Western Health Aboriginal Health Cultural Safety Plan 2026-2030
Western Health
Who funded the project
Karabena Consulting (Karabena) was engaged by Western Health (WH) in June 2025 to review the impact of the Western Health Aboriginal Health Cultural Safety Plan 2022-2025 and develop recommendations for the development of an updated 2026-2030 Cultural Safety Plan.
The timing of this review came at an important juncture. Primarily, it evaluated the effectiveness of the merged Cultural Safety Plan and Aboriginal Employment Plan, a key outcome of Karabena’s previous review of the 2019-2021 Cultural Safety Plan. Of significance, though, during the cycle of the current Cultural Safety Plan, WH has expanded its services across several key areas. Key developments include taking on responsibility for custodial primary health at the Dame Phyllis Frost Centre, becoming one of the state’s largest mental health providers and opening the Sunshine Mental Health and Wellbeing Centre, transitioning services at Bacchus Marsh and Melton, the opening of the new Footscray Hospital, and overseeing major developments at the new Melton Hospital project. This expansion creates additional complexities for the updated Cultural Safety Plan, while also addressing continued higher-than-state average population growth in the Western region of Melbourne.
Through this review, Karabena provided recommendations that aim to ensure WH’s Cultural Safety Plan 2026-2030 remains responsive to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and communities it serves and employs within the current context.
To achieve the project aims, Karabena:
Undertook a desktop review of key WH documentation and the policy context.
Undertook consultations with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander patients and community members.
Undertook consultation with key WH staff.
Facilitated training and consultation with WH executive and board members.
Developed thematic findings and recommendations to inform the development of WH’s updated Cultural Safety Plan.
Summary
The primary aim of the project was to develop recommendations to inform WH’s updated Aboriginal Health Cultural Safety Plan 2026-2030, informed by a review of relevant policy and WH documentation and stakeholder consultation.
Project Aims
To achieve the project aims and ensure that the recommendations were evidence-based and responsive to WH’s consumers and community, Karabena conducted the project in four key stages:
Stage 1: Karabena developed a project and consultation plan, which was co-designed with the WH Project Working Group to ensure consultation methodologies and question guides were appropriate for the stakeholder groups and intended outcomes.
Stage 2: A comprehensive review and policy audit was undertaken to assess the impact of the 2022-2025 Cultural Safety Plan and other relevant documents. The analysis considered performance against stated objectives, alignment with broader policy frameworks, and evidence of cultural safety principles. This Stage also included a review of the current policy context and implications for WH’s updated Cultural Safety Plan.
Stage 3: Consultations were conducted using a mixed-methods approach, including interviews, focus groups, site-based workshops, site visits, and community forums. Engagement included the WH executive and board members, the Wilim Berrbang Aboriginal Health Unit, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander staff members, frontline clinical and non-clinical staff, representatives from Aboriginal health partner organisations, and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander consumers and community members. Thematic analysis of consultation data identified strengths, challenges, and opportunities in providing a culturally safe experience across WH’s services.
Stage 4: Karabena developed, documented, and presented recommendations that emerged from the analysis of desktop review and consultation data.
Methodologies
Outputs
The key output from this project was a Desktop Review and Consultation Report with findings and recommendations to inform WH’s development of the organisation’s Aboriginal Health Cultural Safety Plan 2026-2030.
WH has accepted the findings and recommendations and is using these to draft WH’s Aboriginal Health Cultural Safety Plan 2026–2030. It is anticipated that this will be published in July 2026.
Project Outcomes
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