FCMHW PROGRAM: Translation of knowledge into practice: building the wellbeing of Aboriginal men and boys using an ecological framework
Contact: Tamara Mackean
Overview:
Aboriginal men and boys have demonstrated enduring strength and resilience despite the dispossession and disempowerment they have experienced as colonised First Peoples. The ongoing manifestations of colonisation are evident in burdens of mental illness and other disparities in social and health outcomes. The 2008 National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Survey (NATSISS) estimated that 8% of Aboriginal men aged 15 and over had been removed from their natural family as a child and 98% of Aboriginal men aged 18 and over suffered from some form of psychological distress.
There are numerous factors influencing these inequities such as physical health conditions, substance use, poor housing, limited employment opportunities, high stress, and racism. In addition, there are also fundamental differences between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal concepts of health and healing which impact on service access, quality of care and appropriate health promotion and cultural appropriateness of services, all of which can be barriers to seeking help.
Ecological frameworks of wellbeing are like Aboriginal understandings of wellbeing and provide a multifactorial understanding of the range of factors at play in the wellbeing of Aboriginal men and boys. This proposal builds on two recent projects – one applying an ecological framework to map risk and protective factors for Aboriginal suicide and the other, investigating Indigenous and non-Indigenous theories of wellbeing – and will use Indigenous research methodologies including engaging in the knowledge interface through relational activities, collaborative inquiry, deep listening and privileging Aboriginal men and boys lived experience.
Knowledge interface processes put knowledge systems side by side rather than in a hierarchy in which dominance and superiority exclude different ways of knowing, being and doing. The aim of this program is to translate ecological maps of risk and protective factors for wellbeing in Aboriginal men and boys into health promotion and prevention activities in SA through trialling the use of an ecological framework and knowledge interface processes as tools to improve the wellbeing of First Nations men and boys, establishing collaborative research relationships across the Centre and with Aboriginal Elders, people, and organisations with shared interest in the wellbeing of Aboriginal men and boys, and engaging in co-design with Aboriginal men and boys to develop resources that promote wellbeing.
The program will be led by Aboriginal academics and informed by Indigenous knowledge of health and wellbeing. Further, community engagement will empower communities to participate in the development of resources to support the social and emotional wellbeing of their men and boys.