NATSIPCA Projects & Initiatives
We work on projects and initiatives to ensure our communities receive culturally safe, respectful, and dignified Comfort Care, how, when and where it matters most.
Our work is governed by:
Community-led
Culturally grounded
Holistic and compassionate
Accessible and equitable for all mob
We work to honour our people, support healing for families, and for future generations to receive Comfort Care that aligns with their culture, values, choices and identity.
From Northern Adelaide to Aotearoa: First Nations Leaders Strengthen Cultural Partnerships to improve Palliative Care for Communities
What does truly safe and respectful end-of-life care look like for Aboriginal and Māori Elders? Supported by a Catalyst Grant, this collaboration brings together First Nations communities, researchers, and health professionals from South Australia, Aotearoa New Zealand, and the United Kingdom. Growing from a roundtable in Adelaide where over 50 Elders, clinicians, and researchers spoke honestly about what culturally safe palliative care must look like.
Recently, Northern Adelaide Local Health Network (NALHN) Aboriginal Elders and leaders travelled to Aotearoa New Zealand to walk alongside Māori Elders and leaders, deepening a partnership grounded in shared experience and mutual respect.
Led by Dr Rosemary Frey (NZ), A/Prof Aileen Collier (SA), and A/Prof Matthew Allsop (UK), and guided by NALHN, NATSIPCA, and Rangimahora Reddy of Rauawaawa Kaumātua Charitable Trust, the work is simple in its intent: palliative care delivered through telehealth must be safe, relational, responsive, and led by community. Watch this space for more information.
Flinders
Consultation with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and non-Indigenous health professionals working in paediatric palliative care resulted in a call to develop community led, culturally safe and responsive paediatric palliative care. Responding to this call, NATSIPCA is partnering with the Paediatric Palliative Care Centre of Research Excellence to co-design a care pathway for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children who are seriously ill, their families, and communities. NATSIPCA provides leadership as the Cultural Governance Committee for this project, and through additional expertise.
Initial phases of the project, led by Aboriginal researchers based at Flinders University (Stuart Ekberg and Bianca Warner), involves yarning with key knowledge holders across different jurisdictions. These will inform a co-design workshop with key knowledge holders to design a care pathway that will be subsequently tested in specialist paediatric palliative care services.