Systems integration to promote the mental health of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children: protocol for a commu
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STUDY PROTOCOL
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Systems integration to promote the mental health of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children: protocol for a community-driven continuous quality improvement approach Janya McCalman1,2* , Roxanne Bainbridge2, Yvonne Cadet James3, Ross Bailie4, Komla Tsey5, Veronica Matthews4, Michael Ungar6, Deborah Askew7,8, Ruth Fagan9, Hannah Visser10, Geoffrey Spurling7,8, Nikki Percival11, Ilse Blignault12 and Chris Doran1,2
Abstract Background: Systems integration to promote the mental health of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children works towards developing a spectrum of effective, community-based services and supports. These services and supports are organised into a coordinated network, build meaningful partnerships with families and address their cultural and linguistic needs, to help children to function better at home, in school, in the community, and throughout life. This study is conducted in partnership with primary healthcare (PHC) and other services in three diverse Indigenous Australian communities. It entails conceptualising, co-designing, implementing, and evaluating the effectiveness of systems integration to promote the mental health and wellbeing of Indigenous school-aged children (4–17 years). This paper outlines a protocol for implementing such complex community-driven research. Methods/design: Using continuous quality improvement processes, community co-designed strategies for improved systems integration will be informed by narratives from yarning circles with Indigenous children and service providers, and quantitative data from surveys of service providers and audits of PHC client records and intersectoral systems. Agreed strategies to improve the integration of community-based services and supports will be modelled using microsimulation software, with a preferred model implemented in each community. The evaluation will investigate changes in the: 1) availability of services that are community-driven, youth-informed and culturally competent; 2) extent of collaborative service networks; 3) identification by PHC services of children’s social and emotional wellbeing concerns; and 4) ratio of children receiving services to identified need. Costs and benefits of improvements to systems integration will also be calculated. (Continued on next page)
* Correspondence: [email protected] 1 Centre for Indigenous Health Equity Research, Central Queensland University, cnr Abbott and Shield St, Cairns, QLD 4870, Australia 2 School of Health, Medical and Applied Sciences, Central Queensland University, cnr Abbott and Shield St, Cairns, QLD 4870, Australia Full list of author information is available at the end of the article © The Author(s). 2020 Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and ind
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