title: Culture, context and therapeutic processes: delivering a parent-child intervention in a remote Aboriginal community.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Little is written about the process of delivering mainstream, evidence-based therapeutic interventions for Aboriginal children and families in remote communities. Patterns of interaction between parents and children and expectations about parenting and professional roles and responsibilities vary across cultural contexts. This can be a challenging experience for professionals accustomed to work in urban settings. Language is only a part of cultural difference, and the outsider in a therapeutic group in an Aboriginal community is outside not only in language but also in access to community relationships and a place within those relationships.
  
  
  METHODS
  This paper uses examples from Let's Start, a therapeutic parent-child intervention to describe the impact of distance, culture and relationships in a remote Aboriginal community, on the therapeutic framework, group processes and relationships.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Cultural and contextual factors influence communication, relationships and group processes in a therapeutic group program for children and parents in a remote Aboriginal community. Group leaders from within and from outside the community, are likely to have complementary skills.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Cultural and contextual factors influence communication, relationships and group processes in a therapeutic group program for children and parents in a remote Aboriginal community. Group leaders from within and from outside the community, are likely to have complementary skills. Program adaptation, evaluation and staff training and support need to take these factors into account to ensure cultural accessibility without loss of therapeutic fidelity and efficacy.
authors.affiliation: Redbank House, Western Sydney LAHN and Menzies School of Health Research, Darwin, NT, Australia. sarah.mares@makestuffhappen.com.au
authors.forename: Sarah
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Mares
authors.forename: Gary
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Robinson
mesh_terms: D001315:Australia; D003142:Communication; D003469:Culture; D006126:Group Processes; D006303:Health Services, Indigenous; D006801:Humans; D007857:Leadership; D010287:Parent-Child Relations; D016487:Parenting; D010290:Parents; D011613:Psychotherapy / Q000379:methods*; D012111:Residence Characteristics; D012424:Rural Population