Optimising the renewal of the national cervical screening program for Aboriginal women in Victoria

Project Details

This VCA funded project was a partnership with VACCHO to optimise cervical screening for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women in Victoria.

The aims were to:

Establish a mixed method evaluation framework to monitor the effectiveness of the implementation of the rNCSP for Aboriginal women in Victoria and the impact of strategies to improve the program
Improve the effectiveness of the implementation of the rNCSP for Aboriginal women through co-design strategies based on emerging evidence – at a minimum this is likely to include strategies to support screening uptake and the implementation of self-collection and specialist care
Develop and implement approaches to ensure the Victorian Aboriginal community has timely data regarding progress in cervical screening, which can inform ongoing strategies to improve the implementation of the rNCSP for Aboriginal women in Victoria

Project Outcomes

Aim 1.

We held a ‘Beyond National Indicators’ collaborative in-person workshop in February 2025 that explored stakeholder support for the development of an end to-end Victorian National Cervical Screening Program monitoring and evaluation framework and system that included Indigenous specific participant centred measures.

A discussion paper was developed and captures stakeholder reflections and proposes possible ways forward.

The paper can be accessed here: https://figshare.unimelb.edu.au/articles/report/Beyond_National_Indicators_Paper/32681052

We invite all stakeholders to read the paper and provide any feedback by contacting the project lead Prof Julia Brotherton via email: jbrotherton@unimelb.edu.au.

Aim 2.

We partnered with 9 Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisations (ACCHOs) and designed, implemented and evaluated multi-component service-led strategies for cervical screening, that helped improve the acceptability and participation in Australia’s National Cervical Screening Program.

Aim 3.

We extracted and analysed data from the Victorian extract of the National Cancer Screening Register and from the Victorian Cancer Registry to attempt to report against the National Cervical Screening Program Indicators for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in Victoira for the first time. Findings will progress through consultation with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people prior to any release.

Project Resources

Meiselbach K, Nightingale C, Anderson S, Ryan A, O’Reilly C, Saville M, Whop L, Kelaher M, Brotherton J. Do it for yourself: Australia’s first experience of universal access to the self-collection pathway to increase engagement of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women. First Nations Health and Wellbeing - The Lowitja Journal 2023; Volume 1, 100002. Published:December 18, 2023 DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fnhli.2023.100002

Poster: Meiselbach K, Machado Colling A, Nightingale C, Lauren Blatchford, O’Reilly C, Whop L, Brotherton J.Supporting the optimisation of cervical screening at Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisations: identifying key priorities and developing implementation plans based on service needs. ECC2024 Hub - ACPCC

Poster: Meiselbach K, Machado Colling A, Nightingale C, Irving S, O’Reilly C, Brotherton J.Implementation strategies to increase awareness and uptake of self-collection cervical screening within a single Victorian regional Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisation in 2024 ECC2024 Hub - ACPCC