Engaging an Aboriginal Community for an Echo Screening Study

Abstract

A mixed-methods school-based screening study to detect rheumatic heart disease (RHD) in Aboriginal children and adolescents was conducted in 2018 in an Australian remote community with known high prevalence rates. Preparation for screening included community events and presentations with parents, community leaders and school staff. School staff, some of whom were also Aboriginal community leaders, were spontaneously galvanized and motivated to act on learning RHD population data for their community. The school's language and culture unit, named Lurra, decided to create a novel 6-week unit of schoolwork on RHD in 4 of the community's home languages as their main task over one school term. The aim was to improve low levels of knowledge of RHD among children and others in their community as a prevention strategy, along with preparation for screening. The Lurra team was multi-disciplinary and used principles of community-led development as well as Indigenous knowledge to create and deliver the unit of work concurrent with school screening. The unit matched the jurisdiction's curriculum requirements and produced a broad range of learning aids. Improvements in school and community knowledge, along with activities related to the RHD screening led to wider community agency collaboration to address RHD. The unit is being refined for teaching again in 2019 and subsequent years as a longterm strategy towards ending RHD in the community.