Abstract:Objective: To explore emerging themes related to the mental health of Aboriginal children and adolescents (“young people”) arising from focus groups conducted in Sydney, New South Wales.
Design, setting and participants: A qualitative study was conducted between April 2008 and September 2009 in three Aboriginal community‐controlled health organisations in Sydney. A semi‐structured approach was used in focus groups and small group interviews to elicit the views of 15 Aboriginal parents and 32 Aboriginal workers… Show more
“…… unless you were absolutely aware of Aboriginal culture, Aboriginal health, the whole history, socioeconomic conditions and so on, and if you just approached this strictly from a mental health or emotional social wellbeing [viewpoint] without taking all the other issues into account, you could make the wrong decision and therefore subject not only the child, but the parents and everybody, to needless hours of the wrong way of treating it. APQ (Williamson et al, )…”
Section: Resultsmentioning
confidence: 99%
“…Sometimes this could be as simple as staff not recognising Aboriginal communication methods, “Certain practices cause distress to clients, such as conducting assessments in a closed environment and maintaining direct eye contact during conversations” Author's voice (Isaacs et al, ), or differences in attitudes to time. However, it could also result in more serious misunderstandings, “participants felt that young people were sometimes referred to mental health services for normal behaviour.” PAV (Williamson et al, ).…”
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.
“…… unless you were absolutely aware of Aboriginal culture, Aboriginal health, the whole history, socioeconomic conditions and so on, and if you just approached this strictly from a mental health or emotional social wellbeing [viewpoint] without taking all the other issues into account, you could make the wrong decision and therefore subject not only the child, but the parents and everybody, to needless hours of the wrong way of treating it. APQ (Williamson et al, )…”
Section: Resultsmentioning
confidence: 99%
“…Sometimes this could be as simple as staff not recognising Aboriginal communication methods, “Certain practices cause distress to clients, such as conducting assessments in a closed environment and maintaining direct eye contact during conversations” Author's voice (Isaacs et al, ), or differences in attitudes to time. However, it could also result in more serious misunderstandings, “participants felt that young people were sometimes referred to mental health services for normal behaviour.” PAV (Williamson et al, ).…”
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.
“…For Aboriginal people, connection to culture has been identified as an important determinant of health and resilience in qualitative studies that have explored this association 7,37,38 . In this study the relationship between cultural knowledge and resilience was assessed, with no significant association observed.…”
Objectives: To estimate the prevalence and determine protective factors for resilience in urban Aboriginal adolescents.
Methods: Cross‐sectional survey data was collected from 119 Aboriginal adolescents participating in the Study of Environment on Aboriginal Resilience and Child Health (SEARCH). Resilience was defined as having ‘low‐risk’ Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire scores on the total difficulties (range: 0–40) or the prosocial scale (range: 0–10).
Results: Most adolescents scored in the low‐risk range of the total difficulties (n=85, 73%) and prosocial scales (101, 86%). Family encouragement to attend school was associated with a 4.3‐point reduction in total difficulties scores (95%CI, 0.22–8.3). Having someone to talk to if there was a problem and regular strenuous exercise were associated with higher scores on the prosocial behaviour scale, increasing scores by 1.2 (95%CI, 0.45–2.0) and 1.3 (95%CI, 0.26–2.3) points, respectively.
Conclusions: Most adolescents in SEARCH displayed resilience. Resilience was associated with nurturing family environments, social support and regular exercise.
Implications for public health: Our data accords with previous research that demonstrates resilience, but also a higher prevalence of emotional and behaviour problems among Aboriginal youth. Supporting Aboriginal young people to build resilience may promote better mental health outcomes leading to important public health benefits.
“…This may be due to many factors, including remoteness, language barriers, affordability and cultural sensitivity issues [38]. Families also avoid accessing mental health services for young people, for fear of government involvement and the possible removal of children [39]. …”
Section: Introductionmentioning
confidence: 99%
“…Cultural considerations might include how an Aboriginal adolescent conceptualises their world, including mental health, family, relationships and identity [42]. Symptoms of mental illness need to be understood within a cultural context [18].…”
BackgroundIt is estimated that the prevalence of mental illness is higher in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander adolescents compared to non-Aboriginal adolescents. Despite this, only a small proportion of Aboriginal youth have contact with mental health services, possibly due to factors such as remoteness, language barriers, affordability and cultural sensitivity issues. This research aimed to develop culturally appropriate guidelines for anyone who is providing first aid to an Australian Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander adolescent who is experiencing a mental health crisis or developing a mental illness.MethodsA panel of Australian Aboriginal people who are experts in Aboriginal youth mental health, participated in a Delphi study investigating how members of the public can be culturally appropriate when helping an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander adolescent with mental health problems. The panel varied in size across the three sequential rounds, from 37–41 participants. Panellists were presented with statements about cultural considerations and communication strategies via online questionnaires and were encouraged to suggest additional content. All statements endorsed as either Essential or Important by ≥ 90% of panel members were written into a guideline document. To assess the panel members’ satisfaction with the research method, participants were invited to provide their feedback after the final survey.ResultsFrom a total of 304 statements shown to the panel of experts, 194 statements were endorsed. The methodology was found to be useful and appropriate by the panellists.ConclusionAboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Youth mental health experts were able to reach consensus about what the appropriate communication strategies for providing mental health first aid to an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander adolescent. These outcomes will help ensure that the community provides the best possible support to Aboriginal adolescents who are developing mental illnesses or are in a mental health crisis.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
