Indigenous Health Services Research: How We Might Advance as an Association

22/05/2010 5:23:00 PM

Building on the highly successful indigenous panel session at our 2009 conference, the Association has recently invited two indigenous health researchers to be co-opted onto the Executive Committee: Dr Amohia Boulton (Ngāti Ranginui, Ngai Te Rangi and Ngāti Pukenga) and Ms Kim O’Donnell (Malyangapa/Barkindji, NSW). Their role will be to advise and assist the Association to engage better with indigenous health researchers and to create an Association that values and respects indigenous health researchers’ knowledge and skills. In the first of a series of articles for this newsletter Kim and Amohia set out explain how they hope this initiative will work.

The Health Services Research Association of Australia and New Zealand’s 2009 Health Services Research and Policy Conference held in Brisbane represented a significant milestone in this Association’s maturity, a milestone which probably passed unnoticed by many of the delegates. However for those of us who work in indigenous health services research, and who have supported the Association since its inception, the inclusion of a dedicated indigenous panel session where indigenous researchers and practitioners alike were able to discuss their experiences, afforded a rare treat. The indigenous plenary held in Brisbane was only the second since these biennial conferences began and the first to be held in Australia.

By all accounts this session was well received by both the delegates and the international Keynote Speakers. It’s easy to forget that while these guests are experts of international standing in their respective fields, they too have much to learn about indigenous health knowledge, approaches and research practice. The indigenous plenary afforded our guests and delegates with a unique opportunity to hear, and learn from, the experiences of indigenous health researchers.

The theme of the 2009 conference was Health Services Research: Reforming, Responding, Rewarding; a theme that proves to be very timely as the Association now seeks to build on the momentum gathered at this conference and consider how, as an organisation, it can be more responsive to promoting indigenous health services research in our two countries.

In an effort to be more responsive, the Association has recently invited two indigenous health researchers to be co-opted onto the Executive Committee: Dr Amohia Boulton (Ngāti Ranginui, Ngai Te Rangi and Ngāti Pukenga) and Ms Kim O’Donnell (Malyangapa/Barkindji, NSW). Our role will be to advise and assist the Association to engage better with indigenous health researchers and specifically work with the Association towards achieving three key objectives, namely to:
• build indigenous health service research capacity;
• build a supportive network for indigenous health services researchers, particularly for emerging indigenous health services researchers; and
• develop a range of conference and non-conference activities relevant to indigenous health research.

In addition to these objectives, we will work with our indigenous colleagues (and their partners) currently active in health services research, to discuss the role the Association could play to improve health services delivery to indigenous peoples and ultimately achieve better health outcomes. We call upon you, our members, to consider how you could assist in our efforts to engage with indigenous health services researchers to create an Association that values and respects indigenous health researchers’ knowledge and skills.

Over the next year we will contribute a series of articles about indigenous health services research to this newsletter in an effort to both inform members about the breadth of work that characterises indigenous health services research and as a means to promote the skills and expertise that exists in indigenous health research in both countries. We also welcome feedback and suggestions from our members about how the Association could achieve the three objectives outlined above.

We look forward to working with the Executive and the Association to strengthen reciprocal understanding and respectful engagement and to achieve the objectives outlined above. We welcome suggestions, ideas and comments from members to support us in our efforts.

Nāu te rourou, nāku te rourou, ka ora te iwi
With your food basket and with my food basket, together we will feed the people

Amohia Boulton
Kim O’Donnell

Amohia Boulton (Ngāti Ranginui, Ngai te Rangi, Ngāti Pukenga, from the Bay of Plenty region of New Zealand) is a Senior Researcher at Whakauae Research for Māori Health and Development; a small, tribally-based research centre located in Whanganui.

Amohia has a background in public policy and worked as a Senior Policy Analyst at Te Puni Kōkiri (the Ministry of Māori Affairs) and Private Secretary (Māori Affairs) before taking up a Health Research Council Māori Training Fellowship to undertake her doctorate. Amohia’s doctoral work examined the contracting experience of community-based, Māori mental health providers, while her postdoctoral research took her to the University of Northern British Columbia where she was able to explore the challenges of contracting in indigenous health in greater depth.

Amohia’s research interests are in the fields of Māori health and mental health services, health governance, health reform, and the interface between health policy and service-level implementation. Amohia has been a named investigator on a number of HRC and DHB-funded evaluations of health systems and health services, including being a Principal Investigator on the Health Reforms 2001 Research Project, (a five year, HRC-funded evaluation) and, more recently the Evaluation of Multisystemic Therapy Alcohol and other Drug Services for the Hutt Valley District Health Board.

Amohia is also a member of the Māori Health Committee of the Health Research Council of New Zealand and a Visiting Research Fellow at the Health Services Research Centre, School of Government, Victoria University of Wellington.  

Kim O’Donnell is a Research Associate of Health Care Management in the Flinders University School of Medicine.

She is a Malyangapa/ Barkindji woman from Western NSW, Australia and was Chairperson of the Mutawintji National Park Board of Management from 2004-2009. Mutawintji is the first jointly managed national park in NSW to be returned to the Aboriginal owners in 1998.

Kim has a teaching background, has lived and worked in rural/ remote Australia and Japan and became involved in health care research after completing a Primary Health Care Masters in 2006. From 2007-2009, Kim was a researcher of the Overburden Project that investigated the complex funding and regulation of Primary Health Care for Aboriginal & Torres Strait people. The Overburden Report: Contracting for Indigenous Health Services (in Australia) provides 5 principles and ways to evaluate good funding practice and regulation of Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Community Controlled Health Services. Kim is passionate about doing work that improves leadership, self determination and governance within Aboriginal organisations and has been accepted into Flinders University, Australia, to complete a Doctorate of Public Health. 
 

Amohia Boulton and Kim O’Donnell

May 2010 Newsletter