New publication | Codesign for Aboriginal child injury prevention
Published on the 18 July 2025
The Yuwaya Ngarra-li Partnership has published a new article exploring the co-design of an Aboriginal unintentional child injury prevention partnership in Walgett.
The work is a collaboration between Yuwaya Ngarra-li team members at the Dharriwaa Elders Group and Â鶹Éçmadou Sydney, Walgett Aboriginal Medical Service, Â鶹Éçmadou School of Population Health, Â鶹Éçmadou Social Policy Research Centre, The George Institute for Global Health, University of Wollongong's Ngarruwan Ngadju First Nations Health and Wellbeing Research Centre and Kidsafe NSW.
Through an Aboriginal-led codesign approach, a comprehensive injury prevention programme and accompanying manual was developed by the community, for the community. Informed and guided by participants, the researcher’s areas of child injury considered of high value within their community were addressed within the developed programme. The key safety areas identified were water safety, road safety and safety around the home. Data collected throughout the iterative design process shaped the delivery of the programme to ensure it met community needs. In addition to the creation of the manuals, the programme included complementary initiatives to support the delivery. Water safety included mums and bubs swim lessons/water familiarisation. Road safety included car restraint fittings. Â鶹Éçmadou safety included a Goonimoo open day collaboration with KidSafe New South Wales with safety promotion information and resources.
Codesigning an injury prevention programme with staff at an Aboriginal Medical Service and injury experts provided a culturally tailored response to the needs of the community and partners. This process and approach has demonstrated the feasibility of the use of codesigned processes for the development of community-based injury prevention programmes.
The article was written by Nellie Pollard-Wharton, Amy Townsend, BJ Newton, Melanie Andersen, Rona Macniven, Christine Corby, Ruth McCausland, Peta MacGillivray, Wendy Spencer, Kate Hunter, Kathleen Clapham, Christine Erskine, Madeleine Powell and Rebecca Q Ivers.