Aboriginal and Torres Strait islander Health Workforce Capacity Building – Perinatal Social and Emotional Wellbeing Screening: A Learning Package for Perinatal Psychosocial Screening with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People

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Presenters: Margaret Dawson1, Belinda Rule2

Organisation: 1Royal Flying Doctor Service, Brisbane, Australia, 2Queensland Health, Townsville, Australia

Date of Presentation: 20/10/2014

Abstract:

AIM:
Building workforce capacity enabling Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health workers and clinicians to support the social and emotional wellbeing of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women and their families in the perinatal period.
METHOD:
Research and develop a learning framework for Indigenous health workers (HWs) and clinicians working in the maternal and child health environment in Government and non-Government organisations by:
– Ascertaining knowledge acquisition and skill development needs of HWs and supporting clinical staff
– Identifying gaps in the educational capacity of resources
– Identifying community education resources and relevant referral pathways
– Enabling knowledge and skill acquisition required to become comfortable and confident to collaboratively support universal psychosocial screening
– Build capacity in HWs and clinical staff supporting HWs to effectively support each other to use available tools.
RESULTS:
A Self-Directed Learning Package was developed to enable and empower health professionals to better support Indigenous women and their families in the perinatal period. The Package contains a suite of educational resources to facilitate education and consolidate knowledge to enable collaborative use of the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale, Safe Start tool and relevant mental health promotion materials and available referral pathways.
CONCLUSION:
Following a trial of the Learning Package, surveys showed improved outcomes were gained through capacity building of the health worker and clinician supporting the health worker. As a result, the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women are more reflective of their social and emotional wellbeing status with relevant referrals being made to available services.