A national trial of a new tool designed to measure cultural safety in health services from the perspective of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander patients, will aim to track progress and ultimately lift health outcomes.
Led by University of Newcastle and HMRI researcher, Dr Elissa Elvidge, the project has received $621,000 through the Medical Research Future Fund (MRFF) Early to Mid-Career Researchers Grant scheme, administered by the National Health and Medical Research Council.
Despite national requirements for culturally safe care, there is currently no standard way to measure whether Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander patients experience health services as culturally safe. Culturally unsafe healthcare experiences can create access barriers which lead to inequitable health outcomes.
The project, known as the Cultural Safety Scale (CSS2), will trial a new approach to capturing Indigenous patient feedback and establishing cultural safety as a measurable indicator of health service performance.
Dr Elvidge said the project would provide health services with a systematic and transparent way to identify strengths, target improvements, support reforms and track progress over time.
The project brings together Indigenous health organisations, health authorities, service providers, digital platform experts, Aboriginal community-controlled organisations and community partners to develop a scalable national platform that can support service benchmarking and evidence-based reform across diverse communities
Dr Elissa Elvidge's research is situated at the intersection of public health policy, and health systems and is conducted through community research partnerships.
Project title: 'Cultural safety in the Australian health system: Empirical assessment of Indigenous patient experience as a basis for meaningful service reform'.
HMRI is partnership between the University of Newcastle, Hunter New England Local Health District and the community.
