Affiliations and Achievements:
MEAL and compliance: One particular example of major health sector reform was the introduction of a best practice, quality improvement system, compliance and related clinical governance. The Australian government instigated a program for A$ 1.2 billion over 3 years to improve remote Aboriginal communities - A$ 83 million on primary health care. One of the passions of our Aboriginal leaders was to be able to report on outcome measures rather than outputs. We set up a region-wide continuous quality improvement system for the health services spread across 520,000 square miles (larger than the size of Peru) where all services, regardless of funding source, all reported the same 19 indicators – 26 of them were NGOs and another 50 were government services. A continuous quality improvement system was also established where clinicians in the communities could use the data for health service improvement on the smaller, but equally important level.
I did not do it alone as major work like that requires a team of people working together and collaborating with multiple organizations with a common goal – person-centered, culturally appropriate health services.
Community strengthening with Data Interpretation-
One of my priorities in my last job was strengthening community capacity, using learning, and the application of evidence to improve access to health. For instance, at Sunrise Health, I worked with the Board of Directors (12 very traditional elders) spanning 9 remote communities across 29,000 sq miles with limited access to education. My colleague and I assisted them in interpreting health data by providing reports on four key areas: Child Health, Chronic Disease, Preventative Health, and Rheumatic Heart Disease.
Initially, we guided them through each report slowly, explaining how indicators work and the implications of each indicator. Over time, they were able to do some of their own interpretation and could enjoy the process. This enabled them to make informed decisions regarding program priorities based on data, for instance with a syphilis outbreak where, for traditional reasons, we were not allowed to do community education on sexual health.
Intervention and Really Caring for Kids Coalition
The most difficult challenge I’ve faced was a program that the Australian government implemented where they planned to physically examine Aboriginal children for sexual abuse. . . . which in itself could be considered child abuse. My organization and I were centrally involved in the campaign with other medical groups (called the Really Caring for Kids Coalition) to change this agenda. We turned this $82 million campaign into well-child checks with locally-led implementation by our 26 Aboriginal Medical Services.