Working in Partnership: Innovative Collaborative Research Between Aboriginal Communities and an Academic Unit

This paper describes unique mental health research conducted in partnership with two Aboriginal communities in the south east of Australia. The major objective of the research was to document the nature & patterns of mental health problems experienced by members of these communities. The methods were designed to achieve the objectives in a way that accurately reflected the situation of Aboriginal people in the communities in which they live, using their language, their ways of talking about health & illness, & their views of life & experience of distress. At the same time, steps were taken to ensure the scientific soundness of the research methodology & that measures of psychiatric morbidity & social & cultural factors were reliable & valid. (14 refs.)