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Examining the potential contribution of social theory to developing and supporting Australian Indigenous-mainstream health service partnerships

INTRODUCTION: The substantial gap in life expectancy between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians has been slow to improve, despite increased dedicated funding. Partnerships between Australian Indigenous and mainstream Western biomedical organisations are recognised as crucial to improved Indig...

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Autores principales: Haynes, Emma, Taylor, Kate P, Durey, Angela, Bessarab, Dawn, Thompson, Sandra C
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BioMed Central 2014
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4169641/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25242106
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12939-014-0075-5
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author Haynes, Emma
Taylor, Kate P
Durey, Angela
Bessarab, Dawn
Thompson, Sandra C
author_facet Haynes, Emma
Taylor, Kate P
Durey, Angela
Bessarab, Dawn
Thompson, Sandra C
author_sort Haynes, Emma
collection PubMed
description INTRODUCTION: The substantial gap in life expectancy between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians has been slow to improve, despite increased dedicated funding. Partnerships between Australian Indigenous and mainstream Western biomedical organisations are recognised as crucial to improved Indigenous health outcomes. However, these partnerships often experience challenges, particularly in the context of Australia’s race and political relations. METHODS: We examined the relevant literature in order to identify the potential role for social theory and theoretical models in developing and maintaining intercultural partnerships. Having identified relevant theoretical models, terms and possible key words, a range of databases were searched and relevant articles selected for inclusion. An integrative approach brought together theoretical models and practical considerations about working in partnership, to inform our analysis of the literature. FINDINGS: Considering partnerships between Australian Indigenous and mainstream health organisations as ‘bi-cultural’ is simplistic: rather they are culturally diverse across social and professional levels. As such, partnerships between Australian Indigenous and mainstream health organisations may be better conceptualised as ‘intercultural’, operating across diverse and shifting cultural frames of reference. Theories identified by this review as useful to guide partnerships include power relations, reflexivity and dialogue, borders and strangeness and the intercultural or third space. This paper examines how these theoretical approaches can develop understanding and improve intercultural engagement between mainstream and Australian Indigenous partners in healthcare. CONCLUSIONS: Rather than viewing partnerships merely as arrangements between disembodied entities, sometimes contractual in nature, they are better seen as activities between people and organisations and essentially dependent on relationships, occurring in an intercultural space that is complex, dynamic and subject to changes in power relations. Theoretical models aiming to understand and improve partnerships indicate the complexity of building and maintaining such partnerships and stress the importance of understanding factors that can strengthen or derail their effectiveness. While the theories presented here are by no means exhaustive, they nonetheless provide a series of entry points through which to engage with the issue and expand the discourse. This approach allows the transformative nature of Australian Indigenous-mainstream ‘culture’ to be explored and understood in its lived expression; rather than relegated to prescriptive categories.
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spelling pubmed-41696412014-09-21 Examining the potential contribution of social theory to developing and supporting Australian Indigenous-mainstream health service partnerships Haynes, Emma Taylor, Kate P Durey, Angela Bessarab, Dawn Thompson, Sandra C Int J Equity Health Research INTRODUCTION: The substantial gap in life expectancy between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians has been slow to improve, despite increased dedicated funding. Partnerships between Australian Indigenous and mainstream Western biomedical organisations are recognised as crucial to improved Indigenous health outcomes. However, these partnerships often experience challenges, particularly in the context of Australia’s race and political relations. METHODS: We examined the relevant literature in order to identify the potential role for social theory and theoretical models in developing and maintaining intercultural partnerships. Having identified relevant theoretical models, terms and possible key words, a range of databases were searched and relevant articles selected for inclusion. An integrative approach brought together theoretical models and practical considerations about working in partnership, to inform our analysis of the literature. FINDINGS: Considering partnerships between Australian Indigenous and mainstream health organisations as ‘bi-cultural’ is simplistic: rather they are culturally diverse across social and professional levels. As such, partnerships between Australian Indigenous and mainstream health organisations may be better conceptualised as ‘intercultural’, operating across diverse and shifting cultural frames of reference. Theories identified by this review as useful to guide partnerships include power relations, reflexivity and dialogue, borders and strangeness and the intercultural or third space. This paper examines how these theoretical approaches can develop understanding and improve intercultural engagement between mainstream and Australian Indigenous partners in healthcare. CONCLUSIONS: Rather than viewing partnerships merely as arrangements between disembodied entities, sometimes contractual in nature, they are better seen as activities between people and organisations and essentially dependent on relationships, occurring in an intercultural space that is complex, dynamic and subject to changes in power relations. Theoretical models aiming to understand and improve partnerships indicate the complexity of building and maintaining such partnerships and stress the importance of understanding factors that can strengthen or derail their effectiveness. While the theories presented here are by no means exhaustive, they nonetheless provide a series of entry points through which to engage with the issue and expand the discourse. This approach allows the transformative nature of Australian Indigenous-mainstream ‘culture’ to be explored and understood in its lived expression; rather than relegated to prescriptive categories. BioMed Central 2014-09-20 /pmc/articles/PMC4169641/ /pubmed/25242106 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12939-014-0075-5 Text en © Haynes et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. 2014 This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.
spellingShingle Research
Haynes, Emma
Taylor, Kate P
Durey, Angela
Bessarab, Dawn
Thompson, Sandra C
Examining the potential contribution of social theory to developing and supporting Australian Indigenous-mainstream health service partnerships
title Examining the potential contribution of social theory to developing and supporting Australian Indigenous-mainstream health service partnerships
title_full Examining the potential contribution of social theory to developing and supporting Australian Indigenous-mainstream health service partnerships
title_fullStr Examining the potential contribution of social theory to developing and supporting Australian Indigenous-mainstream health service partnerships
title_full_unstemmed Examining the potential contribution of social theory to developing and supporting Australian Indigenous-mainstream health service partnerships
title_short Examining the potential contribution of social theory to developing and supporting Australian Indigenous-mainstream health service partnerships
title_sort examining the potential contribution of social theory to developing and supporting australian indigenous-mainstream health service partnerships
topic Research
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4169641/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25242106
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12939-014-0075-5
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