Project Name
"Innovations in the design and delivery of curricula on Indigenous Australian public health for: (i) existing PHERP programs; and, (ii) Indigenous Australian student cohorts."

Staff
Professor Ian Anderson and Dr Bill Genat

Collaborators
Wendy Brabham and Janice Jessen, Institute of Koorie Education (IKE), Deakin University
Dr Helen Keleher and Mr Bernie Marshall, School of Health and Social Development, Deakin University

Funding source
Public Health Education and Research Program (PHERP), Commonwealth Department of Health Ageing

Date
January 2003 - December 2005

Brief Project Description
This project is directed towards the development of public health capacity in Aboriginal health. It involves developing the capacity of non-Aboriginal people working in this sector, and, most importantly, developing pathways for Aboriginal people into health professional training at all levels.

Public health capacity development needs in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health is required in a number of distinct workforce contexts. For example, developing the capacity of policy makers to make decisions that take into account public health knowledge and evidence; developing the capacity of primary care professionals to link clinical care with public health activities and in developing the capacity in the sector to undertake public health research and evaluation.

The key focus of this project within Onemda Vichealth Koori Health Unit is the expansion of Indigenous public health curriculum, that is, subjects offered within both the Master of Public Health and Master of Social Health programs. The Institute of Koorie Education component of the project is public health curriculum development for Indigenous student cohorts.

Project Aims
The project has two key aims:

• To increase the number of Indigenous public health graduates by developing and implementing a community-based pedagogical model appropriate to the training of Indigenous MPH students and adapting the delivery of MPH units to this pedagogical format (being undertaken by the Institute of Koorie Education at Deakin University); and,
• To improve the capacity of MPH graduates to respond to Indigenous health issues. A National audit of Indigenous health content within MPH programs and Indigenous student participant in these programs was conducted. The development, implementation and evaluation of new curricula in Indigenous public health have also taken place (undertaken by Onemda VicHealth Koori Health Unit).

Current Outcomes

Key achievements to date include:

Key achievements to date at Onemda Vichealth Koori Health Unit, University of Melbourne:

• Completed a national audit of Indigenous public health curricula including content and student participation within PHERP MPH programs.
• Convened a National Indigenous Public Health Curriculum Workshop of academic, community and broader workforce stakeholders to review Indigenous Public health curricula and construct national guidelines for its development and implementation.
• Produced and disseminated to all key stakeholders a final report: National Indigenous Public Health Curriculum Audit and Workshop: Project Report, 2004.
• Developed new curricula in Indigenous public health at the University of Melbourne with the units incorporated as electives into the Victorian Consortium of Public Health MPH curriculum.
• Implemented and evaluated new curricula in Indigenous public health at Melbourne University.

Key achievements to date at the Institute of Koorie Education, Deakin University:

• Increased the number of Indigenous public health graduates. (Eleven Indigenous MPH graduates in three years from this one program compares admirably with a yield of seventeen Indigenous MPH graduates nationally between 1998 and 2002).
• Developed and implemented a pedagogically sound and culturally appropriate community-based pedagogical model for the delivery of MPH programs.
• Adapted, documented and evaluated the delivery of mainstream MPH units using a community-based pedagogical model for the Indigenous MPH cohort.

Projected Outcomes
Completion of a national MPH audit and review through the 2003 National Indigenous Public Health Curriculum Workshop and dissemination of a national report (Anderson et al. 2004).

The audit investigated MPH programs nationally with regard to:

• Indigenous content;
• Indigenous student enrolments and graduations;
• engagement and development of Indigenous academics;
• local partnerships in the delivery of Indigenous health.

The audit found:

Only seventeen Indigenous MPH students graduated nationally in the previous five years (1998–2002) within PHERP-funded MPH programs.

• A concentration of MPH programs with Indigenous health content as a key focus in Queensland and the Northern Territory bearing little relation to the existing distribution of Indigenous populations.
• Indigenous health subjects were either broad and generic content, or focused on specific diseases or risks with minimal emphasis on social and cultural analysis.
• Only one national MPH program specifically tailored to Indigenous students being delivered through the Institute of Koorie Education (IKE) at Deakin University (Anderson et al. 2004).

On the basis of the national audit and workshop, further key outcomes were:

• A significant increase in the number of Indigenous graduates nationally awarded a Master of Public Health through use a unique community-based pedagogical model to an Indigenous student cohort at the Institute of Koorie Education at Deakin University (eleven Indigenous MPH graduates in three years from IKE program compared admirably with a yield of seventeen Indigenous MPH graduates nationally between 1998 and 2002);
• The development of a social science stream in Indigenous public health at The University of Melbourne.

Publications
Anderson, I., Brabham, W.,Genat W. et al 2004, National Indigenous Public Health Curriculum Audit & Workshop Project Report, VKHRCDU Discussion Paper, No. 11, VKHRCDU, University of Melbourne, Melbourne.