A year after launching the first National Healthy Skin Guideline to address record rates of skin infections in Australia’s Indigenous communities, The Kids Research Institute Australia has released a new resource as part of the guideline.
“Beating the Bugs”, a community care worker flipchart, was developed by The Kids researchers Roz Walker, Paula Wyndow and Asha Bowen in collaboration with Aboriginal communities and a local Aboriginal Medical Service in the Pilbara.
Associate Professor Walker said the flipchart resource built on the flipchart developed for health care workers in the National Healthy Skin Guideline in response to findings from a PhD study conducted by Dr David Hendrickx and Honours research conducted by Ingrid Duff. Both studies highlighted the critical need to support families in navigating the health system to achieve better skin care by providing information that is meaningful for them.
“This tool has been developed to help empower families and health care workers to have better health care interactions,” said Associate Professor Walker. “The flipchart is fun, friendly and easy-to-use and designed to ensure the community can recognise different skin diseases and have as much information about the medicine for treating skin infections as those prescribing it.”
“When community members hold the flipchart up to their chest and don’t want to give it back, and ask if they can have a copy to take home to show their family, you know that you have developed a resource together that has value and will improve health outcomes,” she said.
Associate Professor Asha Bowen, who led the development of the National Healthy Skin Guideline, said the flipchart was an amazing resource that will be useful across Australia as an adjunct to the guideline.
"It is really important to continue to develop resources that can be used in communities to drive down the burden of skin infections,” said Dr Bowen.
“Recognition of skin infections by children, families and health care workers is really important to get the right treatment. This new flipchart is another way for us to help this happen."
The research team acknowledged the Lowitja Institute, HOT NORTH and Menzies School of Health Research for their support and earlier editions of this resource. They also acknowledged the support of two visiting Princeton Interns who contributed to the development of the flipchart.
A year on
The National Healthy Skin Guideline was developed in collaboration with leading researchers and clinicians in the skin health field and is designed to help health care providers easily diagnose, treat and prevent skin infections.
Since being launched by Indigenous Health Minister Ken Wyatt on May 2 2018, the National Healthy Skin Guideline has been viewed more than 3000 times with more than 1000 copies downloaded. It is being used in all states and territories of Australia as well as in New Zealand and the Pacific.
The guideline has been presented at various meetings in WA, throughout Australia and internationally at the International Meeting on Indigenous Child Health in Canada and the International Alliance for the Control of Scabies meeting at the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene in New Orleans, USA.
Get the flipchart, guideline and more information about healthy skin.
