Adapting the GP environment when consulting with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander patients
| Subtheme | Participant quote |
| Safe welcoming environment | I don't work in a practice where there’s Aboriginal posters everywhere. I work in a practice where it’s not very welcoming at all and that’s something that I will change. But the aesthetics are secondary to actually being open and honest in your communication and accepting people for who they are on their journey and helping them to progress their health journey in a way that it’s just enough for them. (9304) |
| Inclusion of family | I always offer for a family member to be present because I think as much as support as I can give, often times family members [can] provide way more emotional support. (6278) |
| Privacy | But privacy is really number one…. And I actually found in a way, in a weird way, not having an Indigenous background sometimes made them prefer me as opposed to go there because there was the workers who were the aunties or the cousins or the all in the community and they were they didn't want word getting out about certain things. (6389) |
| Spirituality | Spirituality isn't something I would identify with Aboriginal culture so much. (7216) I think it’s very important because that’s part of their I guess their identity and the medical perspective is also important to consider. Like, not like we always talk in med school spirituality doesn't mean psychosis and hallucinations. (6278) It [spirituality] underpins attitudes to health, attitudes to healing and health for Aboriginal people is a holistic thing. It’s not just I hurt my toe, or I've got a chest pain, it’s got to do with everything else that’s going on in their life. And that includes spirituality. (9304) |
GP, general practitioner.