Overview

On April 13th, 2024, our community came together for the Deadly Choices Netball Carnival - a deadly event to promote the collectivity of our community. Through this activity, the CIIF Community Engagement Team connected with community members to gain an understanding of current access to health services, client satisfaction, community priorities and perception of the Women’s Business initiative to promote cervical screening.

83% of community members participating in the community engagement activity were clients of an Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Service, with the remaining 17% stating they attended mainstream health services for their health care.

Community also rated service providers an average of 4 stars out of 5 as to how they perceive they are looked after by their provider.

The responses gathered highlight a range of suggestions and concerns regarding community perception for improving upon services and programs:

1. Reaching out more to schools: There's a call for increased engagement with schools to raise awareness and provide support to young people.
   Improving access to help: There's a consensus on the need for easier access to services, with a focus on reducing waitlists and waiting times in clinics.
2. Increasing representation of First Nations people in clinics: Participants advocate for greater representation of Indigenous people employed in healthcare settings
3. Increasing employee retention - community want consistency in who they access care with.
4. Increasing support and staffing: Participants emphasise the importance of increasing support through more staff recruitment, particularly clinicians.
5. Spreading services beyond SEQ (South East Queensland): Suggestions are made to extend services to areas beyond South East Queensland to ensure broader coverage.
6. Enhancing publicity and promotion of available services: There's a need for more publicity about the range of services available and what they offer, including initiatives to visit schools more frequently.
7. Increasing efforts in mental health service provision: There's a recognition of the importance of mental health services, with a call for more services.
8. Acknowledgment of existing efforts: Some participants express satisfaction with current efforts and encourage continuing in the same direction.
9. Overall, the feedback underscores the importance of proactive outreach, increased accessibility, and culturally sensitive approaches in community engagement and service provision.

To ensure the effectiveness and relevance of our community engagement efforts, we employed a comprehensive approach, drawing on insights from the public health team, research methodologies, and subject matter experts. Our aim was to craft questions that resonated with the targeted population to gauge their perceptions about the changes to cervical screening.

Overall, the findings highlight varying levels of awareness and comfort regarding pap smears, with a notable interest in self-swabbing among those who are aware of the option. However, there remains a need for increased awareness and education about both the women's business campaign and changes to pap smear procedures.