Project leads
The project is led by researchers at the Australian National University (Uday Yadav, Leonie Williamson, Rosemary Wyber, Danielle Butler, Stefan Thottunkal, Matthew Smith, Raymond Lovett and Kirsty Douglas), in collaboration with Jason Agostino (National Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation), Victoria Sinka (University of Sydney) and colleagues from Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (Belinda Hammond, Mary Belfrage and Kate Freeman).
Status/timing
The project started in 2022 and will be completed in 2024.
What does the Project focus on?
The project is developing a better understanding of what works, what doesn’t, in what circumstances, and why, with regard to providing annual health checks for Aboriginal people. What are the contextual factors and causal mechanisms that lead to success or failure in implementing effective health checks to prevent and detect chronic disease among Aboriginal people?
What type of project/study?
This is a realist literature review, combining learnings from published literature with experiences of key stakeholders to provide a holistic view and understanding of the provision of these health checks.
What do you expect to achieve with this project when complete?
Improving the health and wellbeing of Aboriginal people is a priority in Australia, and annual health checks are a major policy initiative of the Commonwealth Government. This study will inform ongoing implementation of health checks to maximise their benefit.
Notable insight? Unexpected direction?
Findings so far reinforce the notion that there are many factors contributing to the success or otherwise of these health checks. These factors include practice level systems and processes, organisational culture, relationships between staff and patients and between the services and the community, ways of working (at multiple levels) and ability to work across differing world views.
