Research
Yapatjarrathati Project
Yapatjarrathati Project Video
A bespoke version of the Tracking Cube was co-created for use in the Mt Isa region – resulting in successful implementation across the entire community.
Yapatjarrathati Project Video
A bespoke version of the Tracking Cube was co-created for use in the Mt Isa region – resulting in successful implementation across the entire community.
Illustration by Aunty Shirley Dawson, East Aranda Nation Group.
Yapatjarrathati means
“to get well together” in Kalkadoon.
Kalkadoon Elders generously gifted us the use of this word for these research projects developed with, and for, their communities.
Our Yapatjarrathati Journey
The Yapatjarrathati Projects were initiated by Griffith University with funding from the Commonwealth Department of Health (grant no. H1617G038 & 4-G05EAUF) to expand Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) Diagnostic Services and Models of Care in Queensland.
Scroll to see the journey
Scroll to see the journey
Getting Connected
A Community Advisory Group was established to provide the culture governance for the project.
At the outset of the project, Dr Marjad Page, a local GP from the Kalkadoon, Ganggalidda, and Waanyi Nation Groups, connected the project team with Elders, key community members, local service providers and families to understand community needs.
Raising Awareness
Face-to-face workshop “Yarning About Alcohol & Pregnancy” was hosted to raise the awareness of Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD).
Over 90 professionals across 32 organisations attended the workshop. Community feedback was collected to guide the co-design of a culturally appropriate, family friendly, and strength based FASD assessment process that meets Australia FASD Diagnostic Guidelines.
Ongoing Co-Design
The co-design was throughout the project and involved local Elders, community members, local practitioners, clinical experts and researchers.
Co-design outcomes: an Australian first - a model of care that implements the Australian Guide to the Diagnosis of FASD flexibly, with Aboriginal health workers holistically assessing neurodevelopment in primary care and guiding families quickly to support pathways.
This model of care has 3 parts:
1. Support Pathways
We don’t need to wait for a clinical diagnosis to start a child on a support trajectory.
Practitioners and families come together to ask: How do we best support this child with the information we have, right now?
Simple, culturally-informed guidelines direct the start of the journey.
2. Assess (the Tracking Cube)
The Tracking Cube is a six-tiered assessment that helps primary healthcare providers —including GPs, Aboriginal health workers, nurses and allied health practitioners—make decisions about screening, identifying and supporting children whose neurodevelopment is not-on-track.
Based on the Australian Guide to the Diagnosis of FASD, the Tracking Cube uses a community-created dreamtime story and local art to explain the healthcare journey to families.
Healthcare providers can unpack metaphors hidden within the narrative of the story, explaining challenging health concepts in a way that is memorable.
The story and art therefore become a tool to facilitate feedback and intervention for children throughout the child’s healthcare journey.
The Tracking Cube is accompanied by a Dreamtime Story, written and illustrated by local First Nations community members.
It helps healthcare providers to creatively engage and communicate with First Nations families about the child’s healthcare journey in a culturally-responsive manner.
3. Diagnose (clinical decision-making)
With appropriate support, GPs and their healthcare teams can play a greater role in diagnosing FASD—saving families the cost, time and difficulty of travelling to urban specialists.
A range of professionals come together to triage, progress, and diagnose patient cases, with telehealth support from neurodevelopmental specialists as needed.
Implementing the model of care
A local primary health care service, Gidgee Healing (founding partner), implemented the model of care between 2019-2023.
They built the Tracking Cube into their everyday doctor’s appointment for children (Medicare 715), supporting all children who might be developmentally not-on-track, not just those with FASD. They developed triage pathways based on the information gathered so that every child identified as having a concern was placed on a pathway of support.
Spreading support
The Tracking Cube creates a homepoint of coordination within community, helping trusted care professionals that support the education, child safety and youth justice sectors weave seamlessly into healthcare.
6 services are now supported across sectors in NW QLD to implement the Tracking Cube, including:
1: Mithangkaya Nguli Young People Ahead
2: Happy Valley Kindergarten
3: Normanton State School
4: North West Remote Health
5: Ngukuthati Children & Family Centre
6: North West Hospital and Health Service
Yapatjarrathati Champions
Theresa McDonald
Senior Aboriginal Health Practitioner, a proud Wangkamana and Kalkadoon woman
Theresa has provided the Tracking Cube training to multiple organisations in Queensland and Western Australia. Service providers trained by Theresa reported increased cultural connection, professional competence, and family engagement.
Kara Rudken
Senior Aboriginal Health Practitioner, a proud Tarabelang Bunda and Wiradjuri woman
A 12-year-old boy with FASD, who learned the Dreamtime story from Kara, immediately related to the story and taught the story to his non-Aboriginal foster mother. The foster mother reported learning so much about Aboriginal ways from the story.
Jacinta Ryan
Deputy Principal,
Normanton State School
Jacinta is dedicated to ensuring that every child receives the support they need to thrive at school. At Normanton State School, she uses the Tracking Cube to help deliver timely, tailored interventions for students. She believes strongly in the power of connecting health and education to better support children’s overall development and sees the Tracking Cube as a vital part of that approach.
Rhiannon Forde
Educator, Happy Valley
Kindergarten
Rhiannon is passionate about identifying and supporting children’s needs as early as possible in their learning journey. She has a particular focus on helping families access support within their local community. At Happy Valley Kindergarten, the use of the Tracking Cube allows Rhiannon and her team to proactively monitor and respond to each child’s development from the very start.
Reports and Publications
Expansion of FASD Services in Queensland: Establishing Diagnostic Services in Remote Communities
Download the final report for the Commonwealth Department of Health
Outcomes and needs of health and education professionals following fetal alcohol spectrum disorder specific training
Read the abstract/paper at Journal of Pediatrics and Child Health
Integrating cultural considerations and developmental screening into an Australian First Nations Child Health Check
Read abstract/access paper at the Australian Journal of Primary Health
Protocol for the Yapatjarrathati Project: A Mixed-Method Implementation Trial of a Tiered Assessment Process for Identifying Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders in a Remote Australian Community
Read the paper at BioMedCentral
Yarning about fetal alcohol spectrum disorder: Outcomes of a community-based workshop
Read the paper at www.sciencedirect.com
Preventing Drift through Continued Co-Design with a First Nations Community: Refining the Prototype of a Tiered FASD Assessment
Read the paper at International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
Enhancing interprofessional practice through the co-design of a holistic culturally and developmentally informed First Nations child health assessment
Read the paper at the Australian Journal of Primary Health
Psychometric properties of the rapid neurodevelopmental assessment in detecting social-emotional problems during routine child developmental monitoring in primary
healthcare
Read the paper at BMC Primary Care
Partner Organisations
Funding Partners
