How Two

Brief interventions involve making the most of any opportunity to raise awareness, share health information, and get a person thinking about making changes to improve their health.

A good time to share health information as part of a brief intervention is when you do health assessments, do well women's and well men's checks, take a client's health history, give back test results, give treatment or referral.

Story telling

Story telling is a traditional way of passing on information in Aboriginal culture, and some Aboriginal people are very experienced and highly regarded as story tellers. Story telling may be useful for sharing health information and can be a good foundation on which to build knowledge and discussion. Individuals may share their personal story on a one-to-one basis (as in a brief intervention), or a health information story may be shared with a group. People can compare stories and experiences, empathise, seek common ground and make individual or collective decisions.

Key issues that are spoken about as part of story telling can be summarised and repeated back to the person or group for clarification. If the person or people approve of using their stories, then this information can be an important addition to the health information you share. Good examples are the stories in this resource and Giving Away the Grog: Aboriginal Accounts of Drinking and Not Drinking by Brady (1995).

Example of story telling: The Aboriginal Living With Alcohol Storyboard

We tell stories with the board. The board is a square covered in felt. We arrange felt shapes on the board so that we can tell a story about different groups of people. The people in the groups have their own unique story. And through the telling of their story we share information.

It's not threatening. We tell stories that focus on the three choices that people have for alcohol - not to drink, to drink carefully, and to drink unsafely. Each person shown on the storyboard gives an opportunity to share information through telling different stories and describing different situations. We have stories that centre around youth, families, pregnancy, health issues, nutrition, responsible behaviour, people making changes, and culture and handing down stories.

After we've told the stories we encourage feedback by asking the group, "How do you see your community now?" and "How would you like to see your community in the future?" They will rearrange the board and talk about it.

The board is there to help initiate discussion and response from people. It helps create the talking environment between us and the people. We explain to people that we're not there to tell them to drink or not to drink. We talk through the options and ideas that come up. We just provide some ideas and thoughts and let the discussion go.

Recording the information:

We have different methods of documenting the information - photos of the boards after people have rearranged them, photos of the groups, plus written notes. Before we begin we explain to the group that we need to document their information and why it's important. We explain how we like to record it. The community has to be happy about this, so we always ask. People have always been happy about it. We don't record people's names and if there's something they don't want recorded they can tell us. It's also important to let them know that what ever is recorded is their information and that we'll be checking it back with them.

Sometimes for reasons to do with traditional protocol individual people will give us their response and share information after the group session.

Steve Rawson and Gwen Walley, Aboriginal Living With Alcohol Program

Another THS program which effectively uses the story telling process is the Strong Women, Strong Babies, Strong Culture Program.

Story telling may be through spoken stories, paintings, other visual art forms, dances, songs or a combination of these. Such ways of sharing information may be developed locally for use within the community. Alternatively, stories presented in different media may be available through THS program areas, services in your district, other relevant organisations and groups.

Using paintings

The following presentation describes a painting by Millie Micks, an AHW from Canteen Creek. The painting was presented to the THS Secretary, Mr Ray Norman at the Departmental Strategic Planning Workshop in October 1992.

An example of story through painting

The painting represents the process of negotiation for policy and advice to Aboriginal communities in joint consultation with Government Departments.

The process of decision making is very different and the process in itself is very important. Decisions take longer but have more value and we need our people to have their say in policy changes and advice.

This process relates to other aspects of culture eg. close family ties, extended family and tribal language groups. Since our education, values and life experience are very different, we find understanding the system very difficult and not flexible enough to incorporate our values and beliefs. This puts us individuals or Aboriginal groups in a very difficult position.

I believe the lessons learnt are important enough to be discussed. We offer this presentation as a contribution to this process.

Presented by Kathy Abbott, Senior AHW, Wallace Rock-Hole

Using case studies

Case studies which tell the story of particular people or groups (with permission) may help to raise issues and pass on important information. Suitable case studies may be found locally, through people you know. They may be published in journals, such as the Aboriginal and Islander Health Worker Journal. Other sources include government publications, such as Sharing Good Tucker Stories: A Guide for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Communities by Bear-Wingfield (1996), and Giving Away the Grog: Aboriginal Accounts of Drinking and Not Drinking by Brady (1995).

Information sharing sessions

It may be appropriate to arrange information sharing sessions with particular groups. Consider the best ways to present information and to document the session. Ask permission to write down or tape what is being said, and record what you need to do, to follow-up requests. Asking for and recording the evaluation comments of the audience, as well as the presenters, will help you to reflect on the session and improve future ones. Evaluation questions may be as simple as "What were the good things/not-so-good things about the presentation?" and "What can you suggest for improving the next session we do together?"

Meetings

Whole community meetings may be a good way to make public announcements, but are not necessarily the best way to share health information. Information sharing sessions, however, may take the form of meetings with particular groups. A meeting may be needed to seek permission to proceed with health activities, including the activity of information sharing, as shown by the following example.

From experience…

The meetings organised (by the grandmothers at Nyirrpi) allowed information to be disseminated, considered and used for making decisions. When I arrived some old women had been saying "keep that woman away from us". They saw me as the epitome of the 'round-up whitefella'. They changed their approach completely when they were given information by their own senior women and the AHW. The grandmothers were invited by their AHW and senior women to a meeting at which I was present, were given information in their own language and invited to discuss it. They could then see their authority being formally acknowledged by the 'health service'.

Valmai McDonald, Women's Health Educator, ASRHS

Reports for the community about projects and programs

When your project team prepares a report for and with the community, consider what the community wants and needs to know, what you want to say about the project and the best way to say it. Information to be shared may include:

Health days and health weeks

These provide opportunities to raise awareness about health issues, and to share health information, through displays and various activities. Support may be available from staff of THS program areas.

Ways of sharing health information

Doing brief interventions with individuals