Dr Sheree Cairney describes the Interplay project, which is part of the Investing in People program.

1. Interplay Between Health,
Wellbeing,
Education and Employment
Dr Sheree Cairney Principal Research Leader
Prof John Wakerman Chief Investigator
Laurie Rivers Senior Project Officer
Nicky Watson PhD Student
Therese Tyacke Masters Student
TBA Statistician

2. Research Questions
1. What are the relationships between health and
wellbeing outcomes, and education and
employment for individuals, families and
communities living in remote Australia?
2. How effective are targeted interventions?
3. How can policy and practice be better informed by
this knowledge to maximise desired health and
wellbeing outcomes?
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3. Methods
Community &
Advisory Board Government
Technical Reference Groups Wellbeing Framework
Aboriginal Researchers
Focus Groups Indicators
Key Informant Interviews
Survey Tool
• Individual, family and community levels
• 6-10 remote communities
• 2000-5000 people
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4. Phases 1-3 ESTABLISH REVIEW DEVELOP Years 1-2
Team Literature Conceptual Framework
Governance Frameworks Data Sources
Stakeholders Indicators Survey Tools
Methodology Concepts Community Engagement
Risk Analysis Survey tools Communications Plan
Ethics Data Sources Data Analysis Plan
Phase 4 TEST Year 3
Conceptual Framework & Survey Tools
Phase 5 IMPLEMENT Year 4
Collect Primary & Secondary Data
Phase 6 EVALUATE Year 5
Data , Process & Impact
Phase 7 TRANSFER Year 6
Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Communities
Policy
Academic Literature
Ninti One Documents
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5. Project Outcomes
• Identified education and employment strategies
that have most positive health and wellbeing gains
• Establish rich knowledge base to inform policy and
community driven change
• Improve quality of life for Aboriginal and Torres
Strait Islander people in remote Australia through
change driven by evidence of what works
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6. Partnerships/Stakeholders
• Centre for Remote Health, Flinders University
• Charles Darwin University/Menzies School of Health Research
• Northern Territory Government
• Batchelor Institute of Indigenous Tertiary Education
• FaHCSIA
• DEEWR
• University of New England
• Southern Cross University
• University of South Australia
• Australian Bureau of Statistics
• Commonwealth Department of Health and Ageing
• Lowitja Institute
• Australian Community Indicators Network (ACIN)
• The Poche Centre of Indigenous Health
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7. Achievements to Date: Phase 2 (REVIEW)
Ninti One Working papers:
1. Academic literature review (Oanh Nguyen & Sheree
Cairney)
2. Review of Wellbeing Frameworks (Laurie Rivers)
3. Review of Indicators (Laurie Rivers)
4. Proposed model for analysis of Interplay data (David
Campbell)
5. Validated survey tools in this group (Kylie Dingwall)
Student proposals for community level input:
1. Effective education (Nicky Watson, PhD Student)
2. Concepts and measurement of wellbeing (Therese
Tyacke, Masters student)
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8. Achievements to Date: Phase 3 (DEVELOP)
Primary data Secondary data
• Kinship • Census
• Culture • Community Housing and
• Control Infrastructure Needs
• Land Survey (CHINS)
• Spirituality • Hospital
• Resilience • Perinatal
• Discrimination • Dental
• Safety • Education
• Self-governance • Law & Justice
• Environment
• Livelihood
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9. Partners of Ninti One
Dr Sheree Cairney, Principal Research Leader, Interplay
Project
Centre for Remote Health, Flinders University
Sheree.Cairney@nintione.com.au
0438 121 473