Family-centred interventions are a promising approach to improving the health and wellbeing of young Indigenous children and their families. According to the systematic scoping review by McCalman et al. (2017), primary healthcare services in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the United States have increasingly adopted family-centred care models. This blog will discuss how practitioners can implement the outcomes of this research to improve their skills and create better outcomes for Indigenous children.
Key Strategies for Implementing Family-Centred Interventions
The review identified six key strategies for effective family-centred interventions:
- Supporting family behaviours and self-care: Providing mentoring, counselling, advocacy, and products to support healthy family behaviours.
- Increasing maternal knowledge: Offering maternal health education and skills development to promote maternal skills, problem-solving, and coping skills.
- Linking with the clinic: Encouraging families to attend health clinics for various health checks and services.
- Building the Indigenous workforce: Employing, training, and supervising Indigenous health workers to deliver culturally competent care.
- Promoting cultural/community connectedness: Encouraging cultural and community engagement to enhance the effectiveness of interventions.
- Advocating for social determinants of health: Addressing social and economic factors that impact health, such as housing and legal issues.
Enablers of Successful Family-Centred Interventions
The review also identified four critical enablers for the success of family-centred interventions:
- Competent and compassionate program deliverers: Ensuring staff are well-trained and culturally competent.
- Flexibility of access: Providing flexible access to health education and care, including home-based care and transport options.
- Continuity and integration of healthcare: Offering integrated and continuous care across different stages of pregnancy and early childhood.
- Culturally supportive care: Providing care that respects and incorporates cultural practices and values.
Outcomes of Family-Centred Interventions
Implementing these strategies and enablers can lead to diverse positive outcomes:
- Child health outcomes: Improved nutritional status, emotional behaviour, and preventive health measures.
- Parent/carer outcomes: Reduced depression and substance misuse, and improved parenting knowledge, confidence, and skills.
- Health service outcomes: High satisfaction with healthcare, improved access, and cost-effective services.
- Community/cultural revitalization: Enhanced cultural and community engagement and support.
Encouraging Further Research
While the evidence for family-centred interventions is promising, the review highlights the need for further research, particularly in areas such as the role of fathers, the impact on social determinants of health, and cost evaluations. Practitioners are encouraged to engage in ongoing research and evaluation to continually improve the effectiveness of these interventions.
To read the original research paper, please follow this link: Family-centred interventions by primary healthcare services for Indigenous early childhood wellbeing in Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United States: a systematic scoping review.
