A Citizen Science Project to co-create ‘BigaagARri’

The ALIVE National Centre for Mental Health Research Translation team from the Department of General Practice and Primary Care have been awarded a Medical Research Future Fund (MRFF) Consumer-Led Research grant for the project: A Citizen Science Project to co-create ‘BigaagARri’ a Preventive Experiential, Arts, Cultural Evidence (PEACE) model for implementing at-scale in primary care and community.

An image designed by Josh Moorhouse (a lived experience researcher) which depicts 28 co-designers’ views on what they would co-create for the public and health professionals to improve public health. In cartoon style, the image includes a phone (demonstrating the importance of technology to the project), a megaphone (to indicate the need for new terminology and empowerment), and a classroom (to demonstrate knowledge sharing).

An image designed by Josh Moorhouse (a lived experience researcher) which depicts 28 co-designers’ views on what they would co-create for the public and health professionals to improve public health.

PEACE leverages six exciting innovations in citizen science to co-create the new health knowledge essential for turning the tide in inequities of disease burden in Australia. The costs of these inequities are known, and they are socially and economically high. The impacts are most profound in priority populations where chronic diseases and intersecting issues of gender inequalities, family violence, mental ill-health, suicide, and ongoing trauma persist.

In Gumbaynggirr language, ‘bigaagarri’ means danger or threat to wellbeing. It signals to stay back and keep safe from danger. This is a gifted word from one of the PEACE team’s Aboriginal investigators to co-create a new model for implementing in primary care and community. To do this, across 2023-2026 the team will:

  1. Co-design virtual and augmented reality immersive media to address trauma, violence and social disconnection preventing downstream chronic diseases – using crowdsourcing and co-design.
  1. Co-create a framework for measuring holistic health to address current gaps in trauma-violence informed outcome measures – led by people with lived-experience.
  1. Pilot the platform in health and community settings – generating citizen science evidence and a plan for scalability.

PEACE will deliver this new knowledge collaboratively with lived-experience, humanities, primary health care, public health, arts, and First Nations researchers. The ‘BigaagaARri’ platform will be an immersive media environment that is universally available and will increase public education about health. It will be used to deliver targeted preventive care through supporting holistic health conversations between people and their community health providers.

The research team for this project are:

  • CIA Professor Victoria Palmer – University of Melbourne
  • CI Associate Professor Michelle Banfield – Australian National University
  • CI Professor Jill Bennett – University of New South Wales
  • CI Professor Kelsey Hegarty – University of Melbourne
  • CI Professor Sandra Eades – University of Melbourne
  • CI Dr Oliver Black – Flinders University
  • CI Phillip Orcher – University of Melbourne
  • CI Dr Katie Lamb – University of Melbourne
  • CI Dr Jennifer Bibb – University of Melbourne
  • CI Elise Dettmann – University of Melbourne
  • CI Josh Moorhouse – University of Melbourne
  • AI Dr Caroline Tjung – University of Melbourne
  • AI Professor James Smith – Flinders University
  • AI Noemi Tari-Keresztes – Flinders University
  • AI Rebecca Moran – University of New South Wales
  • AI Maggie Bell – University of Melbourne
  • AI Ilona McNeill – University of Melbourne