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

Moving Forward TogetherJanet Kellycommunity health site. Four different Collaboration Areas of research activity weredeveloped and these focused on local Aboriginal community women’s needs, thenewly emerging Aboriginal Outreach Health Service, collaboration with the localhigh school, and the creation of a decolonising conference for improved knowledgesharing.The specific research context is outlined in Chapter Six. The Gilles PlainsCommunity Campus is a site of mainstream and Aboriginal- specific primary healthcare in the North Eastern suburbs of Adelaide, South Australia. It is also the sitewhere most of our community based participatory action research took place forthis study. An important aspect of this research has involved understanding howhealth services and relationships between people develop, and what affects thisdevelopment. In this chapter I discuss the history of the Gilles Plains CommunityCampus, highlighting the policy and health systems changes and factors that haveimpacted on community participation, community development and comprehensiveprimary health care provision.The first of the four Collaboration Areas begins with Chapter Seven. This chapterdiscusses how four Aboriginal community women and I worked together as coresearchersto address their most pressing health and well-being needs. We cocreatedcollaborative participatory action research, enabling the women’sperspectives to be heard and acknowledged. I supported the women as theyidentified options and initiated actions amidst and in response to changingcommunity health and Aboriginal health policies and priorities. Both processes andthe outcomes of this Collaboration Area are intricately entwined and discussed asthey occurred within each research cycle. The women’s own thematic analysis wasplaced within think and discuss phases. My additional nurse/researcher analysis ispresented at the end of the chapter.In Chapter Eight I offer insights into the practicalities and difficulties experiencedby staff as they tried to provide health services for Aboriginal women in a newlydeveloping Aboriginal health organisation. This chapter discusses how we furtherdeveloped and tested our model of collaborative practice to complement rather thancomplicate work loads and organisational directives. We began by discussing abroad vision for Aboriginal women’s health and well-being (look and listen), andthen what was currently possible with the resources available. Health staff raised25