Browsing by Author "Calma T."
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Item Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander social and emotional wellbeing and mental health.Calma T.; Dudgeon P.; Bray A.Closing the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander mental health gap is an urgent national priority. This commentary provides both an overview of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander social and emotional well being and mental health and some of the promising initiatives for restoring wellbeing. Solutions for addressing Aboriginal and Torres Strait islander mental health issues require a "best of both worlds" approach which acknowledges the impact of social and cultural determinants on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander wellbeing. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved)Item Knowledge translation in Indigenous health research: voices from the field.(2024-07-03) Kennedy M.; Ninomiya M.M.; Brascoupe S.; Smylie J.; Calma T.; Mohamed J.; Stewart P.J.; Maddox R.Objectives: To better understand what knowledge translation activities are effective and meaningful to Indigenous communities and what is required to advance knowledge translation in health research with, for, and by Indigenous communities. Study design: Workshop and collaborative yarning. Setting(s): Lowitja Institute International Indigenous Health Conference, Cairns, June 2023. Participant(s): About 70 conference delegates, predominantly Indigenous people involved in research and Indigenous health researchers who shared their knowledge, experiences, and recommendations for knowledge translation through yarning and knowledge sharing. Result(s): Four key themes were developed using thematic analysis: knowledge translation is fundamental to research and upholding community rights; knowledge translation approaches must be relevant to local community needs and ways of mobilising knowledge; researchers and research institutions must be accountable for ensuring knowledge translation is embedded, respected and implemented in ways that address community priorities; and knowledge translation must be planned and evaluated in ways that reflect Indigenous community measures of success. Conclusion(s): Knowledge translation is fundamental to making research matter, and critical to ethical research. It must be embedded in all stages of research practice. Effective knowledge translation approaches are Indigenous-led and move beyond Euro-Western academic metrics. Institutions, funding bodies, and academics should embed structures required to uphold Indigenous knowledge translation. We join calls for reimaging health and medical research to embed Indigenous knowledge translation as a prerequisite for generative knowledge production that makes research matter.Copyright © 2024 The Author(s). Medical Journal of Australia published by John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd on behalf of AMPCo Pty Ltd.Item Population-level contribution of interpersonal discrimination to psychological distress among Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander adults, and to Indigenous-non-Indigenous inequities: cross-sectional analysis of a community-controlled First Nations cohort study.(2023-01-17) Thurber K.A.; Brinckley M.-M.; Jones R.; Evans O.; Nichols K.; Priest N.; Guo S.; Williams D.R.; Gee G.C.; Joshy G.; Banks E.; Thandrayen J.; Baffour B.; Mohamed J.; Calma T.; Lovett R.Background: International and population-specific evidence identifies elevated psychological distress prevalence among those experiencing interpersonal discrimination. We aim to quantify the potential whole-of-population contribution of interpersonal discrimination to psychological distress prevalence and Indigenous-non-Indigenous gaps in Australia. Method(s): We did a cross-sectional analysis of data from Mayi Kuwayu: the National Study of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Wellbeing. Baseline surveys were completed between June 8, 2018, and Sept 28, 2022. We analysed responses from participants who were aged 18 years or older at survey completion, whose surveys were processed between Oct 1, 2018, and May 1, 2021. Sample weights were developed on the basis of national population benchmarks. We measured everyday discrimination using an eight-item measure modified from the Everyday Discrimination Scale and classified experiences as racial discrimination if participants attributed these experiences to their Indigeneity. Psychological distress was measured using a validated, modified Kessler-5 scale. Applying logistic regression, we calculated unadjusted odds ratios (ORs), to approximate incident rate ratios (IRRs), for high or very high psychological distress in relation to everyday discrimination and everyday racial discrimination across age-gender strata. Population attributable fractions (PAFs), under the hypothetical assumption that ORs represent causal relationships, were calculated using these ORs and population-level exposure prevalence. These PAFs were used to quantify the contribution of everyday racial discrimination to psychological distress gaps between Indigenous and non-Indigenous adults. Finding(s): 9963 survey responses were eligible for inclusion in our study, of which we analysed 9951 (99.9%); 12 were excluded due to responders identifying as a gender other than man or woman (there were too few responses from this demographic to be included as a category in stratified tables or adjusted analyses). The overall prevalence of psychological distress was 48.3% (95% CI 47.0-49.6) in those experiencing everyday discrimination compared with 25.2% (23.8-26.6) in those experiencing no everyday discrimination (OR 2.77 [95% CI 2.52-3.04]) and psychological distress prevalence was 49.0% (95% CI 47.3-50.6) in those experiencing everyday racial discrimination and 31.8% (30.6-33.1) in those experiencing no everyday racial discrimination (OR 2.06 [95% CI 1.88-2.25]. Overall, 49.3% of the total psychological distress burden among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander adults could be attributable to everyday discrimination (39.4-58.8% across strata) and 27.1% to everyday racial discrimination. Everyday racial discrimination could explain 47.4% of the overall gap in psychological distress between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people (40.0-60.3% across strata). Interpretation(s): Our findings show that interpersonal discrimination might contribute substantially to psychological distress among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander adults, and to inequities compared with non-Indigenous adults. Estimated PAFs include contributions from social and health disadvantage, reflecting contributions from structural racism. Although not providing strictly conclusive evidence of causality, this evidence is sufficient to indicate the psychological harm of interpersonal discrimination. Findings add weight to imperatives to combat discrimination and structural racism at its core. Urgent individual and policy action is required of non-Indigenous people and colonial structures, directed by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. Funding(s): National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia, Ian Potter Foundation, Australian Research Council, US National Institutes of Health, and Sierra Foundation.Copyright © 2022 Elsevier LtdItem Talking about the 'r' word: a right to a health system that is free of racism.(2021-04-10) Parter C.; Murray D.; Mohamed J.; Rambaldini B.; Calma T.; Wilson S.; Hartz D.; Gwynn J.; Skinner J.Australia's local, state, territory and federal governments have agreed that the 10-year life expectancy gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians will be closed by 2031. However, annual Closing the Gap reports tabled by the various prime ministers in the Australian Parliament (for the past 12 years) have consistently indicated that the life expectancy gap continues to widen. Australia has seen more than three decades of government policies since the landmark 1989 National Aboriginal health strategy. What has been missing from these policy commitments is the genuine enactment of the knowledges that are held by Indigenous Australians relating to their cultural ways of being, knowing and doing. Privileging Indigenous knowledges, cultures and voices must be front and centre in developing, designing and implementing policies and programs. The sharing of power, provision of resources, culturally informed reflective policy making, and program design are critical elements. In this paper, we provide a conceptual model of practice, working at the cultural interface where knowledges are valued and innovations can occur. This model of practice is where knowledges and cultures can co-exist, and it could be the answer to Closing the Gap in life expectancy by 2031. Despite a growing willingness and need to consider these models, there remains a deep-seated resistance to identifying and addressing institutional and systemic racism and racist attitudes, including unconscious biases held by individuals. Further, western non-Indigenous worldviews of ways of being, knowing and doing continue to dominate the decisions and actions of governments - and consequentially dominate public health policies and practices. There is an unacceptable standard approach, for and about Indigenous health instead of with Indigenous peoples, resulting in the neglectful dismissal of Indigenous knowledges and Indigenous cultures of ways of being, knowing and doing. Copyright © 2021 Sax Institute. All rights reserved.