title: "You didn't just consult community, you involved us": transformation of a 'top-down' Aboriginal mental health project into a 'bottom-up' community-driven process.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Recently, there has been a consistent call for Indigenous health research to be community-driven. However, for a variety of reasons, many projects, such as the one featured here, start as 'top-down'. Using ten accepted principles for Aboriginal health research, the present article illustrates how a top-down project can be transformed into a 'bottom-up' community-driven project.
  
  
  METHODS
  A table of examples is provided to show how the ten principles were translated into practice to create a bottom-up process.
  
  
  RESULTS
  We suggest that key elements for creating a bottom-up process are iterative conversations and community involvement that goes beyond notional engagement. A feature of community involvement is generating and sustaining ongoing conversations with multiple levels of community (organisations, health professionals, Elders, community members, project-specific groups) in a variety of different forums across the entire duration of a project. Local research teams, a commitment to building capacity in the local Indigenous workforce, and adequate timelines and funding are other factors that we hypothesise may contribute to successful outcomes.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The article contributes to a much-needed evidence base demonstrating how appropriate structures and strategies may create bottom-up processes leading to successful outcomes.
authors.affiliation: University Centre for Rural Health, University of Sydney, Lismore, NSW, Australia Judy.Singer@ucrh.edu.au.
authors.forename: Judy
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Singer
authors.affiliation: University Centre for Rural Health, University of Sydney, Lismore, NSW, Australia.
authors.forename: James
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Bennett-Levy
authors.affiliation: University Centre for Rural Health, University of Sydney, Lismore, NSW, Australia.
authors.forename: Darlene
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Rotumah
mesh_terms: D001315:Australia / Q000453:epidemiology; D055812:Community-Based Participatory Research / Q000379:methods / Q000458:organization & administration; D054521:Cultural Competency; D055317:Evidence-Based Practice / Q000379:methods / Q000458:organization & administration; D006303:Health Services, Indigenous / Q000458:organization & administration / Q000639:trends; D006801:Humans; D008603:Mental Health / Q000208:ethnology*; D008605:Mental Health Services / Q000458:organization & administration / Q000639:trends; D017146:Models, Organizational; D009936:Organizational Innovation
keywords: Aboriginal health; Community engagement; Community involvement; Community-based participatory research; Indigenous mental health