Moving Forward Together in Aboriginal Women's Health: - Theses ...

Moving Forward TogetherJanet Kellybeing using our collaborative PAR process. These Collaboration Areas areboth independent from, and connected to, each other.The first Collaboration Area involved a small group of local Aboriginalcommunity women and their priorities for women’s health and well-being. Thesecond involved health professionals at the campus grappling with thecomplexities and realities of trying to provide comprehensive primary healthcare services for Aboriginal women and their families. The third involvedimproving access and services for young Aboriginal women, and the fourthCollaboration Area discussed how we developed a national action research /action learning conference as a result of our experiences and findings in thefirst three Collaboration Areas. These four Collaboration Areas intertwinetogether and are shown in a table format at the end of this section.Collaboration Area 1- Local Aboriginal community women’s prioritiesOnce the decision was made to base the research at the Gilles PlainsCommunity Campus, I began talking with Aboriginal community women stillconnected to the Gilles Plains Community Campus, and invited them tobecome involved in the research as co-researchers. This small group ofAboriginal women were already known to me through my community healthnursing practice and they asked me for assistance in ‘getting their needs metamongst health service changes’.Collaboration Area 2 - The emerging Aboriginal health serviceI also invited health staff at the newly developing Aboriginal Outreach HealthService and mainstream community health service on the campus to beinvolved as co-researchers. These health professionals identified the challengesand practicalities of trying to provide comprehensive primary health care forAboriginal women and their families within a constantly changing andredeveloping health service. Many staff members felt unable to meet localcommunity needs with the limited resources available to them, and frequentchanges in staff, management, organisation and policy. Together we identifiedchallenges, possible resources and strategies, and planned events to meet localwomen’s needs. They stressed the importance of collaborative action thatcomplemented rather than complicated their existing programs and work loads.140