Partnering with Aboriginal people
and communities
We amplify the voices of Aboriginal people and Aboriginal health staff to understand the needs of community, and co-design culturally appropriate healthcare innovations.
“We need to prioritise integrating Aboriginal ways of being and doing into all aspects of healthcare. We need to embed equity across the system, and then we may have better health outcomes in Aboriginal communities.”
Kristen Ella, Associate Director, Aboriginal Health and Wellbeing and proud Yuin woman
Lifting the voice of Aboriginal communities in healthcare innovation
Our new Aboriginal Health and Wellbeing stream is the catalyst for how all teams at the ACI will integrate an Aboriginal health lens into their work. This ensures new innovations are culturally appropriate, informed and meet system needs.
The team enables us to improve how we engage with our Aboriginal partners in health and enhance the value we deliver to the NSW Health system.
This is how we keep an Aboriginal voice at the forefront of all health innovation projects, and how we work with our stakeholders and the community towards achieving the NSW Aboriginal Health Plan 2024–34.
Working with partners to improve diabetes care for Aboriginal communities
We are partnering with Aboriginal health staff and the community to progress the Diabetes in Community Aboriginal People (DiCAP) project, which aims to improve care and outcomes for people living with type 2 diabetes.
- An initiative of our Aboriginal Chronic Conditions and Diabetes and Endocrine Networks, this project gathered experiences and stories from 370 Aboriginal community members living with type 2 diabetes, and healthcare staff.
- 30 themes were identified and 11 themes have been prioritised into focus areas.
- Working groups were formed across seven regions in NSW to design local solutions that respond to community and staff needs.
- Each region has, or is currently, implementing these solutions in partnership with Aboriginal health and diabetes services.
Local solutions improving access to care
- 100+ Aboriginal people living with type 2 diabetes have used the new dedicated Aboriginal diabetes maintenance clinic at Port Macquarie, led by an Aboriginal health practitioner model.
- Diabetes education modules are being delivered in regional and remote primary schools, by Aboriginal health practitioners with LHD diabetes staff.
- The Western Sydney Diabetes Service is delivering capability sessions (in person and virtually), focused on culturally safe diabetes care.
- A Workforce Exchange Program between Aboriginal Medical Services and LHD diabetes services is building respectful relationships, establishing diabetes governance structures and developing staff capability focused on culturally safe care and best practice clinical care.
Aboriginal health services and communities inform new education program on burn care
We partnered with The George Institute and Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Services to develop the Community Coordinated Burn Care Program focused on burn prevention and burn care training.
- The program is based on findings from the Coolamon Study, which involved yarning with more than 200 families across NSW, Queensland, Northern Territory and South Australia.
- The Community Coordinated Burn Care Toolkit offers training in burn care, first aid and aftercare to support treatment and recovery for NSW Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children.
- The program addresses the need for burn prevention and treatment for Aboriginal children in a culturally safe environment, linked to local and specialist health services.
The artwork used in these resources is: Guunu-maana (Heal) – Heal Spirit, Heal Country by Angela Webb, Gumbaynggirr Nation.
“Our mission is to improve burn prevention awareness, first aid skills and ongoing care, all within a culturally safe environment.”
Siobhan Connolly manages burn education and prevention for the ACI's Statewide Burn Injury Service. She recently received a Guunu-Maana (Heal) NAIDOC 2024 Award from The George Institute for Global Health, for her work empowering clinicians to deliver culturally safe burn care, including the Community Coordinated Burn Care Toolkit.
Annual conference addresses closing the gap in Aboriginal chronic care
We co-hosted the 6th annual Aboriginal Chronic Conditions Network Conference with the Aboriginal Health and Medical Research Council in April. The theme was Closing the Gap in Priority Reform Areas and Aboriginal Chronic Care.
Across two days, 150 people attended in person and 300+ people joined online to connect and learn about Aboriginal-led innovations in Aboriginal chronic care across NSW and Australia.
Attendees enjoyed hearing about Closing the Gap initiatives in practice, such as Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Service-led programs, Aboriginal Cancer Care Coordinators, the 24-hour Aboriginal Health Practitioner Emergency Department Model, and the NSW Northern Rheumatic Heart Disease Project.
Supporting Aboriginal rights through data sovereignty in healthcare
We created an Indigenous Data Sovereignty and Governance Framework to ensure Aboriginal people have the right to govern the collection, ownership, and use of their data in patient-reported measures.
Our Patient Reported Measures (PRMs) team worked with the Kowa Collaboration to develop the Framework in partnership with the PRMs Aboriginal Health Working Group, Aboriginal health leaders, local PRM leads, clinicians and consumers across NSW.
Consultation is underway to inform an implementation strategy.