lessons from experience of Indigenous-specific health assessments. Medical Journal of Australia. 215 (1): 16-18.e1.

Other Publications

Topp, S. M., Tully, J., Cummins, R., Graham, V., Yashadhana, A., Elliott, L., & Taylor, S. (2021). Unique knowledge, unique skills, unique role: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Workers in Queensland, Australia. BMJ Global Health, 6(7), e006028.

Canuto, K., & Finlay, S. M. (2021). I am not here for your convenience.  (Editorial).  Australia and New Zealand Journal of Public Health.

 

 
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We acknowledge the traditional custodians of country throughout Australia and recognise their continuing connection to land, waters and community.  We pay our respects to them and their cultures; and to Elders both past and present.
 
The NHMRC funded Centre of Research Excellence: Strengthening Systems for Indigenous Health Care Equity (#1170882) is a collaboration between researchers, policy and service delivery partners who have a long-standing commitment to improving Indigenous primary health care.

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