The Centre for Improving Health Services for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children and Families (ISAC) focuses on issues of delivering health services to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and their families. Our expertise is in improving health services for disadvantaged communities, with strengths in health service evaluation, quality improvement, evidence synthesis, and epidemiology for the vulnerable and disadvantaged.

ISAC brings together national and international researchers from government, non-government and research organisations who are uniquely placed in leadership positions in international and national academic and service delivery institutions.

The vision of ISAC is to improve health and developmental outcomes of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children.

We conduct research and evaluation on the access and quality of health services for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children, and provide new knowledge about the health services they should receive.

We work across primary, secondary and tertiary-level health services with a specific focus on improving pathways between them.

Here at ISAC, we aim to add to the evidence about the efficacy and effectiveness of Australian child health service models in improving access and quality of care for Aboriginal children; and to rigorously test new health service models that could improve Aboriginal child health outcomes and support their families.

We do this because information on the efficacy of new models, especially family-centred approaches and new methods of quality improvement, ambulatory and outreach services, and access for the hardest to reach and disadvantaged Aboriginal children, is lacking.

We commenced ISAC with the knowledge that despite Australia’s capacity, it is of major concern that we are unable to deliver effective health services to many vulnerable Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children. Australian Aboriginal children and their families still carry an unacceptably high burden of ill health. Here at ISAC, we use a thematically driven structure: generate new knowledge to improve child health outcomes; ensure translation into policy and practice; build capacity; and foster collaboration.

• Dr Daniel McAullay
  Dr McAullay is the Centre Director of ISAC and has considerable experience in health research, policy and practice. He has a strong research track record including presentations, publications and grants. His primary research areas of interest include maternal, infant and child health, primary health care and other health services research.
• Dr Natalie Strobel
  Dr Strobel leads our evidence synthesis stream and has worked with researchers to deliver high-quality evidence synthesis reviews that inform practice and clinical guidelines. Her areas of expertise are evidence synthesis, health service delivery research, child development and epidemiology.
• Dr Jocelyn Jones
  Dr Jones is an Aboriginal epidemiologist with extensive experience in qualitative and data linkage methods. Her areas of expertise are juvenile justice, women in prison and child protection. Dr Jones has experience working in both Aboriginal community-controlled health services and in senior management positions in the Department of Health and Corrective Services in Western Australia.
• Dr Kimberley McAuley
  Dr McAuley has extensive epidemiological expertise including strengths in data linkage and data analysis. She has been involved in numerous health service delivery research projects aimed at improving the health of Aboriginal children and their families.