Empowering families by engaging and relating Murri way: a grounded theory study of the implementation of the Cape York Baby Basket program
McCalman, Janya, Searles, Andrew, Bainbridge, Roxanne, Ham, Rachael, Mein, Jacki, Neville, Johanna, Campbell, Sandra, and Tsey, Komla (2015) Empowering families by engaging and relating Murri way: a grounded theory study of the implementation of the Cape York Baby Basket program. BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth, 15. 119. pp. 1-13.
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Abstract
Background: Evaluating program outcomes without considering how the program was implemented can cause misunderstandings and inefficiencies when initiating program improvements. In conjunction with a program evaluation, reported elsewhere, this paper theorises the process of implementing an Indigenous Australian maternal and child health program. The Baby Basket program was developed in 2009 for the remote Cape York region and aimed to improve the attendance and engagement of Indigenous women at antenatal and postnatal clinics through providing three baskets of maternal and baby goods and associated health education.
Methods: Constructivist grounded theory methods were used to generate and analyse data from qualitative interviews and focus groups with Indigenous women who received the baskets, their extended family members, and healthcare workers who delivered them. Data was coded in NVivo with concepts iteratively compared until higher order constructs and their relationships could be modelled to explain the common purpose for participants, the process involved in achieving that purpose, key strategies, conditions and outcomes. Theoretical terms are italicised.
Results: Program implementation entailed empowering families through a process of engaging and relating Murri (Queensland Indigenous) way. Key influencing conditions of the social environment were the remoteness of communities, keeping up with demand, families’ knowledge, skills and roles and organisational service approaches and capacities. Engaging and relating Murri way occurred through four strategies: connecting through practical support, creating a culturally safe practice, becoming informed and informing others, and linking at the clinic. These strategies resulted in women and families taking responsibility for health through making healthy choices, becoming empowered health consumers and advocating for community changes.
Conclusions: The theoretical model was applied to improve and revise Baby Basket program implementation, including increased recognition of the importance of empowering families by extending the home visiting approach up to the child’s third birthday. Engaging and relating Murri way was strengthened by formal recognition and training of Indigenous health workers as program leaders. This theoretical model of program implementation was therefore useful for guiding program improvements, and could be applicable to other Indigenous maternal and child health programs.
| Item ID: | 39038 |
|---|---|
| Item Type: | Article (Research - C1) |
| ISSN: | 1471-2393 |
| Keywords: | maternal and child health, Indigenous, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander, intervention, grounded theory, antenatal care, postnatal care, remote |
| Additional Information: | © 2015 McCalman et al. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated. |
| Funders: | Lowitja Institute |
| Date Deposited: | 26 Jun 2015 00:09 |
| FoR Codes: | 11 MEDICAL AND HEALTH SCIENCES > 1117 Public Health and Health Services > 111701 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health @ 50% 11 MEDICAL AND HEALTH SCIENCES > 1117 Public Health and Health Services > 111704 Community Child Health @ 50% |
| SEO Codes: | 92 HEALTH > 9203 Indigenous Health > 920303 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health - Health System Performance (incl. Effectiveness of Interventions) @ 80% 92 HEALTH > 9203 Indigenous Health > 920301 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health - Determinants of Health @ 20% |
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