Creating partnerships between researchers, health care providers and Indigenous Australians to improve Indigenous health: a demonstration model

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Copyright: Calabria, Bianca
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Abstract
Alcohol misuse imposes a disproportionately high burden of harm on Indigenous Australians. Alcohol-related harms affect the physical, psychological, and spiritual wellbeing of Indigenous Australians. Harms extend beyond the problem drinker to their families and communities. The primary aim of this thesis was to develop and implement a process of researchers, health care providers and Indigenous Australians working in partnership to more effectively respond to the deleterious impact of alcohol misuse on Indigenous families and communities. The process was highly interactive in that it sought to combine the methodological skills of researchers, the clinical knowledge and skills of health care providers, and the community knowledge and experience of Indigenous Australians. Specifically, research was used to identify interventions with potential to address alcohol-related harms that could be tailored to be consistent with Indigenous Australians’ concepts of health and wellbeing (Papers 1 and 6), to ensure the reliability and validity of potential measures of impact (Paper 2), and to identify more precisely the nature of alcohol-related harm experienced by Indigenous Australians (Paper 5). Indigenous Australians’ perceptions of the acceptability of potential interventions were obtained (Paper 4). Health care providers’ views on how the potential interventions might best be tailored for routine delivery (Paper 3), and on undertaking a certification process to improve and standardise their skills in delivering the potential interventions (Paper 3), were also obtained. This thesis is presented for examination as a series of publications, which means it presents a series of papers that were published in, or submitted for editorial review to, a peer-reviewed journal during the student’s candidature, rather than the traditional model of presenting thesis chapters. Consistent with the University of New South Wales’ thesis requirements, preambles have been added to the papers to facilitate a coherent logical flow across the thesis, and appendices are included to complement the published content, but otherwise the papers are unaltered from the published or submitted versions. Papers 1, 4, 5 and 6 are published and Papers 2 and 3 are currently under editorial review. The introduction, and the implications and future directions chapter, provide a broader context for this thesis.
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Author(s)
Calabria, Bianca
Supervisor(s)
Shakeshaft, Anthony
Clifford, Anton
Doran, Christopher
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Publication Year
2013
Resource Type
Thesis
Degree Type
PhD Doctorate
UNSW Faculty
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