QUT's Carumba Institute and Children's Health Queensland Hospital and Health Service (CHQHHS) have received an NHMRC Medical Research Futures Fund Indigenous Health grant just shy of $1 million.
The grant will be used to develop an anti-racist educational intervention in children's health and hospital services.
The project, led by Carumba Institute, executive director Professor Chelsea Watego, aims to create and evaluate an Indigenous anti-racist educational program for health staff.
"The principal means to give effect to CHQHHS's Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Equity Strategy of 'actively eliminating racial discrimination and institutional racism," Professor Watego said.
She added that the training focuses on race as a key factor influencing differential outcomes in health service delivery.
"Previous approaches have treated racism as a matter of attitude and interpersonal experience," she said.
"This project's intellectual engagement with critical race theory concepts, together with an emphasis on the structural impact of race, will differentiate it from past initiatives."
The program will include Indigenous arbitration of content quality and aims to embed anti-racism as a core value in children's health policy and services.
"This research partnership reflects QUT's commitment to Indigenous Australian research," said Professor Watego, emphasising the importance of Indigenous-led efforts in creating real-world change.
The team includes Professor Watego, Dr David Singh, and Kevin Yow Yeh from QUT; Professor Amanda Ullman (University of Queensland); and Angela Young, Naomi Hebson, and Daniel Tapau from CHQHHS.
