Exploring Interagency Collaboration in Australian Community Health Settings for Families Experiencing Adversity

Ensuring children have the best start in life requires that families have equitable access to supportive, coordinated care. Interagency collaboration within community health settings offers a pathway to achieving this. In Australia, however, parents often encounter a fragmented health system, particularly when living with adversity. Drawing on three studies, this thesis explores how parents and practitioners experience interagency collaboration in community health settings. The findings highlight the need for system, agency, practitioner, and clinical-level approaches that embed collaboration, trust, and family partnership into the structures, policies, and practices of Australia’s community health system.