Assoc Professor Elizabeth Comino Project: Centre for Primary Health Care and Equity, University of New South Wales Funding: National Health and Medical Research Council Primary Care

The word ‘Gudaga’ means ‘healthy baby’ and that is what this project is about.

There is little information on the health needs and service use of Aboriginal infants and their mothers in urban areas, potentially limiting health opportunities for families and responses by health services.

In the first research of its kind on the eastern seaboard of Australia, between October 2005 and September 2007 the Gudaga study documented birth outcomes, health, development, and health service use and needs of Aboriginal infants and their mothers in an urban community.

The study was committed to building the capacity of those involved, particularly its Aboriginal project officers who were young mothers from the local community. Strong partnerships with the local Aboriginal community contributed to the success of the project in numerous ways, including the high retention rates of the more than 150 child participants and their families.

The study had a direct impact on the thinking about and commitment to the health services needs of Aboriginal children in the region. The regional health service is implementing a program, ‘Bulundidi Gudaga - improving the health of Aboriginal infants in Campbelltown’, an antenatal and postnatal sustained home visiting program for local families. And for the first time the health service has committed recurrent funding to Indigenous child health.

View the project abstract on ROAR