Participatory Action Research - Indigenous Birthing in an Urban Setting Study (IBUS) - PLAN-ACT-REFLECT

Sep 15, 2026

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Participatory Action Research (PAR) supports meaningful health change by enabling communities to influence decisions during the research process. The study describes establishing a PAR team and mentoring two young Indigenous community researchers working on the Indigenous Birthing in an Urban Setting Study (IBUS), building their capability for high-quality maternity care research. Monthly team meetings used community feedback to generate ideas for service improvement, guided by a Plan-Act-Reflect cycle, alongside on-the-job training and professional development workshops.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryHealthcare

FormatPDF

Pages5

Reading Time13 min

AccessFree to download

Participatory Action Research for Health Change

Participatory experience: setting up the IBUS PAR team

How PAR works: monthly meetings and the Plan-Act-Reflect cycle

Collaborations and partner organizations

Training and mentoring for researchers

Successful outcomes from on-the-ground research

Participatory Action Research (PAR) is a valued research method in health. It creates opportunity for us to start making changes that community want and have asked for without having to wait for the research project to be finished. We know that it is important to involve Indigenous people at every stage of Indigenous health research to ensure that the research is meaningful and useful to making positive changes in health outcomes for our mob. This was our experience setting up a PAR team and mentoring two young Indigenous women working on the Indigenous Birthing in an Urban Setting Study (IBUS) . Both women had no previous experience working in health or research, with the guidance from senior researchers they gained the skills needed to do high quality maternity care research. Indigenous Birthing in an Urban Setting Study PARTICIPATORY ACTION RESEARCH IBUS PAR Research Team Sarah Maidment and Kayla Heinemann Indigenous community researchers Sarah's (left) mob are Central Arrernte from Mparntwe (Alice Springs) where she was born and bred. Kayla's (right) mob are Bundjalung, she grew upon Mununjali country in Beaudesert. Both women learnt how to do research on the ground by being trained and mentored by both Indigenous and nonIndigenous mentors and trainers with experience in Indigenous health research. Participatory Action Research How does it work? An important part of the research that made it possible for changes to be made was the monthly meetings. This was when Kayla and Sarah could come together with the other IBUS team members and discuss what they were hearing and seeing happening on the ground. Sharing the feedback and concerns coming from the community helped the research team get a better understanding of the broader issues women were facing and the research team could come up with ideas together on what can be done to help. We did this using a Plan, Act, Reflect cycle Above: Some of the IBUS team at the Mums and Bubs Hub Christmas party engaging with community PLAN The research team met monthly to talk about and reflect on progress, challenges and strengths ofthe research study, the maternity services being evaluated, and the women’s stories. ACT The stories collected by Kayla and Sarah from the women in the study were presented to the Steering Committee to prompt changes to service based on the women's feedback on their maternity care experience. REFLECT By feeding these stories higher up in a timely manner, Birthing in Our Community service were able to assess the care they provided the women and make change or additions to the service where needed. COLLABORATE This study was done in partnership with two key Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Services Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Community Health Service (ATSICHS) and Institute for Urban Indigenous Health (IUIH) -and the Mater Mothers Hospital. Providing our researchers with Training and Mentoring Kayla and Sarah both received on-the-job training to learn how to do the day to day tasks in their role and also to get a better understanding of the research and the impacts it could have in the women's care. Sophie provided training to learn: Consenting process. The importance of letting the women know the details of the study so that they can make an informed decision to participate in the study. Interview techniques. We used role-play to get Kayla and Sarah to practice doing surveys on each other to come up with solutions to hypothetical situations. For example, what to do if a women becomes distressed/upset. Risk assessments. The surveys include some sensitive questions about social emotional health and wellbeing. Kayla and Sarah actively referred women (with women's consent) to the Indigenous health services and keep in mind other resources to offer when women had shared an issue they wanted help with - for example letting women who felt isolated know about mums and bubs groups. Kayla and

FAQs

What is the purpose of using Participatory Action Research (PAR) in this health project?

PAR enables communities to start shaping changes they want and have requested without waiting for the full research project to finish.

How does the IBUS PAR process support decision-making and service improvements?

Monthly meetings bring the team together to share what they hear and see on the ground, then the team uses community feedback to generate ideas and prompt changes through an iterative Plan-Act-Reflect cycle.

What training and skills did Kayla and Sarah receive as Indigenous community researchers?

They received on-the-job training on consenting, interviewing techniques (including role-play), and risk assessments, plus professional development workshops covering research fundamentals, ethics, and the Bayley III assessment.

Sep 15, 2026

Upload by Ophelia