Image 1: Menzies has been working with health services and communities to develop information for Aboriginal dads about preparing for a new baby and parenting. 

Menzies School of Health Research (Menzies) has been working consistently with communities to understand what is needed to support their health and wellbeing. Our collaborations demonstrate how different programs can have a big impact supporting Aboriginal parents so they can ensure their children are born healthy, remain healthy and thrive.

The Maternal Early Childhood Sustained Home-Visiting (MECSH) program in the Northern Territory is being implemented by 4 Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Services (ACCHS) covering East Arnhem, the Katherine region and Tennant Creek.

Part of the Northern Territory Government’s early childhood development plan, the program provides nurse and social work support for families before birth until their baby is 3-years-old. 

Image 2 (left): The MECSH program provides support for families from pregnancy until their child is 3-years of age. 

The program is being evaluated by Menzies’s Centre for Child Development and Education (CCDE). CCDE Director, Professor Gary Robinson, is leading the team evaluating the MECSH program over the first 5 years. 

CCDE Principal Research Fellow, Associate Professor Kayli Wild said the program has been growing and adapting since it first began in the NT in 2019. 

“The power of this partnership approach between research and implementation is that we are able to look at outcomes as well as understand the clients’ and the practitioners’ experiences and feed those back to support improvements as the program evolves in different sites.

“Both the nurses and the parents are relating little stories of change. These help us understand the mechanisms leading to longer-term improvements in health outcomes,” she said. 

“People’s lives are complex. Some people have no access to Centrelink. Small acts of practical support can be life changing for women. There’s also the value of emotional support from the nurses and social care practitioners from the Aboriginal health organisations involved. It’s important that families feel that people and their communities have got their back.”

MECSH has been implemented in remote communities by Miwatj Health Aboriginal Corporation in East Arnhem, Katherine West Health Aboriginal Corporation and Sunrise Health Aboriginal Corporation in the Big Rivers region and Anyinginyi Health Aboriginal Corporation in the Barkly region.

When the program was first being rolled out in the Territory, research highlighted the need to adapt existing MECSH resources so they were appropriate for the families involved in the program. A redesign of program material was needed to suit the NT’s remote context, taking into account the region’s diverse culture and languages. 

Menzies partnered with the ACCHS and the NT Government on a new Medical Research Future Fund (MRFF) project to develop resources to support client-practitioner communication and engagement. The existing research partnership means the resources are based on the perspectives and preferences of parents and can be more widely used in the NT. 

“We work with the practitioners and the health organisations. But we’re also meeting with community groups and speaking to the parents themselves, the mums and the dads, so their ideas will inform this work,” said A/Prof Wild. 

Out of this more holistic, ground-up, community discussion-based approach, the team identified that there were few services for dads. Their research also revealed very little information about preparing for a baby or parenting for Aboriginal dads in rural and remote areas.

“Developing resources where we see gaps is something of a huge priority for us from a research perspective. It’s also important to listen to families in community and for all of us to be a part of social change,” A/Prof Wild said. 

To find out more about the project, head to MECSH: NT Maternal Early Childhood Sustained Home-visiting program evaluation - Menzies

Image 3 (right): Reading at playgroup in East Arnhem Land.