Program goal
The goal of the Comprehensive Primary Healthcare Health Systems and
Workforce (CPHCHSW) program is to improve the performance of health
systems with a particular focus on comprehensive primary healthcare
services in order to maximise health gains for Aboriginal
people
Program overview
In order to maximise the achievable health gain for Aboriginal
people, improvements are required across the spectrum of health
service delivery, including:
- better access to information and uptake of evidence across the
health system;
- measurement and improvement of quality of care;
- improved processes for effective interaction with Aboriginal
communities;
- development of systems to support Aboriginal governance of
health services;
- improved resourcing and efficiency of health services for
providing comprehensive primary healthcare;
- enhanced capacity in the workforce of both Aboriginal and
non-Aboriginal health professionals.
For more detail on the program background and desired outcomes,
go to the CPHCHSW Program Statement [pdf] or the CPHCHSW Program Summary [pdf]
Research priorities
The Comprehensive Primary Healthcare Health Systems and Workforce
program was the first CRC for Aboriginal Health program area
to apply the Facilitated Research
Development Approach. This has involved the following
steps:
- an industry roundtable was held in 2004;
- priorities were discussed at the CRC for Aboriginal
Health Convocation in 2005;
- priorities were drafted into research topics later in
2005;
- the CRC for Aboriginal Health community was invited to
indicate its interest in being involved in the development of the
research in late 2005;
- Drafting teams were identified to progress the development of
four research topics;
- proposals were drafted and subjected to quality assurance
processes.
1. Best practice in funding and regulation of Aboriginal and
Torres Strait Islander healthcare project
Project Leader: Judith Dwyer Flinders University
Contact email: kim.odonnell@flinders.edu.au
Project research brief
Primary healthcare funding programs and the regulatory arrangements
that accompany them are intended to support the delivery of
high-quality care, to ensure appropriate accountability to
communities and to government, to be consistent with good human
resource management practice, and to enable recruitment and
retention of a skilled workforce. This project aims to further
understand current problems and identify and test possible
solutions in the way that Aboriginal-specific primary healthcare is
funded and regulated across jurisdictions in Australia.
Go to project page for more
information and publications
2. Support systems for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
primary healthcare services project
Project Leader: Ian
Anderson (profile)
Contact email: K.silburn@latrobe.edu.au
Project research brief
This project aims to address the recognised problem that many
Indigenous-specific primary healthcare services (especially, but
not limited to, small services in remote Aboriginal communities) do
not have the capacity (for various reasons, including size) to
develop all aspects required of them to provide high-quality
comprehensive primary healthcare. The focus of the research will be
on systems to support functions that contribute to organisational
capacity to operate effectively and sustainably.
Reports/resources:
Support Systems
for Indigenous Primary Healthcare Services: Project Update,
December 2009.
3. Health services utilisation and linkage [for Aboriginal and
Torres Strait Islander people] project - stage 1
Project Leaders: Michael Bentley (Flinders University), Rae
Walker (La Trobe University), Bronwyn Fredericks (Queensland
Aboriginal and Islander Health Council)
Contact email: Michael.bentley@flinders.edu.au
Project research brief
There is limited information about how to appropriately research
the health needs of Aboriginal and Islander people living in urban
and/or pen-urban locations, and there is a lack of agreement about
the most appropriate and relevant methods for gaining this type of
information from Aboriginal and Islander people. As a developmental
stage of a broader research approach, the stage 1 project will
facilitate consultations and increased understanding of how to
approach research into patterns of service utilisation (or
non-utilisation) by Aboriginal and Islander people in urban and
pen-urban locations in ways that are both effective and culturally
safe; The result of stage 1 will inform the development of a
research proposal for stage 2.
4. Improving the culture of hospitals for Aboriginal and Torres
Strait Islander people project
Project Leader: Russell Renhard
Contact email: Russell.Renhard@latrobe.edu.au
Project research brief
This project aims to support a program of cultural reforms to
improve cultural sensitivity in acute healthcare institutions.
Using the experiences of Aboriginal people as the central reference
point, systematic case studies of hospitals that have different
levels of experience in actively attempting to make their services
and surrounds more culturally sensitive to the needs of Aboriginal
patients, their families and friends will be used to gather
information and to inform the development and implementation of
relevant tools and processes. Go to project
summary page.
5. Accreditation and Quality Standards Project
Project Leaders: Ian Anderson and Mick Gooda
Contact email: mick.gooda@crcah.org.au
Project research brief
The
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Sector
Accreditation and Quality Standards Project (Hereafter:
The Quality Standards Project) is a joint research
initiative between the Cooperative Research Centre for Aboriginal
Health (CRCAH) (Darwin) and the Office for Aboriginal and Torres
Strait Islander Health (OATSIH) in Australia. The germination
of the project was a roundtable convened by OATSIH in October 2006
where the issue of a Sector wide accreditation regime was
discussed. At that roundtable there was unanimous support for
the concept of accreditation being a way to ensure Aboriginal and
Torres Strait Islander people received the best possible care
available no matter where they lived.
Our aim in this project was to
provide advice to OATSIH in the Commonwealth Department of Health
& Ageing on:
1) Accreditation standards that could be
applied to the Indigenous community controlled health sector
(the Sector);
2) The most feasible approach to implement
accreditation against those standards;
3) The support needed throughout the Sector in
order to achieve such accreditation.
Reports/resources:
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Sector
Accreditation and Quality Standards Project - Report to Office
of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health
Services, July 2008, Cooperative Research Centre
for Aboriginal Health
Aboriginal
and Torres Strait Islander Health Sector Accreditation and Quality
Standards Project - Review of the Literature, July 2008,
Cooperative Research Centre for Aboriginal Health
Other projects
In addition to the above projects, a range of other program
activity is occurring in the Comprehensive Primary Healthcare
program. Information about some of these other projects can be
found on this page. For a full list of current projects in this
program area go to Research projects.
Download a copy of the:
