Background: Culture and its practice is a recognised, but not well understood factor, in Aboriginal health and wellbeing. Our study aimed to explore how health and wellbeing are phenomenologically connected to cultural practices, foods, medicines, languages, and Country, through the platform of 'on-Country' camps facilitated by Aboriginal cultural knowledge holders in NSW, Australia.
Methods: Our study is based on a collaboration between knowledge holders from freshwater and saltwater cultures, and Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal researchers.
Background: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples' have sustained their cultural practices for over 60,000 years which fundamentally impacts their health and wellbeing. Recent literature emphasizes cultural connection as a contributor to good public health, yet the mechanisms through which cultural engagement promotes health and wellbeing remain underexplored. This study investigates the health and wellbeing outcomes associated with Aboriginal peoples' participation in cultural camps in New South Wales (Australia), focusing on the role of cultural determinants of health.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFLancet Reg Health West Pac
November 2024
This article is written from the perspectives of a Yuwaalaraay/Gamilaraay cultural knowledge holder and a Yuin Djirringanj cultural knowledge holder from New South Wales, Australia. It explores the concept of cultural health, and the need to shift towards centring culture in every aspect of Aboriginal health and wellbeing. The three elements of cultural health are discussed as Country which includes lands, waters, skies, and all entities within; people, and their freedom, and ability to express and maintain continuing connections to culture and Country; and culture which encompasses identity, language, and knowledges, and is maintained and strengthened through active connection to Country, and cultural practices.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFLancet Reg Health West Pac
November 2024
Health Promot J Austr
September 2024
Issue Addressed: Little is currently known about the relationships between body composition and the social determinants of health among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander youth in Australia, which could help inform policy responses to address health inequities.
Methods: This study aimed to explore the relationship between various social factors and healthy body mass index (BMI) and waist/height ratio (WHtR) among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander youth aged 16-24 years. Baseline survey data from 531 participants of the 'Next Generation: Youth Well-being study' were used.
Background: Local governments are the closest level of government to the communities they serve. Traditionally providing roads, rates and garbage services, they are also responsible for policy and regulation, particularly land use planning and community facilities and services that have direct and indirect impacts on (equitable) health and well-being. Partnerships between health agencies and local government are therefore an attractive proposition to progress actions that positively impact community health and well-being.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: This targeted and comprehensive policy scan examined how different levels of governments in Australia and Canada responded to the financial crisis brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. We mapped the types of early policy responses addressing financial strain and promoting financial wellbeing. We also examined their equity considerations.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: The health and well-being of Aboriginal Australians is inextricably linked to culture and Country. Our study challenges deficit approaches to health inequities by seeking to examine how cultural connection, practice and resilience among Aboriginal peoples through participation in 'cultural camps' held on sites of cultural significance promotes health and well-being.
Methods And Analysis: The study will be undertaken in close collaboration and under the governance of traditional cultural knowledge holders from Yuwaalaraay, Gamilaraay and Yuin nation groups in New South Wales, Australia.
Unlabelled: Objectives and importance of the study: Most older Aboriginal peoples live in urban locations. Many of these people were displaced by the policies and practices that produced the Stolen Generations. As a result, access to 'Country' and cultural landscapes that are minimally impacted by urbanisation can be limited for older Aboriginal peoples, restricting the health and wellbeing benefits these environments promote.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThis study described the distribution of healthy body composition among Aboriginal adolescents in Australia aged 10-24 years and examined associations with health behaviours and self-rated health. Data were cross-sectional from the 'Next Generation: Youth Well-being study' baseline (N = 1294). We used robust Poisson regression to quantify associations of self-reported health behaviours (physical activity, screen time, sleep, consumption of vegetables, fruit, soft drinks and fast food, and tobacco smoking and alcohol) and self-rated health to healthy body mass index (BMI) and waist/height ratio (WHtR).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Rapid, strategic action is required to mitigate the negative and unequal impact of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic on the financial well-being (FWB) of global populations. Personal financial strain (FS) worsened most significantly among systematically excluded groups. Targeted government- and community-led initiatives are needed to address these inequities.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has exacerbated financial strain among populations worldwide. This is concerning, given the link between financial strain and health. There is little evidence to guide action in this area, particularly from a public health perspective.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjectives: Integrated people-centred eye care has been recommended as a strategic framework for reducing global vision impairment and blindness. The extent to which eye care has integrated with other services has not been widely reported. We aimed to investigate approaches to integrating eye care service delivery with other systems in low resource settings, and identify factors associated with integration.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Perceived financial security impacts physical, mental, and social health and overall wellbeing at community and population levels. Public health action on this dynamic is even more critical now that the COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated financial strain and reduced financial wellbeing. Yet, public health literature on this topic is limited.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: Drawing from a broader study exploring how New South Wales community members from racially minoritized backgrounds experienced living through a pandemic, this paper reports specifically on experiences of racism during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.
Methods: Using an in-depth, qualitative interpretive approach, 11 semi-structured interviews and one focus group hosting three participants (n=14) were held via an online videoconferencing platform from September to December 2020. Inductive thematic analysis was undertaken using QRS NVivo as a data management tool.
Vision impairment among children is associated with lower levels of educational attainment. School-based eye health programs have the potential to provide high-quality and cost-effective services that assist in the prevention of blindness and uncorrected vision impairment, particularly in low-resources settings. The aim of this study was to identify key factors that inhibit or facilitate the provision of school-based eye health programs, including referral to eye care services, for Malawian children in the Central Region.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: The COVID-19 pandemic has adversely affected the financial well-being of populations globally, escalating concerns about links with health care and overall well-being. Governments and organizations need to act quickly to protect population health relative to exacerbated financial strain. However, limited practice- and policy-relevant resources are available to guide action, particularly from a public health perspective, that is, targeting equity, social determinants of health, and health-in-all policies.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Community engagement has been endorsed as a key strategy to achieving integrated people-centered eye care that enables people and communities to receive a full spectrum of eye care across their life-course. Understanding the ways communities are engaged in eye care, to what degree participation is achieved, and the factors associated with intervention implementation is currently limited.
Objective: The scoping review aimed to assess how community engagement is approached and implemented in eye care interventions in low- and middle-income countries, and to identify the barriers and facilitators associated with intervention implementation.
Access to culturally safe health services is a basic human right, however through the lasting effects of colonisation, oppression, and systemic racism, the individual and community health of Indigenous peoples in Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand have been severely impacted. The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health and Cultural Safety Strategy of the Australian Health Practitioners Regulation Agency, and the Standards of Cultural Competence and Cultural Safety of the Optometrists and Dispensing Opticians Board of New Zealand, recognise the importance of access to safe health care for Aboriginal, Torres Strait Islander and Māori patients, which encompasses both clinical competency and cultural safety. Universities have an ongoing responsibility to ensure their learning and teaching activities result in graduates being able to provide culturally safe practice.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMost research involving Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples has been conducted by non-Indigenous people and has not been a positive experience for many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. This scoping review maps approaches to health research involving Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and communities in Australia from the last two decades. A literature search found 198 papers, of which 34 studies met the inclusion criteria.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: In northern Australia, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Workers (A&TSIHWs) are unique members of nominally integrated teams of primary care professionals. Spurred by research documenting ongoing structural violence experienced by Indigenous health providers and more recent challenges to recruitment and retention of A&TSIHWs, this study aimed to explore whether the governance of the A&TSIHW role supports full and meaningful participation.
Methods: The qualitative study was co-designed by a team of Aboriginal, Torres Strait Islander and non-Indigenous collaborators.
Healthcare services in Australia are the primary responsibility of state and territory governments, which recruit and deploy health providers in hospital and primary-care services. Among the various health professional roles, that of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Worker (A&TSIHW) is one of only two positions that must be occupied by an Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander person, carrying unique responsibility for enacting cultural brokerage and promoting cultural safety at the facility-level. Implicit to these responsibilities is the assumption that A&TSIHW will use cultural capital to build clients' trust in themselves and ultimately the broader health system.
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