Investigators: Catherine Halkon, Dylan Barth, John Jacky, Jonathan Carapetis, Rosemary Wyber
Partners: Kimberley Aboriginal Medical Services Ltd (KAMS), Nirrumbuk Environmental Health & Services
Kimberley Aboriginal Medical Services, Nirrumbuk Environmental Health and Services and The Kids Research Institute Australia seek to implement and evaluate a community-led project, funded by the Department of Health, to prevent and manage RHD in a selected high-risk Aboriginal community - Bidyandanga, within the Kimberley Region of Western Australia. This project is adapted from the END RHD Demonstration Communities project model currently based in three communities within the Northern Territory.
The project uses community-led, research-backed prevention strategies to tackle Strep A skin and throat infections, acute rheumatic fever and rheumatic heart disease. Central to the model is the employment of Aboriginal Community Workers to develop professional partnerships with individuals and families at highest risk and assist them to navigate the health care system, increase their self-management capacity and manage environmental risk factors. The project purpose is to provide improved outcomes and evidence that can be applied more broadly to community interventions to end RHD in other Aboriginal communities.