Secombe, Paul

Lankin, Emslie

Beadle, Rosalind

McAnulty, Greg

Brown, Alex

Bailey, Michael

Schultz, Rebecca

Pilcher, David

2024-08-29

Organ transplantation is a well-established intervention but is reliant on the donation of organs and tissues, mostly from deceased donors. The proportion of Australians proceeding to organ donation (OD) has increased, but the proportion of Indigenous Australians proceeding remains two-thirds that of non-Indigenous Australians. We sought to explore perceived barriers and enablers for the involvement of Indigenous peoples in the OD process.Qualitative methodology centered around focus groups was used to capture the experiences and perspectives of Indigenous people regarding OD. A purposively sampled group of Aboriginal Liaison Officers working within the Alice Springs Hospital Intensive Care Unit (ASH ICU) participated in up to 6 focus groups during 2021 with subsequent thematic analysis of the enablers and barriers to Indigenous participation in the OD process. The ASH ICU is the only ICU servicing Central Australia, and 70% of admissions are Indigenous patients.Four primary themes emerged: OD is a new and culturally taboo topic; conversations related to OD are confronting; education is needed (both about OD and cultural education for clinicians); and lack of trust in the healthcare system.There are cultural barriers to engaging in the OD process and clinicians need more training on the delivery of culturally safe communication is needed. Despite this, there was a recognition that OD is important. Education about OD needs to be place based, culturally and linguistically appropriate, informed by local knowledge, delivered in community, and occur before a family member is admitted to ICU.

Intensive Care Unit, Alice Springs Hospital, Alice Springs (Mparntwe), NT, Australia.

School of Medicine, Flinders University, Bedford Park, SA, Australia.

School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, Monash University, Melbourne, Vic, Australia.

Australian and New Zealand Intensive Care Society Centre for Outcome and Resource Evaluation, Prahran, Vic, Australia.

Intensive Care Unit, Alice Springs Hospital, Alice Springs (Mparntwe), NT, Australia.

Centre for Remote Health, Flinders University, Alice Springs (Mparntwe), NT, Australia.

Intensive Care Unit, Alice Springs Hospital, Alice Springs (Mparntwe), NT, Australia.

School of Medicine, Flinders University, Bedford Park, SA, Australia.

National Centre For Indigenous Genomics, College of Health and Medicine, Australian National University, Canberra, ACT, Australia.

Aboriginal Health Equity, South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute (SAHMRI), SA, Australia.

School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, Monash University, Melbourne, Vic, Australia.

Public and Primary Health Care, Alice Springs (Mparntwe), NT, Australia.

School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, Monash University, Melbourne, Vic, Australia.

Australian and New Zealand Intensive Care Society Centre for Outcome and Resource Evaluation, Prahran, Vic, Australia.

Department of Intensive Care, The Alfred Hospital, Prahran, Melbourne, Vic, Australia.

Transplant Direct . 2024 Aug 29;10(9):e1692. doi: 10.1097/TXD.0000000000001692. eCollection 2024 Sep.

2373-8731

0000-0002-1137-0512

0000-0003-4884-5275

0000-0001-9390-8453

0000-0003-2112-3918

0000-0002-5551-1401

0000-0001-5589-9680

0000-0002-8939-7985

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39220219/?otool=iaurydwlib

https://hdl.handle.net/10137/13542

Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples

Australia

Tissue and Organ Procurement

Organ Transplantation

Indigenous Peoples

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Attitudes to Organ Donation in Central Australia: A Qualitative Pilot Study.

Journal Article

Publication