Homebound oral care for older adults: A qualitative study of professional carers' perspectives in Perth, Western Australia.

OBJECTIVE: To examine professional support workers and case managers' (professional carers) perspectives of what promoted or compromised oral health care in homebound adults aged over 65 years in Perth, Western Australia and identify professional carers' need for support in this context. BACKGROUND: Accessing dental services can be difficult to navigate and unaffordable for homebound older adults. Paid carers often play a substantial role in facilitating access to services yet there is limited qualitative evidence of the perspectives of these stakeholders. METHODS: Given limited evidence in this area, this simple qualitative study was informed by constructivist grounded theory. Participants comprised 15 professional carers of homebound older adults. Transcripts were analysed to identify participant perceptions of key barriers and enablers to providing oral health care. RESULTS: Barriers to clients accessing dental care included participants' uncertainty around navigating the dental system, low priority of oral health care, affordability and confusion around who was responsible to provide oral care. Enablers included participants supporting clients' autonomy around oral care, better integration of oral care into primary health care and education and opportunity for training for professional carers. CONCLUSION: Ensuring oral health is part of primary health plans, clarifying roles and responsibilities around delivering oral health care to homebound older adults and training carers were key findings. Inter-sectoral collaboration between the dental and aged care sectors can benefit dental practitioners and professional carers in shared learning and has likely flow-on effects for homebound older adults.

The Kimberley Dental Team: a volunteer-based model of care serving remote Aboriginal communities.

CONTEXT: Improving the oral health of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people has been prioritised by both of the Australian National Oral Health Plans (2004-2013 and 2015-2024). However, providing adequate access to timely dental care to remote Aboriginal communities remains a challenge. The Kimberley region of Western Australia in particular experiences a significantly higher prevalence of dental disease compared to other regional centres. The region covers an area of over 400 000 km2, with 97% of this being classified as very remote and 42% of the population identifying as Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander. The provision of dental care to remote Aboriginal communities in the Kimberley is complex and involves careful consideration of the unique environmental, cultural, organisational and clinical factors at play. ISSUE: The low population densities combined with the high running costs of a fixed dental practice mean that establishing a permanent dental workforce is generally not viable in remote communities in the Kimberley. Thus there is a pressing need to explore alternative strategies to extend care to these communities. In this context, the Kimberley Dental Team (KDT), a non-government, volunteer-led organisation, was established to 'fill the gaps' and extend dental care to areas of unmet need. There is currently a lack of literature around the structure, logistics and delivery of volunteer dental services to remote communities. This paper describes the KDT, its development, resources, operational factors and organisational characteristics of the model of care, including mapping the reach of the program. LESSONS LEARNED: This article underlines the challenges around dental service provision to remote Aboriginal communities and the evolution of a volunteer service model over the course of a decade. The structural components integral to the KDT model were identified and described. Community-based oral health promotion through initiatives such as supervised school toothbrushing programs enabled access to primary prevention for all school children. This was combined with school-based screening and triage to identify children in need of urgent care. Collaboration with community-controlled health services and cooperative use of infrastructure enabled holistic management of patients, continuity of care and increased efficiency of existing equipment. Integration with university curricula and supervised outreach placements were used to support training of dental students and attract new graduates into remote area dental practice. Supporting volunteer travel and accommodation and creating a sense of family were central to volunteer recruitment and sustained engagement. Service delivery approaches were adapted to meet community needs; a multifaceted hub-and-spoke model with mobile dental units was used to increase the reach of services. Strategic leadership through an overarching governance framework built from community consultation and steered by an external reference committee informed the model of care and its future direction.

Inequalities between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Australians seen through the lens of oral health: time to change focus.

Inequitable social environments can illustrate changes needed in the social structure to generate more equitable social relations and behaviour. In Australia, British colonization left an intergenerational legacy of racism against Aboriginal people, who are disadvantaged across various social indicators including oral health. Aboriginal Australian children have poorer health outcomes with twice the rate of dental caries as non-Aboriginal children. Our research suggests structural factors outside individual control, including access to and cost of dental services and discrimination from service providers, prevent many Aboriginal families from making optimum oral health decisions, including returning to services. Nader's concept of 'studying up' redirects the lens onto powerful institutions and governing bodies to account for their role in undermining good health outcomes, indicating changes needed in the social structure to improve equality. Policymakers and health providers can critically reflect on structural advantages accorded to whiteness in a colonized country, where power and privilege that often go unnoticed and unexamined by those who benefit incur disadvantages to Aboriginal Australians, as reflected in inequitable oral health outcomes. This approach disrupts the discourse placing Aboriginal people at the centre of the problem. Instead, refocusing the lens onto structural factors will show how those factors can compromise rather than improve health outcomes. This article is part of the theme issue 'Evolutionary ecology of inequality'.

Primary caregivers' perceptions of factors influencing preschool children's oral health: social practices perspective-a protocol for qualitative metasynthesis.

INTRODUCTION: The role of primary caregivers in setting the foundation for a child's oral health throughout life is well recognised. Due to the dominant behaviour-based approach, research to date has mainly focused on exploring individual primary caregivers' oral health knowledge and behaviours. A social science approach involving social practice theories moves beyond individual attitudes, behaviour and choices to offer a better understanding of the ways in which collective activity relates to health. This qualitative metasynthesis will involve an interpretive synthesis of data found in published qualitative literature from developed countries. The aim of the metasynthesis is to identify social practices in families from published qualitative research with caregivers on preschool children's oral health. METHODS AND ANALYSIS: This is a protocol for qualitative metasynthesis. The following databases will be used: MEDLINE, EMBASE, Global Health and Dentistry & Oral Sciences Source (DOSS) using the web-based database search platform Ovid, Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL) and Scopus. The research team has determined search strategies by using relevant key terms. Qualitative studies published in English language on family factors related to preschool children (aged 0-5 years) from developed countries (2022 United Nations classification) will be included. Qualitative data analysis will involve thematic analysis of the reported factors influencing oral health of preschool children, from the perspective of social practice theory. Researchers will use NVivo software for organising and managing the data. ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: No ethics approval is required, as this study does not involve human subjects. Findings will be disseminated through professional networks, conference presentations and submission to a peer-reviewed journal.

The 5C model: A proposed continuous quality improvement framework for volunteer dental services in remote Australian Aboriginal communities.

OBJECTIVES: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities in remote parts of Australia are some of the most underserviced communities in regard to oral health care. These communities rely on volunteer dental programmes such as the Kimberley Dental Team to fill the gaps in care, however, there are no known continuous quality improvement (CQI) frameworks to guide such organizations to ensure that they are delivering high-quality, community-centred, culturally appropriate care. This study proposes a CQI framework model for voluntary dental programmes providing care to remote Aboriginal communities. METHODS: Relevant CQI models wherein the (i) behaviour of interest was quality improvement, and (ii) the health context was volunteer services in Aboriginal communities were identified from the literature. The conceptual models were subsequently augmented using a 'best fit' framework and the existing evidence synthesized to develop a CQI framework that aims to guide volunteer dental services to develop local priorities and enhance current dental practice. RESULTS: A cyclical five-phase model is proposed starting with consultation and moving through the phases of data collection, consideration, collaboration and celebration. CONCLUSIONS: This is the first proposed CQI framework for volunteer dental services working with Aboriginal communities. The framework enables volunteers to ensure that the quality of care provided is commensurate with the community needs and informed by community consultation. It is anticipated that future mixed methods research will enable formal evaluation of the 5C model and CQI strategies focusing on oral health among Aboriginal communities.

Perspectives of health service providers in delivering best-practice care for Aboriginal mothers and their babies during the postnatal period.

BACKGROUND: Evidence suggests that Aboriginal babies in Western Australia are not receiving adequate primary health care in their first 3 months of life, leading to questions about enablers and constraints to delivering such care. This paper presents findings from a qualitative research project investigating health providers' perceptions and experiences of best and current practice in discharge planning, postnatal care and health education for Aboriginal mothers and their newborn babies. METHODS: Constructivist grounded theory guided this research involving 58 semi-structured interviews conducted with health providers who deliver care to Aboriginal mothers and infants. Participants were recruited from hospital-based and primary health sites in metropolitan Perth, and regional and remote locations in Western Australia. RESULTS: Structural factors enabling best practice in discharge planning, postnatal care, and health education for mothers included health providers following best practice guidelines and adequate staffing levels. Organisational enablers included continuity of care throughout pregnancy, birth and postnatally. In particular, good communication between services around discharge planning, birth notifications, and training in culturally respectful care. Structural and organisational constraints to delivering best practice and compromising continuity of care were identified as beyond individual control. These included poor communication between different health and social services, insufficient hospital staffing levels leading to early discharge, inadequate cultural training, delayed receipt of birth notifications and discharge summaries received by Aboriginal primary health services. CONCLUSION: Findings highlight the importance of examining current policies and practices to promote best practice in postnatal care to improve health outcomes for mothers and their Aboriginal babies.

Community-centred oral healthcare for adults experiencing homelessness in Australia: Perceptions and experiences of key stakeholders.

The objective of the study was to identify whether creating a responsive, respectful and trustworthy environment that provides free dental care for clients who are homeless using volunteer dental professionals was effective in meeting their oral health needs in Fremantle, Western Australia. Qualitative research conducted between October 2018 and August 2019 was guided by a social constructivist paradigm to gather and analyse data. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with adults experiencing homelessness accessing a community dental clinic and health providers and other stakeholders involved in its establishment, management and service delivery. An inductive approach to analysis was used to organise themes under the categories of 'establishing the oral health clinic' (OHC) and 'responses to the implementation of the clinic' Thirty-nine semi-structured interviews were conducted across eight participant groups: clients, executive management, the oral health clinical reference group, volunteer dentists, employed staff, nursing students, volunteer staff and other stakeholders. Key findings across all groups included positive responses to the establishment and implementation of the OHC, the quality of care and the safe and respectful environment in which services were delivered. Challenges related to sustainability include uncertainty around ongoing funding and recruitment of dental professionals. Whilst volunteer dental services fill a gap in meeting the complex needs of this population group, mainstream services must consider and address issues of equity in this context. Findings can be used to guide this process that includes creating environments of respect and trust where adults who are homeless or at risk of homelessness feel safe, welcomed and more likely to return to the service.

A scoping review to inform the use of continuous quality improvement in Australian Aboriginal oral health care.

Objective The need to improve existing services to Aboriginal communities is prioritised by Australia's National Oral Health Plan. Although only an emerging area in dentistry, continuous quality improvement (CQI) approaches have positively impacted the delivery of primary health services to Aboriginal communities. This scoping review maps the applicability of CQI strategies to Aboriginal Australian oral healthcare services. Methods A scoping review was conducted and studies that reported using CQI approaches to improve existing oral health services or quality of care deemed relevant to Aboriginal Australian communities were included. Results A total of 73 articles were retrieved and eight articles were included in the final synthesis. Several CQI tools were identified, including: plan-do-study-act cycles, dental quality alliance measures, prioritisation matrices, causal mapping and the use of collective impact methodology. Conclusion Data exploring CQI in the context of Aboriginal oral health is scarce. The plan-do-study-act cycle and its variations show potential applicability to Aboriginal oral health care. However, for CQI approaches to be adequately implemented, the prevailing model of dental care requires a paradigm shift from quality assurance to quality improvement, acknowledging the impact of structural and process elements on care.

"Does this dental mob do eyes too?": perceptions and attitudes toward dental services among Aboriginal Australian adults living in remote Kimberley communities.

BACKGROUND: Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people continue to experience significant disparities in oral health and there remains an urgent need to improve services to rural and remote communities. Quantitative research has typically been used to highlight the disease burden and severity experienced by those living in remote communities, but this data does little to explore the lived reality and psychosocial nuances that impact on care. The Kimberley region of Western Australia is home to over 150 Aboriginal communities spread out across 400,000 square kilometres. The success and sustainability of oral health services to these remote communities relies on respect and reciprocity achieved through shared knowledge, decision making and involvement of Aboriginal people in discussions around oral health services and their delivery. This, study aimed to investigate the perceptions and attitudes toward dental services among Aboriginal Australian families living in remote Kimberley communities. METHODS: Semi-structured interviews and yarning circles were carried out following purposive sampling of Aboriginal adults living in the East Kimberley region of Western Australia. Interviews were recorded, transcribed, and analysed guided by a constructivist grounded theory approach. RESULTS: In total, 80 community members participated in the yarning process. Enablers to care included: promotion of existing services, integration with primary health services, using mobile dental services and volunteers to extend care. Barriers to care included transportation, cost of treatment, the complexity of appointment systems and shame associated with health-seeking behaviours. CONCLUSIONS: Reassessing the prevailing operative model of dental care to remote Aboriginal communities is warranted to better address the overwhelming structural barriers that impact on oral health. Integration with existing primary health services and schools, the use of mobile units to extend care and increasing community engagement through clinical yarning are recommended in improving the current state of dental services to communities in the Kimberley.

Social practice theory: An innovative approach to considering preschool children's poor oral health.

Oral disease in early childhood is highly prevalent and costly and impacts on the child and family with significant societal costs. Current approaches have largely failed to improve young children's oral health. This paper proposes a different approach to conceptualize poor oral health in preschool children (0-5 years) using social practices. Social practice theory offers an innovative perspective to understanding oral health by shifting emphasis away from the individual and onto how practical, social and material arrangements around the oral health of preschool children exist, change or become embedded in the social structures they inhabit. This novel approach contributes to the growing theoretical understanding in this area and has the potential to offer insights into the problem and ways it might be addressed.

Understanding an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander child's journey through paediatric care in Western Australia.

OBJECTIVE: To explore caregiver perspectives of their children's journey through the specialist paediatric service, the Aboriginal Ambulatory Care Coordination Program (AACC), and non-AACC services at the Perth Children's Hospital. METHODS: Eighteen semi-structured interviews with families of Aboriginal children were completed. Indigenous research methodology and a phenomenological approach guided data collection and analysis. RESULTS: Four key themes were identified from interviews: hospital admissions, discharge and follow-up outpatient appointments; communication; financial burden; and cultural issues. Our findings suggest Aboriginal children and their caregivers using the AACC program had more positive and culturally secure experiences than those using non-AACC services. However, barriers relating to health providers' understanding of Aboriginal cultural issues and lived experience were commonly discussed, regardless of which service families received. CONCLUSIONS: Australian Aboriginal children have an increased use of tertiary hospital care compared to non-Indigenous children. Healthcare programs specifically designed for Aboriginal children and their families can improve their experience of care in hospital. However, improvements in cultural awareness for other hospital staff is still needed. Implications for public health: Dedicated Aboriginal programs in mainstream services can successfully improve cultural care to their clients, which is fundamental to improving service delivery for families.

Providing oral care for adults with mental health disorders: Dental professionals' perceptions and experiences in Perth, Western Australia.

OBJECTIVE: To explore dental professionals' perceptions and experiences of providing oral health care for adults with mild to moderate mental health disorders (MHD) in Perth, Western Australia. METHODS: A grounded theory approach guided this research which comprised semi-structured interviews with oral health professionals working in private and/or public dental facilities attended by adults with MHD. An iterative analysis of transcripts identified emerging issues that were organized into categories under which key themes were noted, coded, compared, discussed, reviewed and revised independently by two researchers to ensure rigour. RESULTS: Sixteen interviews were conducted with six general dentists, three dental specialists, four oral health therapists (OHT) and three dental assistants. Barriers to providing oral health care for adults with MHD included limitations of the current model of care, often focused on treating advanced disease; limited inter-professional collaboration; an over-burdened public dental system and the financial constraints of private practice. Personal barriers included perceptions that people with MHD had limited capacity for self-care and preventing oral disease. Factors that would enable oral health care included training and professional development for dental professionals to work effectively with people with MHD and a more flexible, inter-professional approach that involved prevention and inviting family to consultations about oral health in primary health care settings. CONCLUSIONS: Our study reveals structural barriers where services often appear to be inadequately prepared to meet the oral health needs of people with MHD. This suggests the need for strategies to review current models of care and encourage and support dental professionals to provide oral health care that is inclusive, inter-professional, focused on prevention and sensitive to the social context and lived experience of people with MHD.

Building oral health capacity in a women's health service.

Adult women in Australia are more likely than men to have no teeth, more missing teeth or have a dental hospital admission. Experiences of war, family and domestic violence, mental health or alcohol and other drug use problems may also negatively affect women's oral health. Yet, oral health is often excluded from primary healthcare. Little is known about what helps or inhibits primary healthcare service workers to promote oral health to women in need. Identifying the perceptions and experiences of such workers is a step towards a strategy to develop resources to support them in raising oral health issues with disadvantaged clients. This paper presents findings from a qualitative study conducted at a community-based women's health service, which used focus groups to investigate workers' perceptions of promoting oral health and accessing services for their clients. Findings indicated how structural issues informed oral healthcare, where workers generally did not consider oral health their responsibility, were reluctant to raise the issue with clients and had limited oral health knowledge and resources. To overcome these barriers, workers identified the need for oral health resources and better linkages to the dental system to help support their clients.

Enhancing oral health for better mental health: Exploring the views of mental health professionals.

The association between oral health, self-esteem and quality of life is well established yet there is limited research on the impact of addressing the poor oral health of people living with mental health disorders. Greater consideration is warranted on how enhancing oral health in the course of mental healthcare might reduce the burden of a person's ill health. The role of mental health professionals is important in this regard yet uncertainty persists about the role these providers can and should play in promoting oral health care for people with mental health disorders. This qualitative study explored the issue of oral health and mental health with community based mental health professionals in Perth, Western Australia. It examined their views on the oral health status and experiences of their clients, and the different and alternative ways to improve access to care, knowledge and preventative regimens. Findings indicated participants' ambivalence, reluctance and lack of training in raising oral health issues, despite its acknowledged importance, indicating a siloed approach to care. Findings offer an opportunity to reflect on whether a more integrated approach to oral health care for people with mental health disorders would improve health outcomes.

Perspectives of Aboriginal women on participation in mammographic screening: a step towards improving services.

BACKGROUND: Early detection of breast cancer using screening mammography provides an opportunity for treatment which can lead to significantly improved outcomes. Despite considerable efforts having been made, the rate at which Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander (hereafter respectfully referred to as Aboriginal) women in Western Australia participate in BreastScreen WA's screening mammogram program remains below that for the overall female population of Western Australia. This study aimed to examine perspectives on breast screening amongst Aboriginal women in Western Australia. We explored the factors which impact on participation in breast screening and sought to identify potential initiatives to address lower participation in screening. METHODS: Semi-structured interviews, focus group discussions and yarning sessions were conducted with a total of 65 research participants. They were all Aboriginal and comprised consumers and health professionals from locations across the state. RESULTS: Our findings show that research participants generally were willing to have a mammogram. Key reasons given were having a genetic predisposition to breast cancer and a perception of investing in health for the sake of the next generation, as well as personal well-being. Barriers identified included lack of education about or understanding of screening, inadequacies in cultural appropriateness in the screening program, cultural beliefs around cancer in general and breast cancer in particular, and competing health and life priorities. However, many enablers were identified which can serve as potential strategies to assuage fear and increase screening uptake. These included increased education delivered by respected Aboriginal women, culturally appropriate promotion and the provision of care and support from other women in the community. CONCLUSION: The higher participation rates for Aboriginal women in Western Australia than are found for Aboriginal women nationally demonstrate the success of the strategies put in place by BreastScreen WA. These efforts must be supported and existing policies and practices enhanced to address the limitations in the existing program. Only by implementing and evaluating such initiatives and making breast screening programs more accessible to Aboriginal women can the current disparity between the screening participation rates of Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal women be reduced.

Does one workshop on respecting cultural differences increase health professionals' confidence to improve the care of Australian Aboriginal patients with cancer? An evaluation.

BACKGROUND: Aboriginal Australians have worse cancer survival rates than other Australians. Reasons include fear of a cancer diagnosis, reluctance to attend mainstream health services and discrimination from health professionals. Offering health professionals education in care focusing on Aboriginal patients' needs is important. The aim of this paper was to evaluate whether participating in a workshop improved the confidence of radiation oncology health professionals in their knowledge, communication and ability to offer culturally safe healthcare to Aboriginal Australians with cancer. METHODS: Mixed methods using pre and post workshop online surveys, and one delivered 2 months later, were evaluated. Statistical analysis determined the relative proportion of participants who changed from not at all/a little confident at baseline to fairly/extremely confident immediately and 2 months after the workshop. Factor analysis identified underlying dimensions in the items and nonparametric tests recorded changes in mean dimension scores over and between times. Qualitative data was analysed for emerging themes. RESULTS: Fifty-nine participants attended the workshops, 39 (66% response rate) completed pre-workshop surveys, 32 (82% of study participants) completed post-workshop surveys and 25 (64% of study participants) completed surveys 2 months later. A significant increase in the proportion of attendees who reported fair/extreme confidence within 2 days of the workshop was found in nine of 14 items, which was sustained for all but one item 2 months later. Two additional items had a significant increase in the proportion of fair/extremely confident attendees 2 months post workshop compared to baseline. An exploratory factor analysis identified three dimensions: communication; relationships; and awareness. All dimensions' mean scores significantly improved within 2 days (p < 0.005) and persisted to 2 months. The workshop raised awareness about barriers and enablers to delivering services respectful of cultural differences, led to a willingness to reflect on pre-existing beliefs and assumptions about Aboriginal Australians that in some cases resulted in improved care. CONCLUSION: Single workshops co-delivered by an Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal presenter can be effective in building health professionals' confidence and translating into practice knowledge of respectful care of Aboriginal patients with cancer. Sustaining improvements may require integrating this approach into ongoing professional development.

Role of information and communication technology in promoting oral health at residential aged care facilities.

Information and communication technology (ICT) can provide knowledge and clinical support to those working in residential aged care facilities (RACFs). This paper aims to: (1) review literature on ICT targeted at residents, staff and external providers in RACFs including general practitioners, dental and allied health professionals on improving residents' oral health; (2) identify barriers and enablers to using ICT in promoting oral health at RACFs; and (3) investigate evidence of effectiveness of these approaches in promoting oral health. Findings from this narrative literature review indicate that ICT is not widely used in RACFs, with barriers to usage identified as limited training for staff, difficulties accessing the Internet, limited computer literacy particularly in older staff, cost and competing work demands. Residents also faced barriers including impaired cognitive and psychosocial functioning, limited computer literacy and Internet use. Findings suggest that more education and training in ICT to upskill staff and residents is needed to effectively promote oral health through this medium.

Culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) carers' perceptions of oral care in residential aged care settings in Perth, Western Australia.

OBJECTIVE: The aims of the study were twofold: to explore African migrant carers' perceptions of oral health who worked in residential aged care and to investigate their perspectives of oral care for aged care residents. BACKGROUND: Culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) carers are strongly represented in Australian residential aged care facilities. METHODS: Exploratory qualitative research targeted carers from African backgrounds working in residential aged care facilities in Perth, Western Australia. Fifteen African carers were recruited through community networks and participated in semistructured interviews. Data were analysed for key themes related to the study's aims noting similarities and differences between participants. RESULTS: All participants considered oral health important to individual well-being and quality of life. Most had limited knowledge of prevention and early detection of oral disease resulting from regular dental check-ups with the majority visiting dental professionals only for dental pain. Yet participants considered oral health care for residents needed improvement. Suggestions included dental professionals on staff and training and professional development for all staff not just in oral health care but also in working respectfully and sensitively with residents and staff from CALD backgrounds. CONCLUSION: Our findings suggest that, to ensure residents receive high quality oral health care, ongoing professional development is required, not only for CALD carers in oral health but also for non-CALD staff in care that is respectful of cultural differences.

Improving healthcare for Aboriginal Australians through effective engagement between community and health services.

BACKGROUND: Effectively addressing health disparities between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Australians is long overdue. Health services engaging Aboriginal communities in designing and delivering healthcare is one way to tackle the issue. This paper presents findings from evaluating a unique strategy of community engagement between local Aboriginal people and health providers across five districts in Perth, Western Australia. Local Aboriginal community members formed District Aboriginal Health Action Groups (DAHAGs) to collaborate with health providers in designing culturally-responsive healthcare. The purpose of the strategy was to improve local health service delivery for Aboriginal Australians. METHODS: The evaluation aimed to identify whether the Aboriginal community considered the community engagement strategy effective in identifying their health service needs, translating them to action by local health services and increasing their trust in these health services. Participants were recruited using purposive sampling. Qualitative data was collected from Aboriginal participants and health service providers using semi-structured interviews or yarning circles that were recorded, transcribed and independently analysed by two senior non-Aboriginal researchers. Responses were coded for key themes, further analysed for similarities and differences between districts and cross-checked by the senior lead Aboriginal researcher to avoid bias and establish reliability in interpreting the data. Three ethics committees approved conducting the evaluation. RESULTS: Findings from 60 participants suggested the engagement process was effective: it was driven and owned by the Aboriginal community, captured a broad range of views and increased Aboriginal community participation in decisions about their healthcare. It built community capacity through regular community forums and established DAHAGs comprising local Aboriginal community members and health service representatives who met quarterly and were supported by the Aboriginal Health Team at the local Population Health Unit. Participants reported health services improved in community and hospital settings, leading to increased access and trust in local health services. CONCLUSION: The evaluation concluded that this process of actively engaging the Aboriginal community in decisions about their health care was a key element in improving local health services, increasing Aboriginal people's trust and access to care.

Aboriginal Health Worker perceptions of oral health: a qualitative study in Perth, Western Australia.

BACKGROUND: Improving oral health for Aboriginal Australians has been slow. Despite dental disease being largely preventable, Aboriginal Australians have worse periodontal disease, more decayed teeth and untreated dental caries than other Australians. Reasons for this are complex and risk factors include broader social and historic determinants such as marginalisation and discrimination that impact on Aboriginal people making optimum choices about oral health. This paper presents findings from a qualitative study conducted in the Perth metropolitan area investigating Aboriginal Health Workers' (AHWs) perceptions of barriers and enablers to oral health for Aboriginal people. METHODS: Following extensive consultation with Aboriginal stakeholders, researchers conducted semi-structured interviews and focus groups across 13 sites to investigate AHWs' perceptions of barriers and enablers to oral health based on professional and personal experience. Responses from 35 AHWs were analysed independently by two researchers to identify themes that they compared, discussed, revised and organised under key themes. These were summarised and interrogated for similarities and differences with evidence in the literature. RESULTS: Key findings indicated that broader structural and social factors informed oral health choices. Perceptions of barriers included cost of services and healthy diets on limited budgets, attending services for pain not prevention, insufficient education about oral health and preventing disease, public dental services not meeting demand, and blame and discrimination from some health providers. Suggested improvements included oral health education, delivering flexible services respectful of Aboriginal people, oral health services for 0-4 year olds and role modelling of oral health across generations. CONCLUSION: Reviewing current models of oral health education and service delivery is needed to reduce oral health disparities between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Australians. Shifting the discourse from blaming Aboriginal people for their poor oral health to addressing structural factors impacting on optimum oral health choices is important. This includes Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal stakeholders working together to develop and implement policies and practices that are respectful, well-resourced and improve oral health outcomes.