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

Moving Forward TogetherJanet Kellysomething that we can’t pretend hasn’t happened. There have beenexpectations set up, whether they were unrealistic or set up by someonewho then left, or they just never came to fruition. When you disappointpeople like that, they tend to stand back. I think we have a lot of ground tocover here. Although we have a rich history of working well withcommunity and they have shared things about what needs to happen forthem, we have this other past as well, that means that we are alwaysneeding to nurture and maintain the relationships we have got. You can’tjust take it for granted. … I am really frustrated about people not reallyunderstanding that if we don’t take the steps that are required we won’tachieve. There are no short cuts. We might be able to sign something offas being resolved or shift a problem to another place, but we havelearned over the years, that working with particular individuals over time,is really critical (CA1 SR2).This long term staff member indicated that there are many difficulties in tryingto maintain relationships with Aboriginal community members amongst unmetexpectations, changing approaches to health care, and a health system thatfocused on outcomes rather than processes. However, she felt it was imperativethat we keep trying.My reflections as nurse/researcher/facilitatorWorking alongside Aboriginal community women in this research assisted meto view the health system from a community perspective. I was reminded thathealth service provision is as much about relationships and communication, asit is about the kind of health services that are provided. I realised that as ahealth professional and organisational employee, I had become enculturated toseeing things in a certain way and many practices and inequities had becomeinvisible to me. I found that working collaboratively with the women in thisresearch enabled me to participate in community development andempowering activities, in ways that I was finding increasingly difficult to dowithin our current health system. Changes toward mainstream and standardisedselective primary health care and a move away from Women’s Health andAboriginal Health programs was leaving limited opportunities for clientcentred community development in primary health care. During this research,197