The development of this research project has been achieved through the consultations undertaken from October 2007 to November 2008 with Aboriginal workers and workers who work with Aboriginal families across Victoria using the Questions for Consultation. A final report was submitted to VACCHO in March 2009 and endorsement for continuing to pilot a survey was granted in August 2009.
As from June 2009, the Elizabeth Hoffman House Aboriginal Womens Services Incorporated has agreed to auspice the project and this arrangement will be in place through to completion (anticipated December 2011). This ensures that information obtained through this research will be retained by the Aboriginal community and will contribute to promoting awareness of Aboriginal women’s issues.
It is envisaged that this research will provide an accurate description about the social health characteristics of Aboriginal women in Victoria during pregnancy and post birth and will provide an enriched understanding of their use of services. The research findings could be used to enhance existing service delivery and cross coordination, between Aboriginal and non Aboriginal services, and to provide Aboriginal workers and workers who work with Aboriginal communities, accurate data that can be used to advocate for change and to assist in the development of new programs or services.
Aims
To investigate the social health characteristics of Aboriginal women and women with an Aboriginal partner during pregnancy and post birth. To investigate the use of services by Aboriginal women and women with an Aboriginal partner during pregnancy and post birth. To determine the factors that may contribute to women’s perception of positive and negative outcomes during pregnancy and post birth.
Inclusion criteria
All Aboriginal women (and women with an Aboriginal partner) who have a baby in Victoria during January to December 2009 will be invited to participate. As this initial project is a pilot, women from selected communities will be invited to participate.
Exclusion criteria
Women who have had a stillbirth or whose baby is not living. A pregnancy that resulted from trauma.
An estimate of 200 women will be invited to participate from communities with a mix of service options.
A range of approaches to inform and invite women to participate will be used. These approaches include:
These approaches are consistent with the feedback suggested by workers during the consultations. Workers agreed with the approach of recruiting women and promoting the research through Maternal and Child Health Nurses based within Aboriginal and non Aboriginal services. Many workers felt that promoting the research through existing antenatal classes and potentially at places where women have to wait around for a while, such as centrelink, courthouse, hospital will also increase participation of women. Hosting local bbq’s or other community events will also increase awareness of the project and may be an ideal opportunity to recruit women.
The consultations have been coordinated by local workers, usually by a key contact person who then promote and invite others to attend. These informal local networks have been extremely valuable and useful to not only thinking about the design of the study but more importantly, the study’s implementation into community and dissemination of results. It is important for these informal local network groups to continue to be supported to meet, to review and discuss parts of the project that will have the greatest impact on workers and to find ways to minimize disruption and intrusion of community life.
Local project agreements are agreements for conducting research within that specific Aboriginal community. It is proposed that the project agreement will detail the research aims and conduct of the study, for example, the local agreement could provide clear pathways for responding to women who have become/or become distressed during the course of the interview (for example). The interview/project officer could refer to the project agreement which provides clear direction about referrals, roles and responsibilities. The intention of the local project agreements is to minimize worker disruption and confusion.
Women (who meet the eligibility criteria) who would like to take part will be asked to participate in a one on one interview. Other options are being explored, including a written or an online version of the survey. Interviews would be undertaken by a small team of trained (Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal) interviewers.
Women participating in the research will be given written and verbal (oral) information about the research and all participants will be provided with a resource guide (to be developed through the local network groups) of useful telephone numbers of local or regional services and programs of potential interest. Participants will be asked to sign a consent form or to give verbal (oral) consent prior to participating in an interview in the form a written protocol (agreement) which will cover:
Interviews will be conducted in a range of settings including community controlled services and women’s homes. It will be up to women to decide where and when they would like the interview to take place.
All women taking part in an interview will be offered reimbursement for their time and story.
There is strong support for the development of a questionnaire booklet to be used as the basis for conducting interviews. One advantage of this method is that it enables women to see that all women are being asked the same questions, and to see the way that their answers are recorded. The major themes for the data items in the questionnaire include:
1) Social health issues
This list of social, psychosocial and life events were identified during the community consultations as a growing concern for workers.
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2) Services used during pregnancy
Services include Aboriginal and non Aboriginal primary health care, acute health care and other Aboriginal and non Aboriginal services accessed during pregnancy, such as family violence, financial assistance, legal support, drug and alcohol, housing, charitable services etc. It is envisaged that questions will be asked about participants experience of accessing these services, for example Where there limitations to accessing those services? How did you get to those services?
3) Services used after pregnancy
Services include Aboriginal and non Aboriginal primary health care, acute health care and other Aboriginal and non Aboriginal services accessed post pregnancy, such as family violence, financial assistance, legal support, drug and alcohol, housing, charitable services etc. It is envisaged that questions will be asked about participants experience of accessing these services, for example: Where there limitations to accessing those services? How did you get to those services?
4) About the pregnancy
A summary report will be produced and made available to all participants involved in its development and data collection. Public presentations by the Project officer will also occur for those existing services consulted during the development of this research project, such as Koori Maternity Services, Best Start, ICAP, Maternal and Child Health and as appropriate, other avenues such as newsletters and website. Regional reports will also be developed and presented through the local network groups. Through the consultations, many communities are keen to know how their own local community compares to other parts of the state or to other similar areas.
Angelina Tabuteau Moore is an Aboriginal woman from Wamba Wamba (Victoria and New South Wales). She was the Aboriginal Hospital Liaison Officer at the Mercy Hospital for Women prior to enrolling (May 2007) in the Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) course full time at the Centre for Molecular, Environmental, Genetic and Analytic Epidemiology, The University of Melbourne.
She commenced in August 2007 at the Murdoch Childrens Research Institute (as the Project Officer for the community consultations) and resigned her Project Officer position from the Murdoch Childrens Research Institute in March 2009 following the successful completion of the community consultations.
From August 2007 – March 2009, her Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) supervisory panel consisted of:
A community project steering committee will also be established by Elizabeth Hoffman House Aboriginal Womens Services Incorporated to ensure key milestones are met and to support implementation.
Angelina Tabuteau Moore
Project Officer and Phd Scholar
0400 104 893
Centre for Molecular, Environmental, Genetic and Analytic Epidemiology
The University of Melbourne.
Level 1 723 Swanston Street
CARLTON VICTORIA 3010
* Is there support for Aboriginal families project?
* What issues/topics should be covered in the study?
* What issues/topics should not be covered in the study?
* What information would be most valuable to Aboriginal communities and community organisations in advocating for better services for Aboriginal women and families?
* Who should be invited to take part in the study?
* Is it appropriate to invite young women (under18) to take part in the study? What age would be too young?
* What are the best ways to inform Aboriginal women and families about the study and invite them to take part?
* How should information be collected?
* What choices should participants be given in relation to who conducts the interview?
* What choices should participants be given in relation to where interviews are conducted?
* Is it appropriate for other people to be present?
* Is it OK for oral tape-recordings to be made and transcribed (with participants’ consent)?
* What steps in addition to standard procedures should be taken to ensure that all individual information remains confidential?
Standard procedures
* all staff to sign confidentiality agreements
* oral and/or written consent obtained from all participants in research
* during fieldwork staff will be responsible for storage of information collected in the project in locked metal filing cabinets
* information gathered during fieldwork will be transferred as soon as possible to a secure locked storage area at the HMHF group at MCRI
* firewall and password protection of all computer files
* storage of consent forms and any other identifying information in a separate location from interview or questionnaire data
* How are participants reimbursed for their time?
* How should information gathered in the study be reported back to participants, to community organisations and to community members?
* How should information gathered in the study be used:
* What needs to happen/what do the researchers need to do to ensure that there is community control and ownership of information?
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