Lessons Learned during a Rapidly Evolving COVID-19 Pandemic: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander-Led Mental Health and Wellbeing Responses Are Key
Open Access
- 25 January 2023
- journal article
- research article
- Published by MDPI AG in International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
- Vol. 20 (3), 2173
- https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph20032173
Abstract
As the world journeys towards the endemic phase that follows a pandemic, public health authorities are reviewing the efficacy of COVID-19 pandemic responses. The responses by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities in Australia have been heralded across the globe as an exemplary demonstration of how self-determination can achieve optimal health outcomes for Indigenous peoples. Despite this success, the impacts of pandemic stressors and public health responses on immediate and long-term mental health and wellbeing require examination. In December 2021, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander mental health and wellbeing leaders and allies (N = 50) attended a virtual roundtable to determine the key issues facing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and communities, and the actions required to address these issues. Roundtable attendees critically reviewed how the rapidly evolving pandemic context has impacted Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander mental health and social and emotional wellbeing (SEWB). This paper presents an overview of this national collaborative consultation process, and a summary of the key issues and actions identified. These results build on evidence from other roundtables held in Australia during 2020, and the emerging consensus across the globe that Indigenous self-determination remains essential to Indigenous SEWB, especially during and following a pandemic.This publication has 38 references indexed in Scilit:
- Understanding the Australian Aboriginal experience of collective, historical and intergenerational traumaInternational Social Work, 2019
- Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social and Emotional Wellbeing and Mental HealthAustralian Psychologist, 2017
- Indigenous Data SovereigntyPublished by ANU Press ,2016
- Health Inequalities and Infectious Disease Epidemics: A Challenge for Global Health SecurityBiosecurity and Bioterrorism: Biodefense Strategy, Practice, and Science, 2014
- Aboriginal community controlled health services: leading the way in primary careThe Medical Journal of Australia, 2014
- Yarning/Aboriginal storytelling: Towards an understanding of an Indigenous perspective and its implications for research practiceContemporary Nurse, 2013
- Social determinants and the health of Indigenous AustraliansThe Medical Journal of Australia, 2011
- Disproportionate impact of pandemic (H1N1) 2009 influenza on Indigenous people in the Top End of Australia's Northern TerritoryThe Medical Journal of Australia, 2010
- Yarning About Yarning as a Legitimate Method in Indigenous ResearchInternational Journal of Critical Indigenous Studies, 2010
- Ways of knowing, being and doing: A theoretical framework and methods for indigenous and indigenist re‐searchJournal of Australian Studies, 2003