Lowitja Funded Research
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The Lowitja Institute is committed to investing in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community-driven health research that privileges Indigenous ways of knowing, being and doing. The Lowitja Institute's investment upholds Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander rights to sovereignty and self-determination throughout all stages of the research process and within the health research workforce. This collection features research funded by the Lowitja Institute and its predecessors, encompassing community-led studies and publications by researchers affiliated with the Lowitja Institute.
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Browsing Lowitja Funded Research by Subject "Health policy"
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Item Critical Indigenist examination of the impact on efficiency and sustainability of quality management systems in the Aboriginal primary health care.(2025-01-23) Darr J.Background: Two streams of business are primarily responsible for providing primary health care (PHC) at the first tier of the Australian health industry. These are general practice health services and Aboriginal community-controlled organisations (ACCOs). In 2008, the Australian federal government legislated a national framework for the Australian healthcare industry. In 2010, the Aboriginal community-controlled health sector (ACCHS) was mandated to apply a second certification standard known as ISO 9001:2015 to their business. Over the ensuing decade, our research explored the types of quality frameworks in practice and learned that general practice health services apply one accreditation standard: the Royal Australian College of General Practice (RACGP) Standard. Conversely, the ACCHS applies up to 11 mandated, multiple, yet different accreditation standards. There is an underlying assumption that quality management system (QMS) improves ACCO service performance, and this research tests this assumption.Item Enshrining a First Nations voice to Australian parliament will advance global health equity.(2023-12-14) Abimbola S.; Lo S.N.; Stewart P.; Crabb B.; Mohamed J.; Evans H.; Patel A.; Fisher J.; Anderson I.Item Gambling and public health: we need policy action to prevent harm.(2019-05-22) Wardle H.; Reith G.; Langham E.; Rogers R.D.Item Impact and perceptions of tobacco tax increase in remote Australian Aboriginal communities.(2013-05-27) Thomas D.P.; Ferguson M.; Johnston V.; Brimblecombe J.Introduction: We sought to assess the impact of a 25% tax excise rise on tobacco sales in Aboriginal communities in remote Australia and to explore local perceptions about tobacco tax rises and their impact. Method(s): Tobacco sales data were collected from 18 stores in small remote Aboriginal communities from October 2009 to December 2010. Sales in the 7 months before and after the tax increase were compared. Interviews were conducted with 54 informants in 6 communities. Result(s): There was a nonsignificant 2.2% average reduction (95% CI = -5 to 10) in total tobacco sold in a store in the 7 months after the price increase compared with the 7 months before the price increase, with a large variation across the 18 stores. The magnitude of this apparent impact may have been reduced by seasonal effects. There were increased demands to share cigarettes, with a perception that there was increased reliance on those with more disposable income to purchase cigarettes for other smokers. The main reasons given for not quitting or reducing smoking were dependence, the normative nature of smoking, and the lack of support to quit. All Aboriginal interviewees supported price increases as important in reducing smoking. Conclusion(s): The wide confidence interval around our estimated reduction in consumption means that the tax increase could have either been associated or not with a reduction in consumption. Future excise rises are supported but should be carefully monitored in Australian Indigenous populations. © The Author 2012. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco. All rights reserved.Item The evidence needed to demonstrate impact: a synthesis of the evidence from a phased social and emotional wellbeing intervention.(2019-03-15) Onnis L.-A.; Klieve H.; Tsey K.Policy decisions are based on evidence that demonstrates the effectiveness of interventions; however, the quantity and type of evidence that is needed to demonstrate the effectiveness of an intervention is not universally agreed upon. The aim of this study was to collaborate with researchers who have not been involved directly in Family Wellbeing interventions to lead a review of characteristics of the Family Wellbeing intervention evaluation output to date, and to assess for evidence of the FWB intervention's impact on participants and their communities. The study found that where it is not appropriate or viable to conduct research, such as randomised control trials, alternative ways of providing evidence to demonstrate the effectiveness of an intervention is vital. This review suggests that Family Wellbeing interventions are having a positive impact and promoting change in the lives of participants, their families and their communities. Hence, for complex interventions, such as those with Indigenous populations, evidence should demonstrate effectiveness against prescribed outcomes, as well as critical aspects behind how and why a complex intervention was successful.Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.Item The link between health and wellbeing and constitutional recognition.(2022-08-22) Mokak R.Item The research-policy-deliberation nexus: a case study approach.(2017-09-07) La Brooy C.; Kelaher M.Background: Decision-makers tend to make connections with researchers far too late in the game of public policy, expecting to find a retail store in which researchers are busy filling shop-front shelves with a comprehensive set of all possible relevant studies that a decision-maker might some day drop by to purchase. This linear type of relation between research and policy needs to be replaced by a more interactive model that facilitates both researchers obtaining a better understanding of policy processes and policymakers being more aware and involved in the conceptualisation and conduct of research. This paper explores the role of governance in facilitating the research-policy nexus, testing a typology of research utilisation based on Murray's (Soc Policy Society 10(4):459-70, 2011) analysis that considers various degrees of researcher-policymaker deliberation in decision-making processes. The projects were all part of various evaluation efforts carried out by the researchers to explore the use of governance in health promotion activities. Method(s): Three case studies were chosen to provide some specific examples that illustrate each level of Murray's typology. The examples involve intersectoral health promotion collaborations that combine evidence-based research in health policy initiatives with various levels of researcher involvement. For all three projects, interview data was collated in the same way, coded thematically and analysed to consider the relationship between researchers and policymakers. Result(s): Comparing the three models and their applicability to health promotion interventions, it could be observed that all programmes demonstrated successful examples of research translation. Strong governance imperatives structuring relationships led to more successful outcomes, whereby research was successfully translated into a public policy initiative that also led to improved health outcomes. The key idea across all of these models was that strong governance arrangements mitigated some of the barriers evidenced by the varying degrees of deliberation and researcher involvement in processes. Conclusion(s): The paper demonstrates that successful research utilisation is related to strong governance agendas and that early and ongoing involvement of relevant decision-makers and researchers in the governance processes, that is both the conceptualisation and conduct of a study, tend to be the best predictors of success.Copyright © 2017 The Author(s).Item Walking the talk: evaluating the alignment between Australian governments' stated principles for working in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health contexts and health evaluation practice.(2020-12-05) Luke J.N.; Ferdinand A.S.; Paradies Y.; Chamravi D.; Kelaher M.Background: Stated principles in government policy documents serve as a set of values outlining how governments intend to work. As such, health planning principles should be reflected in health policy across the cycle of planning, implementation and evaluation. Such principles should be reflected in the process of governments commissioning and funding evaluation, and in the work of those commissioned to do evaluation on behalf of governments. Method(s): We reviewed health planning policy documents to identify principles Australian State and Territory and National governments stated as being important to the work they do within Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health contexts. Evaluation tenders and reports relating to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health policy, programs and service for the period 1-Jan-2007 to 1-Jan-2017 were retrieved and assessed as to whether they embedded principles governments state as important. Result(s): In Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health planning policy contexts, Australian governments outline shared responsibility, cultural competence, engagement, partnership, capacity building, equity, a holistic concept of health, accountability, and evidence-based as fundamental principles that will underpin the work they will do. In total, we identified 390 publicly advertised evaluation tenders, but were only able to retrieve 18 tenders and 97 reports. Despite strong rhetoric placing importance on the abovementioned principles, these were not consistently embedded in tenders released by government commissioners, nor in reports largely commissioned by governments. Principles most widely incorporated in documents were those corresponding to Closing the Gap - accountability, evidence-based and equity. Principles of holistic concept of health, capacity building, cultural competence and partnership do not appear well applied in evaluation practice. Conclusion(s): Notwithstanding the tensions and criticism of current practice that sees dominant governments policing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander populations and defining what principles should inform health policy and evaluation practice, this paper reveals shortcomings in current evaluation practice. Firstly, this paper reveals a lack of transparency about current practice, with only 2% of tenders and 25% of reports in the public domain. Secondly, this paper reveals that governments do not 'walk the talk', particularly when it comes to principles relating to Aboriginal participation in health. Copyright © 2020, The Author(s).