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Baby Coming - You Ready?

Developing a culturally appropriate perinatal mental health screening process fo Aboriginal women and their partners.

Presented by Jayne Kotz

This session describes the process of developing a culturally safe and relevant approach to culturally safe and effective screening for anxiety and/or depression in the perinatal period for both mothers and fathers of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander descent. Current National guidelines recommend using the EPDS at least once in the antenatal and twice in the post natal period with women. Fathers and grandmothers are currently not routinely screened. The Kalyakool Moort research conducted through Murdoch University has found the appropriateness and validity of the EPDS for use among Aboriginal women, and the effectiveness of its administration by health professionals as being at best questionable. Emergent from this research process is the screening and assessment ‘rubric’ called ‘Baby Coming – You Ready?’. The ‘Baby Coming – You Ready?’ rubric is administered via iPads where visual images to guide both uses through specific domains of inquiry. It exemplifies four key elements: good engagement, a sense of safety, a trusting relationship, and the capacity to embrace the strengths in the Aboriginal and Torres Strait people’s cultural viewpoint which is central to family/community centred-care. It goes beyond current women/family-centred approach to care. Culture is fluid, traditional roles and expectations are changing and many Indigenous Australian fathers are becoming increasingly vulnerable as a result. Therefore developing a parallel version of the ‘Baby Coming-You Ready?’ rubric for fathers has been developed also. This web-based next generation approach to screening has been designed by Aboriginal people for Aboriginal people to overcome the significant limitations experienced by both practitioners and Aboriginal mothers using the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS).

Jayne Kotz is an endorsed Nurse Practitioner in primary health care, a midwife, child health nurse and researcher. She has worked extensively with women and children throughout remote and rural Australia across the NT, WA and Victoria; in Tanzania and Vanuatu, and in corrective services. She has a commitment to social justice, equity of access and community development principles in health care delivery. Among other community participatory health research projects she co-coordinated the development and validation of the Kimberley Mums Mood Scale as an alternative to the EPDS for use in the Kimberley. Jayne is currently working casually as a Nurse Practitioner, is completing her PHD candidacy and coordinating the piloting of ‘Baby Coming - You Ready’ rubric.

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