Bedside: An Aboriginal Patient Refuses Discharge Home

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• Lead with curiosity, not labelling. Ask open questions: 'Tell me what makes home feel hard right now.' Listen for grief, isolation, housing or family violence concerns, fear of community judgment, or unprocessed loss. 'Social admission' is often a system label that hides real, addressable need.
• Practical supports: Aboriginal Hospital Liaison Officer engagement, ACCHO referral and warm handover, community transport assistance, social work review, family conferences with kinship-recognised members, and explicit follow-up appointment scheduling rather than 'as needed.'
• Country and return: 'on country' has health-protective value backed by emerging evidence (Aboriginal-led 'caring for country' programs show measurable wellbeing benefits). Frame return to country as a clinically meaningful goal, not a barrier — and design the discharge plan around how to make that safe.