A new shared decision-making tool is now available to help health professionals discuss cardiovascular risk with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in a culturally safe and meaningful way.
The Heart Health Yarning Tool is designed to help health professionals and consumers make informed choices once cardiovascular risk has been assessed using the new Australian guidelines.
It has been co-designed by community members and researchers from the University of Sydney.
The tool’s development was informed by yarning sessions with community, led by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Worker, Ms Judith Parnham. Sessions explored shared decision making in the context of heart health.
“Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health workers and practitioners are experts at providing culturally safe and holistic care. This tool can guide other health professionals to take a similar approach, to support shared decision making about heart health,” said University of Sydney’s Associate Professor Carissa Bonner.
The tool provides different options depending on where an individual is at in the decision-making process. A short video explains how to use the Heart Health Yarning Tool in practice.
“We know that holistic, culturally safe care is critical to reducing cardiovascular risk. This tool supports clinicians to do that really well,”said Mr David Follent, who co-led a team at the NSW Agency for Clinical Innovation that established the new shared decision-making approaches with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people during the COVID-19 response.
“Having a way of talking through the options and choices, using a tool that has been designed with community members, means that health professionals can make decisions with their patients instead of for them,” said qualitative researcher Dr Shannon McKinn, who interviewed clinicians during development of the tool.
The Heart Health Yarning Tool is freely available online. It was developed with funding support from the Commonwealth Department of Health and Aged Care.
Main image: The Sydney team behind the shared decision-making project (L to R): Shannon McKinn and Carissa Bonner, Sydney Health Literacy and David Follent, NAATSIHWP and ACI
