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

Moving Forward TogetherJanet Kellyand health service expectations, and trying to meet local Aboriginalcommunity needs amongst wider priorities and directives. They often took thebrunt of community anger, frustration, grief and loss, and suffered vicarioustrauma when listening to distressing stories. Health professionals spoke ofhaving very little support for the difficult decisions and care that they provided,particularly around grief, violence, abuse and mandatory reporting. They begantaking sick leave to give themselves a chance to heal. In addition, theyexperienced frustration that their professional and cultural knowledge was notalways acknowledged or supported, particularly by higher level managers.They felt blamed, or blamed themselves when things (beyond their control)went wrong. These co-researchers indicated that being involved in this researchprocess was healing and enabled them to keep going. The process of beingheard, of having their concerns and knowledge acknowledged, and beingsupported to co-create effective strategies gave them the impetus to continueworking. Unfortunately, these kinds of issues make working in Aboriginalhealth very stressful for health professionals, and many leave. Over the fouryears that this research took place, only one of the twenty staff members at theAboriginal health service remained in the same position. This has huge impactson client care and continuity of care. There is immediate need for issues ofwork force development and ongoing support to be implemented. While thishas been repeatedly mentioned in numerous Aboriginal health documents, it isyet to be implemented.Using a postcolonial feminist gaze enabled deeper recognition of thecomplexities that exist within Aboriginal women’s health care in suburbanAdelaide today. As previously discussed, differing models of health provision(selective and comprehensive primary care), changing policies, priorities andhealth service structures, and changing staff members and managers result inquite different expectations, practices and abilities to meet client needs. BothAboriginal and non-Aboriginal co-researchers discussed and challenged amisconception that Aboriginal health services can automatically meetAboriginal women’s needs. This research identified that many other aspectsbesides the ‘Aboriginality’ of the health service or health professional impactson whether Aboriginal women’s health care and well-being needs can be met.340