“Like Drawing Into Sand”: Acceptability, Feasibility, and Appropriateness of a New e‐Mental Health Resource for Service Providers Working With Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People

Abstract

Cross‐cultural considerations and difficulties recruiting and retaining skilled workers in rural and remote regions may contribute to poorer service use for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. However, electronic resources may provide the opportunity for remote workforces to deliver structured, evidence‐based, culturally appropriate treatments with limited training burden. The aim was to develop and determine the acceptability, feasibility, and appropriateness of a new e‐mental health resource (the Australian Integrated Mental Health Initiative [AIMhi] Stay Strong App) for service providers working with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in the Northern Territory. Eleven semi‐structured interviews were conducted with 15 service providers and managers from a range of rural and remote primary health care service settings in the Northern Territory. All participants were given the resource to trial for at least 1 month before being interviewed about perceived barriers and enablers, acceptability, and feasibility. Thematic analysis revealed support for the acceptability, feasibility, and appropriateness of the resource among service providers. Major themes identified included acceptability, building relationships, broad applicability, training recommendations, integration with existing systems, and constraints to implementation. This is one of the first studies to explore the acceptability of e‐mental health approaches for Aboriginal people among the remote health workforce. It is likely that e‐mental health interventions, such as the AIMhi Stay Strong App will assist services to deliver evidence‐based, structured interventions to improve well‐being for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander clients.

Key words:

• Aboriginal
• electronic
• e‐mental health
• treatment
• well‐being

Acknowledgements

This research was supported by Menzies School of Health Research and two NHMRC fellowships. We would like to acknowledge QUT as collaborators in the development of the AIMhi Stay Strong App, in particular Professor David Kavanagh, Dr Jennifer Connolly, Mr Jeremy Gibson, and Mr Steven Edge. We would also like to thank the participants and members of the Expert Reference Group for their time and commitment to this project.