How do you make Victoria’s Maternal and Child primary health services more accessible and culturally appropriate for Aboriginal families?

That’s the question ARTD, the Victorian Government and Aboriginal people have been grappling with in an innovative co-design project aimed at understanding the barriers that prevent Aboriginal families from using the universal primary health services.

As part of the Victorian Government’s $1.6 million program, Roadmap for Reform: Strong Families, Safe Children, ARTD was commissioned to provide a way for Aboriginal communities to have a voice in designing the service models they need.

The co-design process recognises that Aboriginal people bring experience and expertise about accessing services to the table. It reflects a new approach to designing services for people rather than asking them to fit the mould.

ARTD used a range of narrative-based techniques to deeply understand the needs of the target group before collaboratively generating ideas with stakeholders about the best ways of meeting those needs.

The process produced a service model to support self-determination and deliver high quality, coordinated and culturally safe Maternal and Child primary health services for Aboriginal families that will be trialled in local government, Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisations (ACCOs) and in integrated partnerships.