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Community engagement showcasing events

• Brisbane Community Engagement Showcase 2007
• Brisbane City Council Showcase
  • Creative Democracy - Homelessness
  • Engaging communities using cultural processes - Chermside Community Hub
• Central Queensland Showcase
  • Devising and implementing the District Youth Achievement Plan for the ETRF Senior Phase of Learning
  • Integrated Area-Wide Management as an Approach to Landscape Management
  • Rolleston Coal Project
  • Yeppoon Western Bypass Road
• Emergency Services Showcase
  • Community Safety Project
  • Engaging Indigenous Communities
  • Local Ambulance Committees
  • Queensland Ambulance Service First Responders
• Goodna Outreach Showcase
• Hervey Bay Showcase
  • Australian Industry Engineering Manufacturing Network Ltd
  • Wide Bay Burnett Human Services Network
  • New prison in a new town
• Ipswich Showcase
  • Swanbank Community Reference Group
  • Community Hubs Project in Esk Shire
  • Ipswich Area Regional Disability Council (IARDC)
• Mackay Showcase
  • Mackay Highlands Coordinating Committee
  • Queensland Marine Academy
  • Mackay Childhood Injury Prevention Project
  • Mackay Alcohol and Other Drugs Community Partnership
• NRM Showcase
  • Review of Ministerial Advisory Arrangements
  • CHRRUPP Experiment and Future Options for Community Engagement
  • Community Involvement in Mary River Planning
• Queensland Police Service Showcase
  • Mareeba Truancy and Graffiti (TAG) project
  • Community Support
  • Mareeba Shire Council - Local Government view
  • Mareeba State High School - Community Education Counsellor view
  • Mareeba State High School - Education view
• Townsville Showcase
  • La Luna Youth Art
  • Minimizing Road Trauma
  • Speak Out 2003
  • Palm Island Community Youth Centre Consultation Process
  • District Youth Achievement Plan
  • Young Achievement Enterprise Education Program

Emergency Services Showcase

Engaging Indigenous Communities

This case study will highlight a number of innovative, locally developed and collaborative solutions to service delivery issues, and the opportunities and challenges to effectively engaging with Indigenous communities. It illustrates how DES has been able to meet those challenges and provides an

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opportunity to share learnings.

• Where we began
• Methods we used to involve people
• On the journey
• Where we ended up
• What we learnt
• Keeping it going

Where we began

Initial work began in 1995, when a number of remote Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities and the Queensland Ambulance Service (QAS) became increasingly concerned about community access to pre-hospital care services.

QAS began to explore and respond to the pre-hospital care needs of remote Indigenous communities using a combination of Government funding and a grant received under the Rural Health Support, Education and Training Program 1994-1995.

The project aimed to develop and implement appropriate pre-hospital care service delivery models for remote Indigenous communities. This was to be achieved through a combination of extensive research and wide community consultation. A key focus of the project was appropriate community engagement processes to ensure the outcomes were compatible with Indigenous cultural beliefs and practices.

Initial planning and consultation revealed a number of concerns and challenges to be addressed including:

• the need for extensive community involvement;
• relatively high injury rates and consequently a high level of need for pre-hospital care services;
• the vulnerability of Indigenous communities in times of emergencies and disasters caused by their geographic isolation, climate, limited community infrastructure and complex cultural issues;
• limited community capacity to support community-based services;
• the unique needs of remote Indigenous communities, including the need for pre-hospital care services to cover a wider range of roles and functions compared to urban models; and
• a large number of relatively small, scattered and diverse homeland communities requiring services.

Methods we used to involve people

The project was committed to respecting the customs and traditions of Indigenous Australians and , their right to self-determination and self-management from its inception.

In line with community views, informal discussions occurred with a wide range of local stakeholders including councils; community elders; community health centre managers and staff; women's groups; a range of community corporations and progress associations; Queensland Police staff; Education Queensland staff; local business proprietors; community development employment project officers; volunteers; and local Department of Emergency Services (DES) staff.

Progression of the consultative work expanded to include more communities. A number of other key stakeholders were engaged including the Aboriginal Coordinating Council, Apunipima Cape York Health Council; the Queensland Aboriginal and Torres Straight Islander Health Worker Education Program Aboriginal Corporation; Royal Flying Doctor Service; Tropical Public Health Unit and North Queensland Clinical School of the University of Queensland; and the Far North Division of General Practice.

Community engagement methods focused on building strong relationships with communities, families and individuals. The following methods were included:

• spending time with community elders and families;
• attending community events when invited;
• visiting and conducting programs and training in communities and their associated homelands/outstations;
• community workshops;
• informal discussions;
• participating in other consultative forums;
• including key stakeholders in project teams; and
• formal meetings with Councils and other representative bodies.

A number of factors influenced the planning and choice of engagement methods including:

• community preference;
• the unique circumstances of each community;
• consultation fatigue experienced by some communities; and
• the importance of maintaining a single, consistent contact officer.

On the journey

In the early stages the project focused on pre-hospital care services in the communities of Doomadgee and Mornington Island.

During the project development, it became evident that additional communities in Cape York and the Torres Strait needed to be included, and the scope of the work needed to be widened to include a whole-of-Department approach to include the services of Queensland Fire and Rescue Service and Counter Disaster and Rescue Services.

The key successes to the implementation of this project include:

• community commitment and willingness to be actively involved;
• support from Queensland Health;
• strong relationships developed with communities;
• commitment and support of DES management;
• involvement of a wide range of stakeholders;
• recognition of the diverse nature of Indigenous communities;
• recognition of the importance of homelands/outstations; and
• recognition of the aspirations of Indigenous communities, particularly the need for sustainability and self-determination and self-management.

Where we ended up

Key outcomes include:

• Permanent ambulance services have been established at Mornington Island, Doomadgee and Palm Island.
• A pre-hospital care model for remote Indigenous communities has been developed and implemented in the communities of Coen, Horn Island and Kowanyama.
• This model involves the establishment of a QAS Field Office, staffed by a permanent Field Officer. The Field Officer serves the local community, surrounding communities and importantly, the related homelands/outstations.
• The role of the Field Officer includes injury prevention and first aid training, developing the emergency response capability of communities, and training primary health care workers in relation to pre-hospital care including the use of emergency equipment such as defibrillators.
• The establishment of the Department of Emergency Services Indigenous Coordination Unit in Cairns. During project development it was identified that there was a need for a unit to coordinate activities across the Department.
• The development of service delivery plans for Indigenous communities: Enhancing the capacity of Cape York Communities to Prevent and Respond to Health Care Emergencies and Injuries - September 2000 and Enhancing the capacity of Islander Communities to Prevent and Respond to Health Care Emergencies and Injuries July 2001.
• Community action plans, coordinated across Queensland Ambulance Service, Queensland Fire and Rescue Service and Counter Disaster and Rescue Services, were developed and implemented in partnership with Indigenous communities.
• The implementation of a departmental Indigenous cultural awareness program.
• The appointment of an Indigenous Ambulance Educator located in the Staff Development Unit located in Cairns.
• The development of departmental guidelines for consultation and service delivery development with Indigenous communities.

What we learnt

Effective community engagement is critical to understanding the diverse needs and expectations of remote Indigenous communities.

Key community engagement learnings of this case study include:

• developing and maintaining strong, long-term relationships and partnerships with Indigenous communities is vital;
• effective relationship building requires an understanding and appreciation of issues important to Indigenous communities such as the displacement of people from traditional lands/homelands, the impacts of the stolen generation, the importance of being 'on country', community governance, and the affects of passive welfare;
• remote Indigenous Australian communities manage a range of critical issues and competing priorities with often limited resources;
• effective engagement requires time commitment and consideration of logistical difficulties caused by isolation, geography and climate;
• the customs and traditions of Indigenous Australians and their right to self-determination and self-management must be respected;
• engagement processes should include the needs of outstations/homelands;
• wider expectations of communities in relation to sustainable local employment and economic development need to be considered;
• engagement processes need to contribute to the building of community, family and individual capacity; and
• some communities suffer from 'consultation fatigue'. Engagement processes need to be coordinated, appropriate and relevant to the needs of communities.

Keeping it going

The strong relationships that have been developed, are the focal point to this project. The DES presence in these communities and the mutual commitment of both the communities and DES will help sustain and develop community engagement with Indigenous communities.