Acceptability of an Aboriginal Wellbeing Intervention for Supporters of People Using Methamphetamines

ABSTRACT

Families and workers often suffer significant stress while supporting people who are experiencing problems related to methamphetamine use yet there is little evidence on how best to help. Small pilot studies can provide valuable information about potential ways to intervene. This paper presents a pilot study of an Aboriginal family wellbeing intervention with workers in an Aboriginal health service. The pilot indicated that participation in the intervention improved the psychosocial empowerment and wellbeing of workers, that these workers perceived the program as relevant to families, and that this was an intervention they felt they could deliver to clients themselves.

IMPLICATIONS

• An Aboriginal family wellbeing intervention was piloted and found to improve the empowerment and wellbeing of workers. Participants regarded it as highly relevant for families supporting people using methamphetamines and other drugs.

• This research has added to our knowledge about how to assist those supporting Aboriginal people using methamphetamines and other drugs.

为那些服用脱氧麻黄碱而成问题的人提供帮助，家属和社会工作者经常感到不小的压力，不知道怎样帮才好。一些小型的初始研究可以提供可能的干预方式。本文就是一项针对原住民家庭干预的初始研究，工作人员来自原住民健康服务机构。研究显示，参与到干预行动里面来可以在心理上提高工作人员的能力，改善他们的状态；工作人员认为该计划对家庭有用；他们觉得可以将其用于自己的客户。

KEYWORDS:

• Indigenous Issues
• Substance Abuse
• Intervention Study

Acknowledgements

The study was funded by a La Trobe University Building Healthy Communities grant. It is also part of a larger project funded by the Lowitja Institute for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health. We thank MDAS and the study participants for their contributions. We acknowledge that TAFE SA holds the copyright for the Family Wellbeing program and thank them for their permission to use program resources. The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

ORCID

Mary Whiteside http://orcid.org/0000-0002-4607-7113

Komla Tsey http://orcid.org/0000-0001-8576-9588

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by La Trobe University [grant number 1026194]; Lowitja Institute.