Aboriginal health - Murdoch Children's Research Institute

Progress has been made in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander child and family health, but collaborative efforts led by these communities show more action is needed for better health equality and outcomes.

Aboriginal culture is front and centre at MCRI.

Watch as Rj asks Dr Graham Gee about aboriginal health and wellbeing in children.

First Nations child drinking from a water fountain

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander child health

Our Aboriginal Health Program aims to improve the health and wellbeing of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children, young people and families. The priorities of the program include:

Developing culturally appropriate research governance structures and approaches to community co-design and engagement in research.
Building an understanding of what works (and what doesn’t) to improve outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children, young people and families.
Improving our ability to help Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children, young people and families through findings from existing studies.
Developing culturally validated tools across key domains of child, young people and family health.
Building the capacity and capability of Murdoch Children’s Research Institute to do this work in a way that enables growth and sustainability, whilst maintaining strong community connections and relationships with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities.

The program is building the capacity and capability at the Institute and the Melbourne Children’s Campus to support the expansion of collaborative research with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. We are increasing the number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander researchers on campus and fostering stronger engagement with communities in Victoria and South Australia.

Who does it affect?

We’re working to improve the health and wellbeing of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people including infants, children, adolescents, mothers and families living in metropolitan, regional and rural Australia.
We aim to generate new knowledge about what keeps families and communities strong, what enables healing and recovery and ways for services and systems to promote resilience and wellbeing.
We’ve established an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Reference Group to provide strategic guidance and cultural advice to our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Research Leadership Team, the Institute Director and Institute Executive.

Our Aboriginal health research

We are working with the Aboriginal Health Council of South Australia to undertake a study involving 344 Aboriginal children and their mothers and carers living in urban, regional and remote areas of South Australia.

The study aims to enable the voices of diverse Aboriginal children and families in South Australia to inform policy and practice in health, education, and social care settings. Another major goal is to identify factors that promote social and emotional wellbeing and resilience.

Early findings showed that Aboriginal-led services in South Australia have improved Aboriginal families’ access to, and experiences of, antenatal care.

We are currently analysing findings from the follow-up study of children and their families, which was conducted as the children were beginning primary school.

We’re producing Australia’s first national roadmap for Indigenous adolescent health. This will document priority health needs and evidence-based actions to improve health and wellbeing. We’re engaging Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander adolescents and Elders to drive and govern the project including a national survey. This will create a group of upskilled Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander youths to take leadership in health.

Research funded by the Million Minds Mental Health Research Mission is generating models of mental health care that are Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander patient-centred, plus clinically and culturally capable (see Dr Graham Gee's profile for details). Other research focuses on prevention, resilience and recovery from trauma among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

Our research helps to identify and support Aboriginal parents who have experienced complex childhood trauma including childhood sexual abuse and aid in healing and recovery.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities have one of the world’s highest rates of Strep A disease which can cause rheumatic heart disease, stroke and death in adolescents and young adults. We’re working in a national consortium on vaccines against Strep A which will soon begin testing two vaccines.

Impacts of our research

Impacts of our research

Our Stronger Futures Centre of Research Excellence works to improve social and emotional wellbeing, as well as family functioning and resilience. This is aimed at families and communities impacted by intergenerational trauma, family violence and social inequality.
Evidence from our Aboriginal Families Study informed the redesign of Aboriginal maternity and early childhood services in South Australia. This led to improved access to pregnancy care for Aboriginal families.
Our policy briefs summarise evidence from our families study and advise governments and health services on social determinants of the health and wellbeing of Aboriginal families.
Research we co-led found that a culturally adapted early childhood program for Aboriginal children improved language, development and communication skills in infants from unemployed families.
Our study on the health and wellbeing of Indigenous adolescents in Australia and input to a global commission on adolescent health revealed that one-third of our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander population is aged 10 to 24. However, rates of death are higher than non-Indigenous adolescents, with 80 per cent potentially avoidable. There are also higher rates of disease and injuries.
We developed the first socially inclusive measure of resilience in middle childhood by working in partnership with Aboriginal families and communities. Our Childhood Resilience Study is building a better understanding of how children can grow up to be strong and resilient despite experiences of social adversity and trauma.

Our vision

Our vision is to improve health, wellbeing and equity for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children, young people and families. We’re aiming for long-term health improvements and the reversal of upward trends in mental health disorders, self-harm and suicide.

Where to next?

Guided by the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute Aboriginal Reference Group, our team is developing research initiatives and partnerships to help prevent rising rates of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young people and children living in Out of Home Care and better strengthen their health and wellbeing.