# Health and well-being of children and adolescents living in the Kimberley region of Western Australia: a scoping review protocol

## TL;DR

This study aims to summarize existing research on the health and well-being of children and adolescents in the Kimberley region of Western Australia to inform policy and service design.

## Contribution

The novel contribution is a structured scoping review protocol to guide future research and policy decisions for children and adolescents in the Kimberley region.

## Key findings

- The review will identify gaps in scientific literature on health and social outcomes for children and adolescents in the Kimberley region.
- Findings will be shared with policymakers to improve future services and policies in the region.

## Abstract

Aboriginal people in the Kimberley are concerned that scientific research, government Inquiries and Royal Commissions are not adequately informing policy and service design. In this protocol paper, we outline our proposed scoping review to identify and provide a broad overview of scientific literature regarding the health, well-being, mental health, disability, education and social outcomes of children and adolescents living in the Kimberley region of Western Australia and the recommendations that came from them.

This scoping review is guided by Arksey and O’Malley’s (2005) methodological framework. We will conduct a comprehensive search across multiple databases using several search engines. Inclusion criteria were established to inform the selection of papers to be included in the review. After de-duplication, all titles and abstracts will be reviewed, followed by full-text screening. A second reviewer will independently screen 20% of the titles, abstracts and full texts. Two reviewers will discuss discrepancies, and a third reviewer will resolve any disagreements that may arise. We will use a data extraction template in Covidence to systematically extract relevant data.

This scoping review does not require ethics approval, as we are investigating the breadth of existing literature regarding the outcomes of children and adolescents in the Kimberley, Western Australia. The scoping review results will be published in peer-reviewed journal(s) and shared with relevant policymakers to help inform future policies and service improvements and designs in the region.