More than 3,000 skin checks have been undertaken as part of a large clinical trial in Western Australia’s Kimberley region aimed at halving the burden of skin sores in school-aged Aboriginal children living in remote areas.
The See, Treat, Prevent Skin Sores and Scabies (SToP) Trial, a collaboration between The Kids Research Institute Australia, Kimberley Aboriginal Medical Services, WA Country Health Services – Kimberley and Nirrumbuk Environmental Health Services, has also developed healthy skin resources co-designed with nine participating communities.
Healthy skin books have been developed with Warmun, Balgo, Mulan, Billiluna, Bidyadanga and Ardyaloon communities. A hip-hop music video promoting healthy skin was also produced with Ardyaloon, Djarindjin, Lombadina and Beagle Bay communities.
SToP Trial Research Assistant and PhD Candidate Tracy McRae said the 85 community members involved in the development of resources came up with original ideas, determined the most important messages, painted artwork, translated resources into local languages, shared traditional knowledge, and ultimately launched the resources.
“Each resource was driven by community members, from the very conception of the idea,” Ms McRae said. “Some of the resources have only been completed in the last few months, so it has been a long, involved and wonderful process over many years.
There has been nothing more important than listening to, hearing, and understanding the voices of communities in our work, because it is all about developing community-owned and led solutions to maintain strong, healthy skin.
“The process of working on the resources together has not just resulted in healthy skin resources for each community, it has also resulted in so many strong relationships, a twoway trust that we share a common goal of healthy skin for all kids, and a lot of learning on our behalf about what the reality of skin health looks like in the context of everyday life,” SToP Trial Postdoctoral Research Officer Dr Hannah Thomas said.
Next steps
- Working with communities and collaborators to translate the resources and results into meaningful and culturally appropriate and informed tools and output
- Translating the healthy skin books into audiovisual and interactive PDF versions for classrooms
- Translating Healthy Skin school workshops into a curriculum-linked teacher toolkit
- In July/August – taking the results of the trials to
all communities for co-interpretation workshops,
with visual outcomes