title: Having a yarn about smoking: using action research to develop a 'no smoking' policy within an Aboriginal Health Organisation.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  This article reports on a culturally appropriate process of development of a smoke-free workplace policy within the peak Aboriginal Controlled Community Health Organisation in Victoria, Australia. Smoking is acknowledged as being responsible for at least 20% of all deaths in Aboriginal communities in Australia, and many Aboriginal health workers smoke.
  
  
  METHODS
  The smoke-free workplace policy was developed using the iterative, discursive and experience-based methodology of Participatory Action Research, combined with the culturally embedded concept of 'having a yarn'.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Staff members initially identified smoking as a topic to be avoided within workplace discussions. This was due, in part, to grief (everyone had suffered a smoking-related bereavement). Further, there was anxiety that discussing smoking would result in culturally difficult conflict. The use of yarning opened up a safe space for discussion and debate, enabling development of a policy that was accepted across the organisation.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Within Aboriginal organisations, it is not sufficient to focus on the outcomes of policy development. Rather, due attention must be paid to the process employed in development of policy, particularly when that policy is directly related to an emotionally and communally weighted topic such as smoking.
authors.affiliation: Australian Research Centre in Sex, Health and Society, La Trobe University, 215 Franklin Street, Melbourne, Victoria 3058, Australia. g.fletcher@latrobe.edu.au
authors.forename: Gillian
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Fletcher
authors.forename: Bronwyn
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Fredericks
authors.forename: Karen
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Adams
authors.forename: Summer
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Finlay
authors.forename: Simone
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Andy
authors.forename: Lyn
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Briggs
authors.forename: Robert
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Hall
mesh_terms: D055812:Community-Based Participatory Research / Q000379:methods; D006291:Health Policy; D006801:Humans; D011050:Policy Making; D000074606:Smoking Prevention; D012952:Societies; D014739:Victoria