From Digital Mental Health to Digital Social and Emotional Wellbeing: How Indigenous Community-Based Participatory Research Influenced the Australian Government’s Digital Mental Health Agenda

James Bennett-Levy, Judy Singer, Darlene Rotumah, Sarah Bernays and David Edwards
Additional contact information
James Bennett-Levy: University Centre for Rural Health, The University of Sydney, Lismore 2480, Australia
Judy Singer: University Centre for Rural Health, The University of Sydney, Lismore 2480, Australia
Darlene Rotumah: Gnibi College of Indigenous Australian Peoples, Southern Cross University, Lismore 2480, Australia
Sarah Bernays: School of Public Health, The University of Sydney, Sydney 2006, Australia
David Edwards: University Centre for Rural Health, The University of Sydney, Lismore 2480, Australia

IJERPH, 2021, vol. 18, issue 18, 1-18

Abstract: This paper describes the first six years of a government-initiated project to train Indigenous health professionals in digital mental health (d-MH). It illustrates how community-based participatory research (CBPR) methods were used to enable this “top-down” project to be transformed into a ‘ground-up’ community-guided process; and how, in turn, the guidance from the local Indigenous community partners went on to influence the national government’s d-MH agenda. The CBPR partnership between five community partners and a university rural health department is described, with illustrations of how CBPR harnessed the community’s voice in making the project relevant to their wellbeing needs. The local Indigenous community’s involvement led to a number of unexpected outcomes, which impacted locally and nationally. At an early stage, the conceptual framework of the project was changed from d-MH to the culturally-relevant Indigenous framework of digital social and emotional wellbeing (d-SEWB). This led to a significant expansion of the range and type of digital resources; and to other notable outcomes such as successful advocacy for an Aboriginal-specific online therapy program and for a dedicated “one-stop-shop” d-SEWB website, Wellmob , which was funded by the Australian government in 2019–2021. Some of the implications of this project for future Indigenous CBPR projects are discussed.

Keywords: community-based participatory research; Indigenous Australians; community partnerships; digital social and emotional wellbeing; digital mental health; Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health; Indigenous community engagement; First Nations research (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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