Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Peoples’ Health and Wellbeing addresses the need to reorient mainstream health to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples’ ways. It focuses on the philosophy of Indigenous Australian cultural competence, where the onus of responsibility is not on the patient but instead on the clinician. By providing students with the skills of reconciliation, cultural competence and cultural safety it aims to strengthen healthcare delivery and ensure that all Australians have equal and equitable access to healthcare.

Taking a multi-disciplinary approach, this book caters to nursing, midwifery and allied health courses. Each chapter is written by an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander and a non-Indigenous author, representing interprofessional collaboration.

Part 1 of the text introduces theoretical and historical concepts that will support your students’ learning, while Part 2 focuses on key health systems and will develop students’ understanding in specific Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples’ health domains.

KEY FEATURES

• Case Studies with a specific focus on either nursing or allied health provide context to how each specific topic will be relevant in practice
• Critical Reflection Questions follow every case study enabling students to enhance their understanding and reflect on their own perspectives of health
• Research Champion Cases in Chapter 4 provide details about the health care backgrounds of the authors in Part 1, giving students an insight into different health care career paths
• Implications for Nursing Practice and Implications for Allied Health Practice provide practical examples and explanations of how health and societal factors impact on healthcare practice
• Videos highlight personal experiences within the healthcare sector from five different perspectives
• End of Chapter Revision allows students to test their comprehension, and to prepare for tutorials and exams.

PART 1: FRAMEWORKS FOR HEALTH AND COMPETENCE
1 Indigenous Australian cultural competence 
Jessica Biles and Brett Biles
2 Exploration of history, culture, cultural bias, race and racism
Simone Gray, Brett Biles and Jessica Biles
3 Frameworks of healthcare
Michael Curtin, Caroline Robinson and Norman Dulvarie
4 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health research champions: A snapshot
Brett Biles, James Charles and Jessica Biles

PART 2: CONTEXTS OF HEALTHCARE
5 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples’ cardiovascular health and wellness
Brett Biles, Megan Smith and Amali Hohol, with Darren Wighton
6 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples’ endocrinology health and wellness
Maryanne Podham, James Charles and Amanda Moses
7 The Early Years
Ailsa Munns and Kristy Robson
8 Mental Health and Social and Emotional Wellbeing
Faye McMillan, Thomas Brideson and Sally Drummond
9 The Older Person
Jessica Biles and Brett Biles

Brett Biles is a Murrawarri man from Brewarrina. He holds a Bachelor of Physiotherapy, a Masters in Indigenous Health and is currently a PhD candidate. He is currently the Director of Indigenous Health Education in the Office of Medical Education, UNSW Medicine. Prior to this he was a lecturer in Indigenous Health at the School of Nursing, Midwifery and Indigenous Health at Charles Sturt University. Brett has worked as a Lecturer in Indigenous Studies at the School of Indigenous Australian Studies and as the Academic Lead for Student Transition and Retention Program within the Faculty of Science. With a passion for education and health equality for all, Brett is an early career researcher with a keen interest in Aboriginal men and cardiovascular disease. He was named NAIDOC scholar of the year within the Albury-Wodonga community in 2018.

Jessica Biles holds a Bachelor of Nursing and a Masters of Health Science (Education). Her doctorate investigated Indigenous Australian cultural competence and nursing. She began her career as a nurse in metropolitan and rural hospitals in neurological, intensive care, medical and surgical, and nuclear medicine units. Jessica has also worked as a nurse in Justice Health. Jessica began work as a nurse educator in the hospital system and taught at Wodonga Institute of TAFE and Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (Medic program), and has worked as a clinical supervisor to Bachelor of Nursing students from La Trobe University and Charles Sturt University. Jessica has held the position of lecturer within the School of Nursing, Midwifery and Indigenous Health since 2008, and is currently the Associate Head (Students) of the southern campuses. She is committed to contemporary nursing education and has worked with key nursing academics to embed and scaffold the philosophy of cultural competence across a nursing degree. She is also involved in several research projects looking at effective teaching strategies in cultural competence and evidence-based practice. Jessica is passionate about ground-up research that is driven from and by community needs.

Lecturer resources are available for lecturers prescribing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples' Health & Wellbeing for their course:

• Instructor’s Resource Manual with a test bank for use with the textbook
• Videos highlighting personal experiences within the healthcare sector from five different perspectives:
  Kim's story
  Jovie & Tyrell's story
  Brett's story
  Darren's story
  Uncle Tunny's story
• Instructor’s Resource Manual on how to use the videos in a tutorial
• A matrix map of the videos and case studies against the chapters and content.