Aboriginal perceptions of social and emotional wellbeing programs: A systematic review of literature assessing social and emotional wellbeing programs for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians perspectives

Abstract

Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities have been targets of social and emotional wellbeing programs for many years. However, the few health‐care programs and services that are evaluated rarely provide insight into the participants' perspectives of program success or failure. This systematic review assessed 33 social and emotional wellbeing programs across Australia to better understand what Aboriginal community members think about the programs and how they could be improved. Results highlighted the interesting and valuable insights provided by Aboriginal participants, including what kinds of program activities and approaches are most suitable, what program characteristics are successful or desired, and their experiences of wellbeing change before and after program participation. They likewise voiced opinions about poorly received programs, culturally inappropriate services and negative experiences. This review highlighted how health and wellbeing programs must better engage Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander clients to ensure that services are culturally safe, holistic, integrate appropriate staffing, include culturally relevant activities and value patient/participant experiences. These findings have significant implications for the health and wellbeing sector; specifically, research, policy, program design and implementation, evaluation methods, and self‐determination.

Sugar-sweetened beverage consumption among Indigenous Australian children aged 0–3 years and association with sociodemographic, life circumstances and health factors

“…Children were significantly less likely to consume SSB if their caregiver currently had good (compared with poor) social and emotional well-being and physical health. This is consistent with previous qualitative research describing the importance of mental health to parenting (31) and suggests that approaches to improve child nutrition should be integrated, incorporating supports for caregiver and family well-being (6,29,31,64) . Given the importance of culture to well-being (73) , and given evidence of the healthy infant feeding patterns pre-colonisation, we hypothesised that SSB consumption would be less common among children whose caregivers had a stronger connection to culture.…”

“…This finding was consistent across the combined, urban/inner regional and remote/outer regional samples. AHW and Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Services are generally understood to provide more relevant and trusted advice and care than non-Aboriginal service providers (31,32,60,63,64) . As such, we hypothesised that children in families receiving postnatal home visits from AHW would be least likely to consume SSB.…”

The impact of sport and physical activity programs on the mental health and social and emotional wellbeing of young Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians: A systematic review

“…Building upon existing search strategies within the area of research ( Macniven et al, 2019 , Murrup‐Stewart et al, 2019 ), two authors (ME & SD) conducted an electronic database search to enable a multidisciplinary search outcome. Searches in three electronic databases were undertaken from January to February 2021: PsycINFO, MEDLINE and SPORTSDiscus.…”

Evaluating an Aboriginal community controlled residential alcohol and other drug services: Use of benchmarking to examine within treatment changes in wellbeing

“…The Centre has a strong focus on health and wellbeing and incorporates sport and other physical activity as a core component of daily activities. Maintaining and strengthening the connection to Aboriginal culture, traditional practices and Aboriginal Elders is an important aspect of Indigenous social and emotional wellbeing [19,20]. The Glen prides itself on having a culturally appropriate program for Aboriginal men including the traditional dance, yarning around the fire, didgeridoo lessons and ongoing involvement with Aboriginal Elders.…”