Women and Newborn Health Service Aboriginal Maternity Service Support Unit

1. Women and Newborn Health Service Aboriginal Maternity Service Support Unit

2. Closing the Gap: National Partnership Agreement on Indigenous Early Childhood Development Signed in July 2009, the National Partnership Agreement on Indigenous Early Childhood Development commits $564.6 million over six years to improve Indigenous early childhood development. The agreement is funding 36 Children and Family Centres to provide early-learning, child-care and family-support services to Indigenous children and families. It is also providing increased access to antenatal care services, sexual and reproductive health services for Indigenous teenagers, and maternal and child health services for Indigenous children and their mothers

3. Aboriginal Maternity Service Support Unit • Funding by COAG element 2 IECD $3.28 million until June 2014 • 7 new positions created State wide Coordinator Manager, Clinical Midwifery Consultant, Medical Officer,Researcher,Admin assistant • 4 X 50d positions • State wide Coordinator is joint position with Aboriginal Health Council of Western Australia • Engagement via regional planning process, local service provider request, community forums

4. Strategic Purpose • Capacity and sustainability involving and supporting others to achieve their service goals for Aboriginal clients • Improving the cultural performance of WNHS/KEMH

5. Goals :Improve health outcomes for Aboriginal Women and their families. • Encouraging improved access to antenatal, postnatal care and early access to child health services • Ensuring client needs are identified and met • Improving the cultural competence of the workforce • Encouraging and supporting improved service delivery • Supporting full partnership and collaboration in the identification ,design and implementation of services to the target group

6. Goals :Improve health outcomes for Aboriginal Women and their families. • Encouraging and supporting an holistic approach to maternity services provided to Aboriginal women • Ensuring continues evaluation and monitoring of services and programs • Facilitating the use of economic evaluations in maternal and child health programs and services • Ensure design and directions of service delivery is in line with evidence base • Working in partnership with stakeholders and service providers.

7. Strategic Direction of the unit The units role is to support services. It is intended to provide/support and/or facilitate • Evidence based clinical advice • Research • Information • Linkages • Professional Development

8. Western Australian Context • An estimated 3.4% of the total population in WA identifies as Aboriginal .In WA in 2007, 5.9% of mothers were of Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander descent compared with the national average of 3.8%. • Compared with non-Aboriginal mothers, the stillbirth rate was double in Aboriginal mothers, the neonatal death rate three-fold higher and the post-neonatal rate six-fold higher. • Aboriginal women living in regional WA have the highest rates of infant and maternal and health problems • Modifiable factors – sustained and early access to culturally appropriate antenatal care, smoking cessation support ,substance misuse support , Sexual and reproductive health .

9. WA frameworks and work to date • Maternity Services framework goal one Improving health outcomes for Aboriginal women http://www.healthnetworks.health.wa.gov.au/projects/matservices.cfm • Strengths and Needs Analysis of Maternal and Child Health and Model of Care for Maternal and Child Health available at http://www.ichr.uwa.edu.au/accare/reports

10. Strengths and Needs Analysis recommendations Clinical Governance framework for Maternal and Child Health • Models of Care-Maternal and Child Health, Guidelines, standards of care inclusive of continuous quality improvement and action research at local level to inform this process. • Infrastructure- dedicated clinic space, funding, communication and IT • Partnerships-Integration and Referral • Workforce –Training and Development, • Health Promotion

11. Aboriginal Maternity Service Support Unit • Joint role between the AHCWA and WNHS to progress the recommendations of Strengths and Needs and communicate Model of care • The model of care was informed by the ACCHS for the ACCHS in response to the S and N analysis

12. Model of Care for Maternal and Child Health • The broad objective of developing of developing an integrated model of care is to ensure people get the right care, at the right time, by the right person and in the right place (Queensland Health, 2000; WA Health Networks) • An integrated quality model of care is one which considers all the factors that affect maternal and child health and wellbeing and considers these when planning a continuum of care from preconception through to early child hood

13. Closing the Gap Targets • Halve the gap in mortality rates for Indigenous children under five within a decade • Halve the gap for Indigenous students in reading, writing and numeracy within a decade • All Indigenous four year olds have access to quality early childhood education within five years, including Indigenous children living in remote areas

14. Contacts Aboriginal Maternity Services Support Unit amssu@health.wa.gov.au