Wheatbelt Aboriginal Health Service Evaluation

The WA Country Health Service (WACHS) is the single biggest Area Health Service in Western Australia, and the largest country health system in Australia. It services an area of some 2.55 million square kilometers with a combined regional population of 454,000 people (almost a third of the State’s population), including 44,900 Aboriginal people (around 10% of the State’s total population).

WACHS Wheatbelt aims to provide a robust, sustainable and high quality system of health service delivery that can meet the diverse and contemporary health needs of consumers in regional WA. To assist in this process, Kulunga was engaged to prepare an evaluation framework and qualitative research plan for the Wheatbelt Aboriginal Health Service.

The evaluation framework is intended to assist the Wheatbelt Aboriginal Health Service to measure the increase in Aboriginal people’s access to and utilisation of mainstream health care services. Over the longer term, the framework is intended to assist in assessing the impact of this increase on Aboriginal people’s health outcomes.

This evaluation was sponsored by the WA Country Health Service of the WA Department of Health.

Prior to this project, consultations and canvassing of opinions concerning the provision of health services to Aboriginal people across the Wheatbelt region had already taken place.

This early work across the Wheatbelt resulted in a new approach to health service provision being identified by WACHS and the Office of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health (OATSIH) within the Australian Government Department of Health and Ageing, as the most optimal way of addressing the health needs and access issues experienced by many Aboriginal people.

The new approach aims to maximise Aboriginal people’s access to and utilisation of
primary health care services. The Kulunga evaluation and resulting report were prepared to guide the ongoing implementation and evaluation of the access and uptake of mainstream services by Aboriginal people across a number of specific sites in the Wheatbelt.

 

This is based on the key findings of a set of quantitative and qualitative data relating to the needs and health issues of Aboriginal people living in the Wheatbelt region. This report and the accompanying evaluation framework are designed to establish a
basis from which any future evaluation of Wheatbelt Aboriginal Health Service can be
measured.

 

The evaluation framework guides any future data collection, both quantitative and qualitative, and acts as a useful tool for outlining where resources might be directed to achieve a greater uptake of services and better health outcomes.

Kulunga was engaged to undertake all aspects of this evaluation including the development of the evaluation survey tool, the conduct of a literature review, undertaking site visits and consultations and the production of a report.