About the section

Who is it for?

The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Care section contains information that of relevance and interest to people on a palliative care journey with an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander person. This includes:

• Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, their families, and communities
• health professionals and health care workers who are involved in end-of-life care for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, such as
  • nurses, doctors, residential aged care workers, allied health professionals working in a variety of health care settings
  • Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health workers, health practitioners, and liaison officers

What's in this CareSearch section?

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Care has four main sections:

• Culturally Safe and Responsive Care
  Introduces the concepts of cultural safety and responsiveness for individual health professionals and for health services
• The Care Journey
  Provides information to the health care workforce providing end-of-life care to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people
• Patient, Family and Community Journeys
  Supports Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families and communities with relevant information
• Research, Evidence and Practice
  Provides access to literature, evidence and information on research.

How was it developed?

This CareSearch section was developed under the guidance of expert advisory group comprised of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people representing various organisations within the health sector across Australia. This knowledgeable group is the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Reference Group for the Palliative Care Education and Training Collaboration. The reference group provided advice on the organisational structure and visual design of this section, as well as guidance regarding suitable content and resources for it. They advised on culturally sensitive issues such as the presentation of materials and the use of images. The PEPA reference group has supported CareSearch in gathering information from Indigenous sources and web pages, and incorporating them into a single section on the CareSearch website.

Acknowledgements

The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Care section was developed by CareSearch. CareSearch is funded by the Australian Government Department of Health and Aged Care.

We acknowledge the generous contribution of time and expertise by the members of the Project Advisory Group, the PEPA Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Reference Group for the Palliative Care Education and Training Collaboration. We would also like to acknowledge former members of the PEPA Reference group for their support, assistance, and advice on appropriate images and wording for the Hub. Thank you for the long-term support of CareSearch. We would also like to acknowledge the substantial practical support from PEPA’s Indigenous Program and especially Catherine Jacka, for assistance project coordination and writing new sections for the website.

• Warren Locke, Chair of Reference Group (Workforce and Program Manager, Leadership and Capability, Queensland Health)
• Catherine Jacka (National Indigenous Coordinator, PEPA, Queensland University of Technology)
• Liz Callaghan (CEO, Palliative Care Australia)
• Donna Murray (CEO, Indigenous Allied Health Australia)
• Stephen Corporal (Graduate Director, Indigenous Allied Health Australia)
• Janine Mohamed (CEO Council of Aboriginal and Torres Strait islander Nurses and Midwives)
• Colleen Gibbs (Senior Policy Advisor, Council of Aboriginal and Torres Strait islander Nurses and Midwives)
• Karel Williams (Midwifery Policy Advisor, Council of Aboriginal and Torres Strait islander Nurses and Midwives)
• Mick Adams (Senior Research Fellow, healthinfonet, Edith Cowan University)
• Dwayne Pierce (as CEO, National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Worker Association)
• Karl Briscoe (CEO, National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Worker Association)
• Karyn Sam (Manager, Health Service, Queensland Health)
• Robert Dann (Workforce development Officer, Aboriginal Health Council of South Australia)
• Rosemary Wanganeen (CEO, Australian Institute for Loss and Grief)
• Charles Davidson (Manager Aboriginal Workforce, Dept of Health NSW)
• Karen Innes-Walker (National Project Coordinator, PEPA, Queensland University of Technology)
• Patsy Yates (Director, PEPA, Queensland University of Technology)

Many members of the clinical community have donated their time to the review of content, resources and products associated with this project. We would like to acknowledge and thank the following people for their contribution.

• PEPA project officers Cindy Paardekooper, Linda Medlin, Steven Kirkbright, Sally Fitzgerald, Toni Smith, Jonathan Jauncey, and Alicia King.
• Nancy Collins and Wayne Christian from Queensland Health
• Shelley Chapman and Belinda Stevens from VACCHO
• Josslyn Tully from NATSIHWA
• Leonie Williamson from CATSINaM
• Anna Leditschke from IAHA
• Prof Dennis McDermott, Tamara MacKean, and Wendy Edmondson from the Poche Centre for Indigenous Health and Well-being Adelaide
• Tara Hoyne and Jane Burns from Australian Indigenous HealthInfonet
• Our blog writers
• The CareSearch team, including Cameron Shepherd, Ruth Murton, Kelly Hall, and Deb Rawlings.

We would like to acknowledge the work of our commercial partners, Morton Blacketer, Reward Design, and Ingeous Studios for their contribution in developing the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Care section. We would especially like to thank Leigh Harris for his tireless work on the graphic art design. Details on the symbolic meaning of the graphic design images produced for this CareSearch section can be found on the Artwork page.

Finally, CareSearch would like to acknowledge and extend our respect to the Kaurna people, the traditional custodians on whose ancestral lands CareSearch is located in Adelaide.