News

Initially, public health responses were successful in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities with lower rates of infection. But as gaps began to appear in relation to messaging about COVID-19 vaccines, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders peoples became more likely to contract COVID-19 in the successive waves of the pandemic and the impacts were more severe, compared to other Australians.  

Researchers suggest that failure to acknowledge the impact of historical trauma through colonisation may have played a role in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people’s health and wellbeing outcomes during the pandemic. 

A team of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander researchers set out to develop a culturally responsive trauma-informed public health emergency response framework for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples to tackle this issue. 

The framework was peer-reviewed and published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health.  

Researchers conducted a review of trauma-informed public health emergency responses, interviewed 110 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander parents and held a two-day workshop with 37 stakeholders about their experience of the pandemic and how COVID-19 impacted their lives. 

University of Melbourne’s Dr Simon Graham, a National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) fellow in the Department of Infectious Diseases and lead of the Indigenous Health cross-cutting discipline at the Doherty Institute, is a Narungga Nukunu man and first author of the study. 

“Culturally appropriate Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander-led strategies are critical to improving Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health in Australia and ‘closing the gap’ in health inequities,” Dr Graham said. 

Drawing on cultural knowledge, insights and lived experience, the culturally responsive trauma-informed public health emergency framework for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities has been co-designed by and with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. 

The framework outlines elements of time and trauma weaving through five layers: 

• Central goals 

• Interdependent core concepts 

• Supporting strategies 

• Key enablers 

• An overarching philosophy 

The framework provides a more appropriate way to view public health emergency responses and consider ways to minimise trauma-related distress and increase community cooperation with a focus on how, not what, to do. 

“Our framework has implications for policy, not only for how to respond to public health emergencies with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities but for preparedness,” Dr Graham said. 

University of Melbourne Professor Catherine Chamberlain, NHMRC fellow and Director of the Indigenous Health Equity Unit, is the lead investigator of the study.  

“It’s natural to feel anxious during a public health emergency, particularly in the face of an infectious life-threatening disease,” Professor Chamberlain said. 

“This framework offers a valuable lens through which to consider public health emergency responses which we hope will better support Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples to feel safer and be safe.  

“Importantly, communities need to be enabled to be actively involved in all levels of the response, as evidence clearly shows this helps post-disaster recovery and healing,” Professor Chamberlain added.  

Funding:

Paul Ramsay Foundation, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander COVID-19 Grant Round, Australian Partnership for Preparedness Research on Infectious Disease Emergencies (APPRISE) Centre for Research Excellence (CRE) and the NHMRC (Healing the Past by Nurturing the Future project).  

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph192315626