The Institute for Urban Indigenous Health (IUIH) operates a First Nations-led maternity hub in Logan, Birthing in Our Communities (BiOC) Jajumbora.

The BiOC Jajumbora hub aims to strengthen the health and wellbeing of First Nations mothers and families, and to reduce the growing over-representation of First Nations infants in out-of-home care.

IUIH works closely with its member organisations including the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Community Health Service (ATSICHS) network.

Recent research suggests that the BiOC hub has been highly effective in reducing infant removals and improving health outcomes (Kildea et al 2021).

In 2023, IUIH identified the need to integrate another protective service for BiOC Jajumbora’s pregnant women and their families at-risk or already involved with the Department of Child Safety: timely, First Nations-led legal support and advocacy.

The Institute approached the Pathways in Place team at Griffith University to partner in a Health Justice Partnership pilot, embedding legal and family support within the hub.

The teams subsequently collaborated to apply for Medical Research Future Fund Indigenous Health Research grant funding to support the pilot Health Justice Partnership and to conduct important research around its effectiveness.

Our research team comprises IUIH and Griffith University researchers, and leaders from the Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Community Health Services Brisbane and Moreton. A majority of the researchers are Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander. The Chief Investigators (CIs) are:

Professor Andrew Harvey - Director, Pathways in Place, Griffith University (Lead CI)

Emerita Professor Cindy Shannon - Griffith University

Ms Keryn Ruska - Legal Services Manager, Institute for Urban Indigenous Health

Professor Shaun Ewen - Deputy Vice Chancellor (Education), Griffith University

Ms Kristie Watego - CEO Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Community Health Service - Moreton

Dr Kerry Hall - Lead, Learning and Teaching (Indigenous), Griffith University

Mr Alfred Davis - Child and Youth Services Advisor, Institute for Urban Indigenous Health

Mr Dylan Nelson - General Manager, Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Community Health Service - Brisbane

Dr Claire Brolan - Senior Policy Adviser Institute for Urban Indigenous Health

Ms Tanisha Springall - First Peoples Midwifery Lecturer, Griffith University

Dr Lucy Campion - Senior Research Assistant, Pathways in Place, Griffith University

Ms Rebecca Wren - Senior Research Assistant, Pathways in Place, Griffith University

Our Health Justice Partnership (HJP) project will investigate a scalable multi-agency health justice initiative, led by the Institute for Urban Indigenous Health Ltd. (IUIH) in partnership with Griffith University and with strong support from the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Community Health Service (ATSICHS) network.

Grounded in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Ways of Knowing, Being and Doing, our study will investigate a novel HJP trialled in Logan (Southeast Queensland), embedded within IUIH’s Birthing in Our Community (BiOC) Jajumbora maternal health hub. The HJP provides embedded legal and social support through a First Nations lawyer and family support worker. By addressing modifiable legal and social determinants of health during and after pregnancy, our research will contribute to generating new knowledge that can improve approaches for addressing health inequities.

Our multidisciplinary preventive health trial aims to reduce the growing over-representation of First Nations infants in out-of-home care and strengthen the health and wellbeing of First Nations mothers and families. The aim of the research is to investigate the effectiveness and potential scalability of a new First Nations-led, multi-agency HJP pilot program embedded in the BiOC Jajumbora hub in Logan, Queensland. The program is designed to reduce First Nations newborn removals and improve health and wellbeing outcomes.

Research Objectives:

Objective 1: To understand which elements and principles of the HJP model can effectively shield against First Nations newborn removals and improve health and wellbeing outcomes of mothers, babies and families.

Objective 2: To identify the modifiable legal and social determinants of health that the HJP can address to empower pregnant mothers and First Nations families.