Driving Change Across Boundaries: Eliminating Crusted Scabies in Northern Territory, Australia

Abstract

Collaboration is a key component of high-quality health systems and is particularly important when facing so-called wicked issues. This chapter examines cross-sector collaboration as a function of the notion of ‘boundary work’. It examines the wicked issue of the prevalence of crusted scabies in Indigenous populations living in remote communities in the Northern Territory of Australia, which will require significant collaborative work across a range of different organisational and institutional boundaries if it is to be successful. We research a new approach driven by a philanthropic organisation called One Disease and find this programme has been successful in many respects principally because of this organisation’s ability to work closely with a range of stakeholders.