A major new Curtin University-led program will work to make a vital contribution to reverse declining vaccination rates among Aboriginal communities across Western Australia, after being awarded a Stan Perron Charitable Foundation Program grant.
The three-year Closing the Vaccine Gap initiative will aim to better protect pregnant women, babies and adolescents by overcoming vaccine hesitancy in regions representing more than half of WA's Aboriginal population.
The project will cover the Perth metropolitan, Mid-West and Great Southern areas, where hospitalisation rates for vaccine-preventable diseases are nearly three times higher for Aboriginal people in some locations.
Lead researcher and Noongar woman Professor Anne-Marie Eades, from the Curtin School of Nursing, said the decline in immunisation rates following the COVID-19 pandemic was a serious public health issue, particularly for groups already facing health inequities.
"Vaccinations have prevented more than 150 million deaths worldwide over the past 50 years, yet we're now seeing four years of falling immunisation rates in Australia," Professor Eades said.
"This decline is not the same everywhere – it is significantly worse for Aboriginal people and without change, we risk seeing preventable diseases return and disproportionately harm our communities."
Building on Curtin's previous Ngarngk Koolangka Moorditj Yarning project, the program will work directly with community members, Elders, health workers and families.
"Co-designing this initiative is absolutely essential," Professor Eades said.
"Our previous work showed that confidence and vaccine uptake improve when Aboriginal communities lead the process and resources reflect culture, language, lived experience and local priorities.
"This program will scale that approach across more regions, with paid community champions embedded in each site."
The new program will focus on pregnant women, babies under two and adolescents – groups for whom delayed or missed vaccinations carry significant risk.
"Our goal is to build trust and engagement, which is the most effective way to build confidence, and to ensure better health literacy, stronger relationships with health providers and culturally grounded resources that empower families to make informed decisions," Professor Eades said.
"Most importantly, the solutions we develop will be designed by Aboriginal people, for Aboriginal people, to create change that lasts."
The project team also includes experts from The University of Western Australia, the Kids Research Institute Australia, Murdoch University, University of Sydney, the Child and Adolescent Health Service, East Metropolitan Health Service and Johns Hopkins University's Center for Indigenous Health.
