'Ask someone, what is their Dreaming?' Exploring occupational performance coaching with service providers supporting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families

Introduction:
Culturally responsive health services have been highlighted as a national priority in Australia. Yet, Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander families still experience notable challenges accessing and engaging in culturally responsive health and community services across states and territories in Australia.

Methods:
Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander health service providers partnered with researchers to consider the alignment of occupational performance coaching (OPC) with current practice and its potential applicability when working with Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander families. Yarning Circle methodologies were adopted to support data collection, with main themes analysed using a blend of evidence-based approaches from Indigenous and Western cultures, including Thought Ritual and reflexive thematic analysis.

Consumer and Community Involvement:
Description and depiction of themes were co-developed by members of the research team, including researchers and service providers from Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander and white cultural backgrounds from Australia and New Zealand.

Findings:
Four key themes emerged from the Yarning Circles and were described and depicted iteratively until agreement was reached. The themes, which intersect around concepts of Dreaming, relationship-building, system disruption, and moving forward, describe how Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander health service providers consider their ways of working in response to prompts around the three domains of OPC. The imagery of a river depicts the links between, and flow of, themes that emerged from the data, with synergy with OPC domains described.

Conclusion:
OPC holds promise as an approach for family support, from the perspective of Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander health service providers. Further work is needed to explore its feasibility and applicability from multiple perspectives, including family and community members across all regions of Australia.